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“We care,” Mia said. “Don’t take it as anything more than that.”
I nodded.
“I’ll stand outside the bathroom,” Charlie said as she got up off the floor. “And if you feel like you’re going to faint, you yell.”
“This is ridiculous,” I muttered, but I stopped protesting.
The only way I was going to get Bones to back off and stop hovering—and to get him to stop including the Old Ladies in his desire to keep me in a bubble—was to prove to him that I wasn’t going to collapse at any minute.
After I did my business, I opened the door. Charlie stood by and shot me a lopsided smile. “Be grateful you have so many people in your corner. It’s a good thing.”
“What’s he going to do when we have kids?” I asked.
She blinked. “Kids? You’ve talked about having kids?”
“Yes. We’ve talked about having kids.”
“Like, soon?”
“Like, if it happens it happens,” I said slowly.
She placed her hand on my arm and stopped my trek back toward the living room. Charlie pitched her voice lower. “What are you saying—that you’re trying to get pregnant?”
“I’m saying I’m not, not trying,” I said. I stared at her. “You think I’m crazy.”
“As a fox,” she agreed with a nod. “This is like the worst time in the world for that. You just got involved with your father’s company. Your stepfather tried to have you killed—twice. You’ve been with Bones for a hot minute. And you want to add more stress to your life? When you have a condition that is brought about by stress?”
She stared at me in confusion. I didn’t blame her.
“I know it’s crazy,” I said. “I know how it sounds. But I…what am I waiting for, Charlie?”
“I don’t know, maybe for your life not to be in danger?”
“I’m always going to be in danger,” I said quietly. “Don’t you get it? That’s life. One minute you’ve got your entire life ahead of you, the next you die in a ski accident. None of us are safe. None of us know when the timer is going to go off. I don’t want to waste any more of my life hiding or being scared. I don’t want to waste any more time worrying about things I can’t control.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know the intricacies of how to run a billion-dollar company. But so what? There are people all around me at Spencer Pharmaceuticals who do. Dad made sure of that. And you know what I do know? I know what his vision was. We talked about it for years while I was growing up. And now I’m in a position to direct the people who know how to make it work that way. The rest? I’ll figure it out. I’ll figure out the life stuff too. I just—for the first time in three years—I want, Charlie. I want it all. I want to live, and I want to live with Bones.”
She took my hand and gave it a squeeze. “Then live.”
I smiled.
“I don’t get it,” she admitted. “Not the living part—that I get. The baby part. That I so don’t get. They’re messy.”
“Yep.”
“And loud.”
“Yep.”
“Did Bones like, hotwire your ovaries or something?” she asked.
“Oh, absolutely.” I grinned.
We finally made it back to the living room and I took my spot on the couch.
“What were you doing in there? Writing a novel?” Mia teased.
“So, what are we talking about?” Charlie asked.
