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Shit. How long had it been? I was always pretty regular and never had much cause to think about it before…though, now that Ididthink about it, the last one I remembered was before the wedding.
Almost two months ago.
Jerome read the look on my face. “Nausea, only in the morning. Irritability. Mood swings.” He ticked each one off on her fingers. “You can’t even remember the last time you had a period. And, if I might pry a bit, I assume you and Connor have, uh…done the deed?”
“Jesus, Jerome.” I felt my face heat.
“Did you ever think you might be pregnant?”
Another bucket of ice water.
“Oh my god, that’s it—you’re pregnant!”
I shook my head. “Jer, I’m just stressed.”
“Really? Because this is the happiest I’ve ever seen you.”
“People can be happy and still be stressed…” I let my voice trail off, biting my lip because I knew he had a point. True, Connor and I had been pretty active in the bedroom lately, but there had been almost a month there where we could barely look at each other, let alone have sex, and before that…before that…
The beach house in Maine.
Holy shit.
“Pregnant.” The word felt foreign in my mouth, frightening and wonderful at the same time. “Jerome, I think you might be right.”
“Um, is this a good thing?” Jerome was trying to gauge my reaction. “I know the situation between the two of you is...delicate, to say the least.”
“I don’t really know what to think right now.”
Which wasn’t quite the truth, because despite my fear of the unknown, the dangers and our own tangled, convoluted histories, a warm bloom of happiness and excitement was bubbling up inside of me.
Images flashed through my mind. Connor standing behind me with a soft smile and his hand on my swollen belly, pressing a tender kiss to my cheek. His strong arms cradling the child we had made together. Bedtime stories and breathless giggles, the three of us cuddled together on the couch.
A family.
Jerome saw the smile start to spread across my face as I realized just how much I wanted it to be true. How much I wanted to have a family with Connor.
He pulled me into his arms. "I'm happy for you."
“But I don’t even know if I am—”
“I’d be shocked if you aren’t.” He gave me another squeeze. “Go. Take a couple hours, I'll cover for you. Get a pregnancy test to make sure, and go tell him."
I hugged him back. “Thanks, Jerome.”
“And don't come back until you're at least two shades less pale! You look like death!” he hollered after me as I exited the bathroom.
I floated with my head in the clouds as I gathered my things and left the building, smiling inwardly as I ran my hand over my abdomen, thinking about the wonderful secret that might be growing there and how much it would change our lives.
"Hey, Mrs. McTiernan." A voice caught my attention, and I looked up to see a man waiting for me outside the hospital, the Town Car waiting in the alley, right where it always was. Grady usually drove, but today it was Jack, one of the guys that sometimes worked with Teagan, his eyes scanning the surrounding area as he held the door open for me.
“Thanks, Jack,” I said as I slid into the front seat. “Could we make a quick stop before we head home? I want to pick up a couple things at the drugstore.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Always polite and detached. Coldly formal. Usually that attitude bothered me, but today I hardly noticed. My phone was out and I was busy Googling anything and everything related to pregnancy and babies.
I were knee deep in articles from “The Bump”, when I realized he was heading the wrong way.
