“Ready?” my sister asks.
I smile through watery eyes. “I think… I think I might be in love with him.”
“Of course you are.”
“What if this will jeopardize everything?”
“Then he wasn’t worth it in the first place.”
With that, we turn around and look at the test.
ChapterTwelve
My heart is racing a million miles a minute as I stand in the bathroom next to my sister and stare at the test.
That’s how Connor finds us. “Skye is asleep,” he says, walking up to us and standing next to Sasha, draping his arm over her. “What are we looking at—Oh shit, who’s got Covid?”
I burst out laughing. Sasha rolls her eyes at him.
“What? Two lines mean positive, right?”
“Oh, it’s positive, alright,” I bite my lip. The heaviness I anticipated never actually settling within me. In fact, I feel giddy. Happy. Elated. I can’t explain it. Maybe it’s because I finally came to terms with the fact that I have feelings for Hayden. Or maybe it’s because I started to believe all the things he keeps telling me. Whatever it is, it has me excited.
Excited that there’s a life growing inside me and excited at the prospect of telling Hayden.
I let my sister explain to Connor the difference between a Covid test and a pregnancy test and walk to my bedroom, clutching my phone between my hands. Do I call him? Do I text him? Or do I tell him in person?
The decision is made for me when my cell buzzes in my hand.
“Hello?” I answer the call, my heart skipping a beat.
“Natasha,” he breathes into the receiver, making my spine tingle and heat pool low in my belly. “How are you feeling, my love?”
My love. I can’t help but grin at the term of endearment. It seems that now that the dam has broken, I can’t help but let myself bask in his adoration.
“Better. How are you?”
He sighs. “I’m annoyed.”
My heart stops. “Why?”
“I was hoping to see you today, meet your sister and her family, but it looks like I have to go away for a few days.”
“Oh.” The disappointment tastes bitter on my tongue. How have I gone from fighting against him like a stubborn mule to being disappointed I won’t get to see him for a few days in less than twenty-four hours? “It’s fine,” I manage to say, not sounding convincing at all. “Will you be gone for long?”
“Four days at the most. I’ll be back for Christmas.”
“I’ll see you then,” I smile into my phone and try to imagine how it will feel to spend Christmas with him.
“Sugar, I’m actually on the plane right now, and we’re about to take off. I’ll call you soon.”
“Okay,” I reply, but he’s already gone.
I spend the next day with Skye, taking her to meet Santa Claus and spoiling her to my heart’s content. I don’t see her nearly enough to call it ‘spoiling’, though. It’s more like ensuring she gets everything I’d give her if I lived next door. Just wrapped up in a few days.
So we eat candy cane pretzels, making a pact that mummy and daddy will not find out. We meet Santa, we pet reindeer and take pictures with elves.
By the time we’re on our way back home, we’re both so exhausted Skye falls asleep in her car seat and I am yawning so wide, my mouth surely gets mistaken for a black hole at least a dozen times.