I glance at the clock, a deer-antler piece I found last week, studying the black metal roman numerals.
“Two hours. Two hours I have to wait. I think I’m going to go insane.”
Patrick sits up, rests his forearms on his knees, and looks closely at me. Then his eyes widen and widen some more as the realization hits.
“Is this what I think it is?”
I bite down and avert my gaze. I can’t tell Patrick before I’ve told Conrad.
“No, quite right,” Patrick says a moment later. “I’m sorry, Callie. You need to tell Conrad first. But if it is what I think it is, I know he’s going to be the happiest man alive, happier than he is already, if that’s even possible.”
His words send warm belonging through me, floating on wings of truth. Because it’s true.
Conrad is like a changed man ever since we said I love you, smiling far more readily than I ever would’ve dreamed he could. They are true smiles now, wide and open and loving smiles, the sort of smiles that let me know I never have to be alone again.
“It’s amazing,” Patrick goes on, shaking his head with a wistful smile.
“What is?”
“How much you’ve changed my son for the better. I never used to believe him, truth be told, when he said he was waiting for his perfect match. What the hell are you supposed to say to a thing like that? But I should’ve known he’d find her – find you. That’s the thing with Conrad. Once he sets his mind on something, he rarely lets it go.”
My hands smooth over my belly, as though I can feel the baby inside of me, calling to me already.
I let Patrick’s words settle deep inside of me.
He rarely lets it go.
He’s not going to let us go, me or our child. He’s going to be there every step of the way. He’s promised me so many times, his fingertips making tingling electric patterns in my hair.
“Dad’s acting weird.”
I turn from the desk to find Conrad standing there in a pale blue shirt rolled up to the elbows, showing off his taut and muscular forearms. I can’t ever not let my gaze whisper over those forearms, every vein, every twitching movement filling me with security.
“Weird, how?”
“Wait a sec.”
“What for?”
He strides across the room and leans down, crushing his lips against mine as he wraps his arms around me. Our tongues battle together, causing a shivering feeling to dance inside of me.
“For this,” he whispers, kissing the edge of my lips as the kiss comes to an end. “I love you.”
I reach up and touch his face. “I love you too. How is your dad acting weird?”
“He said you needed to talk to me,” Conrad murmurs, walking over to the bed and dropping down. He pats his knee. “Come here, angel.”
I love when he gives me instructions like that, letting me know how to best please him.
Hopping up, I walk over to him, very aware of the way his icy blues move over my bare thighs in the pajama shorts, over my breasts under my tank top. He loves it when I wear my PJs, and I enjoy making my fiancé salivate like the beast he still is, he’ll always be.
I love you won’t stop him from being the predator he is.
“I missed you,” he growls as I drop into his lap, running his hands over my body.
Shivering against him, I lean down, finding his lips again. “I missed you too.”
Part of me hopes the kiss will lead to other things, that we’ll fall into each other and I won’t have to tell him. I’m not sure where this feeling comes from, except that change has often meant bad things in my life, my dad’s death, dropping out of college…
But this is a good change, a perfect one.
“Callie.” He leans back, tilting his head at me, his perceptive eyes missing nothing. “What’s going on?”
I place my hands on his chest and squeeze down, feeling his powerful muscles bulging through the shirt. “I’m pregnant.”
He gasps, a shivery growly gasp. “Are you serious?”
“Yes,” I whisper. “I got the test yesterday and did it just before you got home. Two lines, Conrad. We’re going to have a baby.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” he roars, leaping up and whisking me off my feet, spinning me around and around until I’m so dizzy I don’t know my lefts and rights.
I giggle as he puts me down, and leans in close. “I’m so happy. I love you so damn much. I knew we were going to do it, have a family together, little footsteps running through the house. We need to decide where we’re going to live, what we’re going to name them… Hey, what is it?”
He trails off when I start to cry, unable to stop the onset of the tears, drifting down my cheeks, scouring deep paths over my skin.