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She lay there on her side, her hand pressed to her stomach, which was still flat, and tried to imagine that there was something happening in there.
She felt gross, but she didn’t feel any sense of miraculous at all. She couldn’t feel a change or a connection. She didn’t feel particularly like a sacred vessel.
Her mouth just tasted like the inside of a van.
Was that a problem? Did that mean there was something wrong with her? Did it mean she wouldn’t be good at this?
Those questions all swirled around her head when she heard the front door close. Lachlan was here.
“Charity?”
“I’m in here,” she said.
She rolled over onto her back and pulled the covers up to her chin.
“I wasn’t expecting you back until quite a bit later.”
“I didn’t feel well, so I canceled my appointments,” she said.
“Oh, sweetheart. What’s wrong?”
“I feel nauseous.”
“Sorry, Doc.”
They were doing so well. Things were going better. This was going to change things again and she was... She was so scared of this new change. But she couldn’t keep it from him, either. That was the problem with being married to her best friend.
She couldn’t keep things from him. Especially not this.
“No. It’s only that... I’m pregnant.”
She clung to the edge of the covers, her fingers spearing the soft fabric like they were claws.
He looked like he’d been hit with a brick. “You’re what?”
“It’s funny that I was surprised. Because there’s really no reason to be surprised. We had a lot of unprotected sex.”
“We had protected sex, too,” he said, sounding defensive.
“Yeah. But not a ton of it.”
He nodded, his expression slightly sheepish.
“Anyway, I wasn’t feeling well today, and I mentioned it to Alaina, who immediately guessed what might be wrong, and she dragged me back to the house for a test. And, well, here I am. Maybe I’m not so much sick as I am overwhelmed.”
Lachlan’s expression was almost completely neutral. Like he didn’t quite know what to do or say.
“This is a good thing,” he said.
“I think so,” she said. “I’m just a little bit shocked. It’s another change. A lot of changes.”
“Sorry. I should’ve been more careful about this.”
“No. I wasn’t careful, either. All I wanted was to be with you. I didn’t particularly want to think about practicalities. This is how the species propagates. All people can think about is pleasure, and not the consequences of the pleasure.”
He chuckled. He leaned in and rubbed his thumb over her cheekbone. “You’re going to be a great mother.”
There was something about those words that hit her deep. Touched her down all the way in the bottom of her soul, and she smiled. “I want to be. I want to be a good wife to you. I want to be a good mother to our... Our baby.Our baby, Lachlan.”
