Reaching over the screen, Twitch grabbed the pregnancy test and examined the small window.
As she suspected, it was positive.
“It’s negative.” Calliope Buchanan leaned against her husband as she and Tox stared at the pregnancy test resting on a paper towel on the coffee table. She stared at the ceiling to clear her vision.
Calliope had joined the Bishop Security team after years of traveling the world and scouting budding international crime organizations for a select division with the State Department. Her now-husband, Miller Tox Buchanan, had stormed into her life when her investigation into a duplicitous hedge fund manager had turned deadly. Tox was half Teddy bear, half grizzly, and he had stolen her heart.
She ran a hand down her ebony ponytail. “It felt different this time. I thought maybe…”
“Look at me, Cal,” Tox guided her face to his with a gentle palm. She looked into his soft brown eyes, the small scar bisecting his right eyebrow a reminder of the warrior beneath the surface.
Calliope stared at her husband, her tears spilling over. Her lower lip quivered, and Tox soothed it with a kiss.
Coco, their rottweiler, hopped up on the couch and leaned her sleek body against Calliope’s back. Even Loco, the misanthropic cat, seemed to sense her distress and walked across Calliope’s feet, giving a gentle nudge to her shin.
“Everything is fine. Our baby is just waiting for the right moment. Your eggs are very picky. When the right one of my boys swims by—bam. Just like us.”
A watery laugh escaped her lips. “Are you comparing yourself to a giant sperm?”
Tox cupped his wife’s face and wiped her tears with his thumbs. “I’m pretty fucking virile, babe. Gotta give your girls a vast array to choose from. Boy, girl, brown eyes, blue eyes, curly hair. Twins.”
Calliope paled, pressing a hand to her stomach. “There is no way two of you are fitting in here.”
Tox just shrugged. “Miles and I were only seven pounds each.”
“You’re making it worse.” She buried her face in Tox’s neck and breathed in his strength. “What if this never happens for us?”
“There are lots of ways to have a family,” Tox said.
She sniffled into his shoulder. “You’re right.”
“Our baby is out there, Calliope. I know it.”
“I love you,” she said.
“I love you, too.” He touched her face as if she were a treasure he had found.
Calliope leaned back with narrowed eyes. “Miller Buchanan, when did you get so Zen?”
Tox returned his wife to her spot in the nook of his arm and kissed her forehead. “You must be rubbing off on me.”