Bull laughs to himself, clearly realizing that if I’m going to have any chance of being ready in ten minutes, that he’s going to have to leave me the hell alone. With my newfound privacy, I get to work. Hoisting the dress up over my head, I toss it into the washing basket and hurry down the hallway to my bedroom.
Being pregnant sucks. I’m right in that awkward stage where I’m not able to squeeze into my normal clothes anymore, but the maternity clothes make me look like I’m wearing a potato sack. It’s unfair, really.
I manage to find a black day dress and pull it on with a few minutes to spare to finish my hair and makeup. The dress isn’t anything special and certainly isn’t as good as the last one, but it will do. Besides, when you’re pregnant, people seem to let you get away with anything. I could wear a pair of Bull’s huge ass sweatpants pulled right up to my tits with a pink sparkly crop, and everyone would just smile and grope my belly and tell me that I’m glowing.
Pregnancy sucks. Well, to be fair, this particular pregnancy is much better than my last two. I only had to put up with the vomiting for a few weeks before that faded to a distant blur, and I was able to get on with my days without feeling sick. I haven’t had heartburn yet, and so far, the baby has just been swimming around in there, leaving my ribs be, as he or she minds his own business.
While I was pregnant with Ryan and Coby, I was miserable, though that could have had something to do with the company I was keeping. Bryce certainly didn’t go out of his way to make me feel like the sexiest woman in the world and tell me how honored he is to watch my belly grow with his unborn child, not in the way that Bull does every single day.
I’ve been starting to lean towards this being a little boy, though I’ve known to be wrong about well, just about everything, so it’s very possible that I’m wrong about this too. A little boy would be nice, but after having two girls, it’s hard to picture a boy slotting in with our lives. That’s a whole different playing field. I’d have to buy blue when my natural instinct is to reach for the pink. It will be an adjustment, but either way, it’s going to be incredible.
“Are you ready yet?” I hear Bull calling out as I rush through my makeup. “We have to leave in a second.”
Shit. I gawk up at my wet hair and cringe. “Yeah, just about done,” I lie.
“Uh-huh,” he grumbles, though I have a feeling he knows I’m still going to be at least another ten minutes.
About seven minutes pass when he appears in my bathroom doorway. “We have to go.”
“Okay, I’m coming,” I tell him.
“How much longer?”
“Just a minute.”
Satisfied with that answer, he slinks out of the doorway and back to the dining table where he’s been so patiently waiting. Another minute passes and then another. “Babe,” he yells. “What the hell are you doing in there?”
“I’m coming.”
When another few minutes pass and I start hearing the groans and grunts coming from the living room with the pacing to follow it up, I start rushing. But when I hear the front door opening and Bull’s frustrated voice, things take a turn. “I’m leaving,” he calls out moments before the door slams shut.
Oh, fuck. There goes my ride.
I grab the hair pins off the vanity and scoop my shoes and bag off the side of the bath before making a break for it. That asshole better not leave without me.
I come to a skidding halt when I find Bull leaning up against the wall by the front door, and I realize I just got played. “Oh, look. You’re ready to go,” he beams, proud of himself for making me get my ass into gear.
“You’re a dick,” I tell him.
He grins, knowing it just as well as I do. “It worked, though.”
I shake my head and drop my shoes to the ground before stepping into them and walking toward the door. Bull opens it for me like the gentleman he pretends to be, and not a second later, he helps me up into his truck, and we get on our way to the fundraiser.
Just as I thought, people are running around everywhere, setting up tables and chairs. There are women throwing decorations all over as a team works to build a stage before my very eyes. Something tells me that this fundraiser is going to be bigger than I had originally thought, though why wouldn’t it be? They’ve invited all the wealthiest people in Avalon Lake.