She gestures with her hand. “I realized last night that I’ve missed a couple of periods, but the store wasn’t open. Besides, I didn’t want you to find out that way. I meant to grab one from the gas station. But I fell asleep.”
Pregnancy test. She needs to take a pregnancy test. I turn toward the bathroom door, a man on a mission.
“Where are you going?” She calls after me.
“Test,” I growl out the word and stalk toward the door. I don’t know why I’m bothering to do this. I already feel it deep in my gut. All the pieces of the past few days are sliding into place. How horny she is. How tired she is. The weird cravings and sudden aversions to certain scents.
Twenty minutes later, I’m back with ten different pregnancy test brands. I didn’t know which one was right, so I just grabbed a bunch of them. I also grabbed chocolate and a teddy bear. It’s the sort of stuff I’d normally grab when I’m making a tampon run so it seemed like the right thing to do.
She takes the test then the two of us wait. We’re staring down at a little white stick, silently willing it to tell us the most important news of our lives.
“It’ll be OK if I’m not…right?” She sniffs. Fuck, sometimes I forget how much she wants a baby too. How she looks at the women in town with babies and toddlers and the sheer longing that crosses her face. If I could, I would have given her a baby months ago.
I cup her face and stare deep into her eyes. “I…love you…no…matter…what.”
Whether we have no kids or a dozen, we’re already a family in my eyes. Adding a kid would just be a way of making it bigger.
My timer dings, and she closes her eyes. “Just tell me.”
I glance at the little stick and for a second, I can’t breathe. That pink line. The instructions said that line means she’s pregnant. Gratitude for this gift and awe for my incredible woman slam into me at the same time. I put my hand on her stomach and give her a nod, my own gaze filling with tears.
She squeals and throws her arms around me. “I’m so happy! I was starting to worry it wouldn’t happen for us.”
I pepper her face and neck and hair with kisses. Anywhere I can get my lips, I’m putting them on her. We did this. We made a little life.
Gently, I lift her up and carry her to the hotel suite bed where I spend the rest of the day making love to my wife and the mother of my child. She’s my best friend, my soulmate, and I plan to show her that every day for the rest of our lives.