I nodded. We sat in silence for a moment, and then she reached down to pick up her purse. “I brought you something." She fished a box out and tossed it on my desk.
I arched a brow at her. "A pregnancy test?"
She shrugged. "Humor me. Besides, in this battle between your mind and your heart, it seems like knowing whether or not you're pregnant will be a factor."
"You know this is ridiculous, don't you?" I didn't bother telling her that I had already stopped to buy a pregnancy test
She only shrugged again. "I'll wait here."
"You want me to take it now?"
"Yes. And then once we know the answer, we can move on to your telling me what you need me to do while you're gone."
Reluctantly, I picked up the test, shoving it in my shorts pocket as I made my way to the restroom. I grumbled at how crazy this was as I opened the package and followed the directions. I didn't get pregnant the first time around with Sam when I was on the pill, so why would I now?
During the five-minute wait, I took a minute to clean up the bathroom even though it had already been cleaned. There was no such thing as a bathroom’s being too clean in a public establishment that served food and drinks.
When the five minutes were up, I closed my eyes as I turned my head toward the test. I opened my eyes, looking down at the stick’s screen.
Pregnant.
CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE
Sam
I hadn't been as diligent about finding a club location and getting started on our plans as I should've been. Max called me on it during the video conference we had the other day. I wanted to spend all my free time, and even my work time, with Kate, especially since I felt like I was making headway with her.
But I could also sense that she needed a little space from me. Since I didn’t want her to start retreating from me and change her mind about going to New York with me, I gave her the time. During our trip, we would be together twenty-four, seven. I would have the opportunity to hopefully convince her that she could take a chance on me again.
Max informed me that he planned to come to California right after Thanksgiving, which meant I only had a couple of days to get everything together before Kate and I left.
I had wanted to leave as early as possible so I could get as much exclusive dedicated time with Kate, but if Max was coming after Thanksgiving, I had a shit-ton of work to get done. As a result, I made arrangements via text with Kate for us to fly out on Tuesday night, which would give us all day Wednesday alone before Thanksgiving on Thursday.
I had waited with bated breath for her response, worried that she was going to message back telling me she’d changed her mind. Luckily, she had okayed the Tuesday night flight, but she did ask that we return on Friday. I wanted to push back on that, but I reminded myself that she was giving me a whole hell of a lot of herself even though she was still afraid of me, so I let her know that it was fine.
For the next couple of days, I worked my ass off lining up a couple of properties that I felt could work that Max could tour with me when he came out. I obtained floor plans for each of the potential locations and sketched out possible ideas on how we could set them up and renovations they would need to fit our vision.
I contacted Zach, sending him the plans and ideas, and made arrangements for him to tour the locations with me and Max. I also did preliminary research on obtaining the needed permits.
On Tuesday afternoon, I called Max to let him know what I had lined up when we returned from Thanksgiving. Once we got all the business logistics out of the way, Max said, "Mom is pretty excited to finally meet Kate. She's going overboard to make sure everything is just right."
I smiled. That sounded like my mother.
"We’re all guessing that since she's coming, you two have reconciled."
I stepped away from my bedroom, where I was packing for the flight tonight, and headed out to the terrace to sit and look at the ocean. It was going to be quite a change going from seventy-degree weather here to the bitter cold in New York where the high was probably somewhere around thirty, maybe forty.
"I can't say we’re fully reconciled. But I'm feeling really good that we're getting there. In fact, I'm hoping by the time Thanksgiving is over, we will be well on our way to being Mr. and Mrs., just like we planned." I grinned like a loon that the dream was finally going to come true. "The only thing I have to decide is do I give her back the ring that I gave her before, or would that be too much of a reminder of our past? Maybe I need to get a new ring representing our new start."
"Marriage? Wow. Don't you think it's a little too soon? It's only been, what, two months, maybe?"
"Too soon? I’ve been waiting five years." I hadn’t decided for sure whether I was going to ask her to marry me on this trip. After all, I still wasn't sure we were completely together as a couple. I hoped that with all the time we would be spending together, her resistance to me would finally fall away. She would love and trust me again. But I'd settle for making progress toward that goal as well. Either way, I saw clear skies ahead for this trip and our future.
I had a driver take me to Kate's condo to pick her up and take us both to the airport where I had a charter flight waiting. We would be making the six-hour flight overnight, and with the time change, we’d arrive in New York Wednesday morning at around six.
Once the flight was off the ground, I undid my seatbelt and went back to a small kitchen area. "How about some bubbly?" I opened the small fridge, seeing the bottle of champagne that I arranged to have put there.
"If you mean seltzer water, then yes."