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Then she went to the bathroom and finally peed on the stick. She waited the three minutes in the bathroom that the instructions said it’d take. Corey found her after five minutes passed, staring at the stick.
“False alarm. I guess the move must be increasing my stress. It happens on occasion. My period comes a few days late because of stress.”
The words ‘not pregnant’ glared at both of them.
He wrapped his arms around her, cocooning her in his warm embrace.
“It’s probably for the best.”
She nodded as if agreeing. Of course he was right. They weren’t ready for baby number two. Hadn’t she told herself that when she bought the test? Hadn’t she wanted to bang her head against the wall for not having safe sex? Hadn’t she heard the leeriness in Corey’s voice as well, hoping the test came back negative?
Yet, she felt the loss. The regret it wasn’t true.
She swore she heard the same in Corey’s voice.
* * *
“Look,Amelie’s first birthday is in a week and we want to make this the best party ever. This is a rough sketch, but Genevieve was wondering if you could make this dress for her.”
Corey handed Mia the drawing, hoping and praying Mia could work her magic. In the past two months, besides too much happening between him and Genevieve, Mia had also been busy. She was planning her wedding that would be in less than two months to Jaxson and opening her new fashion studio. Creating Gabby’s wedding gown had opened doors that she hadn’t even tried to knock on.
“Of course, I can. It’s adorable. I like the color pink. It suits Amelie.”
It wasn’t anything crazy. While Genevieve wasn’t an artist, she did a decent job drawing a rough outline of what they wanted. It had little ruffles around the shoulders and a flowy skirt so when Amelie moved around, it would swish and sway with merry. It was tied together in the back with a big bow that Genevieve said needed to be there. He knew Mia could do it and his little girl would look like the princess she was.
Mia patted his arm, her eyes lighting with glee. “I’ll have it to you by Friday. This way if I have to do any tweaks before her birthday on Sunday I can.”
“You’re a lifesaver.” Corey picked up his beer and took a long swallow.
Mia got up from the table, said something to Jaxson at the bar where he was getting more drinks, and then left out of his view. Well, shit. He hadn’t meant for her to get started right at this moment.
Ricky slapped his arm. “Don’t look so guilty. You know how Mia gets these days when it comes to her work. You could see the excitement on her face to get started. Amelie is going to look like a princess on her big day.”
Jaxson returned to the table with three more beers.
“I didn’t mean for Mia to leave like that.” Corey nodded in thanks for the beer.
“You kidding me? She’s in heaven. There’s nothing I could’ve said to stop her,” Jaxson reassured him. “Gabby texted me. She and Dane won’t be coming after all. Something about his brother Champ and family dinner and I’ll find out more tomorrow at work.”
Ricky nodded, then turned his full attention on him. “So what’s been bugging you? You’ve been weird all week.”
He barely saw his brother in passing when they switched shifts. He’d been working nights the past month while Ricky worked days. Although the bar was doing so well, they could hire more bartenders and not work themselves.
But they both enjoyed it. Perhaps they didn’t need to work as long of shifts as they did.
Like him. He came in at six and worked till the bar closed. In the past month, he hadn’t seen Genevieve as much either. She worked days, getting the new daycare set up next to her yoga studio. Her business had spiked as well, more people joining classes with the option to leave their children for an hour or so, knowing they were in good hands. He was proud of her for thinking of such a great idea. Now, they had someone to watch Amelie and they didn’t have to worry she wasn’t in good hands. Her brother, Oliver, had run a deep background check on the two people Genevieve hired to run the daycare. Their—his—baby girl was in good hands.
“It’s all good.”
Jaxson snorted. “Wow, you’d fold in an interrogation within less than a minute. Make that sound more believable.”
Corey rolled his eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You have the night off and yet you’re here with us. I know you haven’t been seeing Genevieve as much. You’re working a lot. Too much.” Ricky gave him an easy stare, yet he saw the determination behind his gaze. He wouldn’t give up until Corey talked about it.
“It feels like…we’re on autopilot or something.” He twisted the bottle in his hands, then started scraping at the label. “We live together. We’re raising Amelie together. Shit, we’re engaged. And I’ve never felt so far away from her.”
“There’s a lot going on. She has that daycare running now. It’s going great. The bar is steadily increasing with customers.” Jaxson chuckled. “I don’t know how Mia does it with her studio and planning a wedding. Sometimes, I don’t get enough of her time either. I’m sure Genevieve is just as busy with wedding plans, too.”
