by Kait Nolan
“Unless we’re talking you aren’t sexually active, immaculate conception kind impossible, I’m afraid it is.”
Pregnant? All the blood drained out of her head. Tess dug her fingers into the vinyl of the exam table and fought back a fresh wave of nausea. “But we used protection every time. I’m on birth control!”
“Unfortunately nothing is 100% effective. You said you were traveling a lot. Possibly you didn’t take it at the same time every day? There’s a three-hour window.”
Had she missed that window? Maybe. “But I just had a period a few weeks ago.”
“That also happens sometimes. Was it lighter or shorter than usual?”
“I…I thought that was from stress.”
“More likely implantation bleeding. Calculating back four weeks earlier, at a guess, I’d say you’re seven or eight weeks along.”
“I…what? But I wasn’t with…anyone until six weeks ago.”
“We calculate the due date from the first day of your last period. It tends to be more accurate that way.”
“This can’t be happening.”
“This is clearly a shock.”
Shock didn’t begin to cover it.
“You’ll want to schedule follow up with an OB for a prenatal visit. Taking your birth control in the early weeks of pregnancy isn’t usually a risk for miscarriage, but they’ll want to confirm everything is as it should be.”
“Oh God. Oh God.” Tess covered her belly with both hands, as if that would somehow make all this real. Pregnant. With Mitch’s baby.
“Hey, hey.” Miranda’s voice softened. She set the iPad aside and laid a hand on Tess’s leg. “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to scare you. There’s no reason to think anything is wrong. It’s precautionary. Are you and the father in contact?”
Tess whipped her head up, wondering if the truth showed on her face. “I—yes.” Jesus. What if she hadn’t come here? What if they’d never had this chance second meeting? She’d be dealing with all this alone, not even knowing the last name of her baby’s father.
“Okay. You’ll need to know his medical history for that first appointment, or as much of it as you can manage. I realize he’s in Europe, so that might be difficult. It’s not generally the kind of news you want to share over the phone or in an email.”
No, he’s right here in town. She could tell Miranda right now. But to what end? She didn’t know this woman. And it seemed absolutely wrong to tell anyone before Mitch himself.
Miranda hesitated. “Or maybe you would prefer to consider other options?”
Tess lifted her head.
“There is, of course, adoption. And termination.”
Termination. Tess flinched at the word. “No.” No matter how big a shock, how big a change, how unwelcome this was, terminating this pregnancy would one hundred percent terminate whatever she was building with Mitch. She couldn’t do that. Wouldn’t.
They spoke a little while longer, with Miranda making some suggestions and offering to give her a referral to an obstetrician in Lawley. Numb, terrified, Tess took the information and got ready to head to the check out. At the last second, she turned back to Miranda. “You can’t tell my father.”
“Everything we discussed here is protected by doctor-patient confidentiality.”
“Okay.” Tess blew out a breath. “Okay.”
Somehow, she made it out of the office and back into the used Honda she’d picked up that morning. Then she just sat in the parking lot, staring at the planner in her lap as her mind spun. Needing to get back on track, she flipped it open, staring at the details of her life. Nowhere in any of the rigidly lined, carefully written pages did it say anything about getting knocked up. So how did this even happen?
Her brain offered up a vivid memory involving her ankles on Mitch’s shoulders. Well, okay yeah, she knew how it had happened. But she’d been careful. She’d done all the right things. Except for going way off-book by having an affair in the first place. She opened the pages to the week she’d spent with him in Scotland. Blank but for the sprig of heather she’d pressed between the pages. Because nothing about that week had been planned.
She flipped to her five-year plan. All business and travel. There was nothing on here about having a baby or even finding a guy. There was no room for it in the obsessively detailed list of goals and steps. Was she really going to screw up her entire life, toss out her entire plan, because of that one unplanned week?
And, dear God, what was Mitch going to say? How would he react? It was one thing to cuddle up with your friends’ baby. You could give it back to them. It was a whole other thing to have an actual life dependent on you.
That was a stupid question. No matter how he really felt about it, he’d ask her to marry him. That was the kind of man he was, how he was made. He’d see that as the right thing to do. And it would utterly destroy everything building between them.
Dropping her head to the steering wheel, she fought back the knot of tears in her throat. She needed to get back to the house. Mitch had client meetings all afternoon. She’d go home, fall apart, and then figure out what to do. Lifting her head, she took another breath, then another as she started the car. But maybe she’d see if Wishful had an office supply store first.
“Well, somebody seems to have gotten his groove back.”
Mitch looked up from the construction drawings spread over the hood of his truck and arched a brow at Liam. “Excuse me?”
“I’m just sayin’, you don’t have that hangdog thing going on anymore. You seem more like your old self. Happy.”
Ecstatic was more like, but Mitch had been actively trying to tamp that down the last few days, since he and Tess were keeping things on the down low. No sense inviting questions by giving in to the urge to dance down the sidewalk and click his heels together like the star of some 1950s musical. But he knew he had to give some explanation. “I’ve got a new project I’m pretty pumped about.”
“Yeah? What is it?”
With a soundtrack of nail guns and circular saws behind them, Mitch filled Liam in on the plans to turn the old Heirloom Home Furnishings factory into a small business incubator. “It feels really great to do something positive there to change it, so it doesn’t remind Miranda, and doubly good that it’s something that will be a boon to the town. I needed to do something, and now I am.”
“That sounds awesome, man. Is it a Norah project?”
“No, it’s Tess’s.”
“Tess’s, huh?”
“Yeah. She’ll give Norah a run for her money on top powerhouse female in town. And if the two team up…God help us all.” Mitch couldn’t help chuckling at the thought. “I’m pretty sure together they could take over the world.”
“That explains it.”
He rolled his eyes at Liam’s ah ha tone. “Dude, cut it with the shit. I’m just happy to be working with good people and doing something useful.”
The former Marine didn’t look like he bought it, but didn’t call Mitch out. “So Tess is sticking around for this whole project?”
“Looks like.” Mitch said nothing about their roommate status. By some miracle, it wasn’t all over town yet, and he was grateful. At the moment, he wasn’t a hundred percent sure how it was going. The last couple of days, Tess had been a little distant and distracted. Was all of this setting up house together too much too soon? Maybe living together had started to take the bloom of excitement off their affair. Or maybe he was just paranoid and her mood had nothing to do with him. Part of this whole cohabitation experiment was getting a sense of real life together. Real life wasn’t going to be like the twenty-four-seven, giddy perfection of their vacation fling. And that was fine. The everyday could be just as awesome in its own right.
After finishing up the last of his site visits, Mitch headed home, excited to see Tess. With visions of cracking open a bottle of wine and talking over the day with her as they figured out supper, he stepped into the house, calling out, “Honey, I’m home!” It made h
im grin. At least until he heard the sound of retching from down the hall.
Ditching the briefcase and drawing tube, he sprinted toward the downstairs powder room. Tess was on her knees over the open toilet, heaving.
“Oh, baby.” Mitch stepped inside, automatically scraping her hair back from her face and holding it out of the way as her body betrayed her.
After a couple more minutes, she sank down with a whimper, breathing hard. “Hi.” Her voice came out as a croak, like she’d been at this a while.
Mitch tore off some tissue and handed it over. “I was gonna ask how your day went, but I’m guessing not great.”
Tess wiped her mouth and leaned against the wall, closing her eyes. “Not so much.”
Jesus she was pale. No wonder she’d been acting off. Whatever this was had clearly been building for days and finally just knocked her flat. He wet a hand towel under cold water and wrung it out, laying over her brow.
“Thanks.”
“You think that wave is past or do you need to stay in here for a bit?”
“There is literally nothing left in my stomach to throw up.”
“Okay then. Up we go.” Carefully, he scooped her into his arms.
“You don’t have to carry me. I can walk.” Her tone was bristly, but her head lolled against his shoulder.
“I expect you can. But you don’t have to. What you need is some pjs and good old-fashioned caretaking.”
She stiffened. “I can take care of myself.”
“Again, not the point. You’re sick. Let me take care of you.”
“But—”
“No buts. Whatever it is, I’ve already been exposed, so no reason to quarantine on my account.”
She stopped arguing. Mitch carried her upstairs and helped her out of her business attire, into one of his old T-shirts and a pair of her yoga pants. She looked a little better after she’d had the chance to brush her teeth and rinse out her mouth.
“You want to curl up in bed or come downstairs?”
“I’m not a total invalid. Downstairs.” She started to go herself, but Mitch just picked her up again.
“I like carrying you.”
Tess blew out an irritated breath. He ignored the scowl she shot him as he settled her on the sofa and found a throw. She was an independent woman, used to being in control, so he didn’t hold her grumpy patient behavior against her. A stomach bug was about as far from controlled as you could get.
He managed to unearth some crackers and ginger ale. That had always been his mom’s go to when he or Miranda had a stomach thing. He poured the ginger ale over ice in one of his sports bottles so she’d have a straw and carried that and the box of crackers back into the living room.
“We’ll see how this sits before we try anything more serious. I’m about ninety-five percent sure there’s some of Grammy’s chicken ’n dumplin’s in the freezer. If you can hold this down, I’ll heat that up.”
Tess accepted the crackers, her eyes lost and a little bit miserable. “I don’t—you shouldn’t have to do this.”
“I don’t have to do it. I want to do it. I don’t just want you in bed or for the fun stuff. When I said I wanted a chance at seeing if we can make this work for real, I meant it.” And this seemed like damned good practice for the in sickness and in health part of that reality. That should probably freak him the hell out.
After a long moment, she clutched the crackers to her chest. “You’re really one in a million, aren’t you?”
“Mama said God broke the mold the day He made me.”
That coaxed a little smile out of her. When he settled on the sofa and she shifted to snuggle up next to him, a bone-deep contentment slid through him. They totally had this real world relationship thing.
Mitch flipped on the TV and navigated over to Netflix to queue up a movie.
“How did you know Mamma Mia! is my favorite movie?”
“Because you’re too young to have fallen in love with ABBA any other way.” As the heroine began to sing the opening number, Mitch started humming along.
Tess cranked her head around to look at him. “You know the music.”
“I might have watched it once or twice while I was thinking of you.” The mortification of admitting it was worth the total Aaaaaawww of her response. “And if you tell my buddies about that, I’ll totally lose my man card.”
Settling her head against his shoulder, she cuddled in. “Your secret is safe with me.”
Chapter 9
“Feeling better, Peanut?”
Not even a little bit.
But Tess wasn’t about to tell her father the reason for that. She’d managed to avoid him for two days on the excuse of a stomach bug, skipping the office and sticking to home. But she couldn’t cancel the intimate family dinner with him and Sandy without bringing a horde of well-meaning Campbells armed with soups and casseroles to the house. Right now the house she shared with Mitch felt like a refuge. She didn’t think it would stay that way with all of them in it. So here she was, hoping like hell her stomach didn’t betray her secret. Even without the morning sickness, she was terrified she had a neon sign hanging over her head. If she got through tonight, it would be a miracle.
How? How was she going to tell him about this? How was she going to tell any of them? She didn’t even know how to tell Mitch. She’d tried a couple of times the past couple of days and hadn’t been able to force the words past her lips. He was so happy with how things were going, just the two of them. She didn’t want to destroy that any sooner than she had to.
Tess blinked as she realized Sandy had asked her a question. “Sorry?”
Sandy smiled. “I was just saying we thought you might like a chance to visit without everybody. I tend to forget not everyone’s family is a zoo.”
“It’s a great zoo.” Tess was surprised to find she meant it. As overwhelming as the full Campbell clan was, they were all good people. And no matter what happened in the future, they were a part of her life now. They’d be a part of this baby’s life.
Her father frowned. “You okay?”
Tess smoothed out her expression, wondering what he’d seen. “Lot on my mind.” Which was the absolute truth, but not one she wanted to share.
“Are you sure you’re comfortable moving in with Mitch? Because I’m really not. I mean, I know everybody meant well pushing the two of you into that but I really don’t think—”
“Dad, I’m twenty-six, not sixteen.”
“You’re still my baby.”
Please don’t talk about babies right now. “Mitch is not going to take advantage of me.” The taking advantage had been entirely mutual. “Right now, staying at his house suits me. It’s practical. I’ll stay there until I decide what’s next.”
Trey crossed his arms. “I don’t have to like it.”
“No, you don’t. But you do have to drop it. What I meant was that we have a lot of details to sort out so we’re ready to hit the ground running once the purchase of the building is finalized. I need to work out a timeline to completion so I know how long I have to recruit prospective businesses.”
His face spasmed a bit as he warred over whether to actually let her change the subject, but eventually he caved. “Norah will have some good ideas about that.”
“I’ll set up a meeting.” She pulled the Hobonichi A6 planner she used for the day-to-day out of her purse and made a note.
They continued discussing the details until Sandy announced dinner was ready. As soon as they were settled around the kitchen table, Trey clapped his hands together. “I declare business discussion officially closed for the night.”
Tess arched a brow and shot him a sideways glance.
“Who are you and what have you done with my daddy?”
He laughed. “I’m still me. I’m just…reprioritizing. I spent a lot of years focused on the company.”
That was one way of putting it. He’d retreated from his marriage to her mother through work. Tess had been so conscious of
that, she’d begun studying business at ten so as not to lose him any further. What other fifth grader could carry on a cogent discussion of the stock market? Now she didn’t know how to talk to him about anything else.
“I don’t think Peyton Consolidated would be what it is without that.”
He tipped his head in concession of the point. “Maybe not. But it will continue to be what it is without my putting in sixty plus hour work weeks. It will continue to grow without you putting in sixty hour work weeks, too.”
The instant wash of panic had Tess setting the bowl of green beans down with a thunk before she dropped it. “Are you unhappy with my performance?”
“Good God no. That would be ridiculous. You’ve always exceeded my expectations, and I know I’ve expected a lot. I just don’t want you to go down the same path I did and have no life beyond the company. You’re twenty-six and, as far as I know, haven’t had a serious boyfriend since college.”
She stared at him. “Are you seriously sitting there asking me about my love life? Because I’m not discussing that with you.” It would come out soon enough, and that was not a conversation she looked forward to.
Color rose in his cheeks. He cleared his throat. “I’m not asking about the details, no. I just wondered if there was anybody serious. I was already married at your age.”
“And that worked out so well for you.” The words tripped off her tongue before she could think better of it. As soon as they were out, she held up a hand. “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for.”
Trey took his time before speaking, glancing over at Sandy, and Tess recognized that he was considering how best to answer. It was a tactic she’d seen him use countless times in boardroom meetings. “Your mother and I had some issues. But they weren’t a reflection of our age or the institution of marriage in general.”
Yeah, because those issues were all about being forced into marriage because of the oops that had been her. They’d never talked about that with her, but Tess knew. She’d done the math between her parents’ anniversary and her own birthday. And during one particularly wine-fueled night after the divorce, her mother had let slip that they’d been on the verge of breaking up when she found out she was pregnant. Knowing that had cast their entire marriage in a whole new light. Given what she’d come from, was it any wonder she wasn’t keen on telling Mitch about the baby and ruining everything they were before they’d even really gotten started?
