Page 11 of Cementing Her Love

Long minutes ticked by as we embraced, each riding through our bodies aftershocks and soon our breathing evened out.

“So.” Colton’s husky voice filled my ear.

“So.” I mimicked.

“So, does this mean we’ll be doing that again?”

“Oh, we are so going to do that again.” How could I fight this connection? I couldn’t. So I was ready to roll the dice and see where this would lead while guarding my heart—just in case.

9

SHAYLA

It had been a month since Colton and I began seeing each and in all that time; he hadn’t pushed me for more than our quick meet ups, a handful of lunches, and one memorable make-out session in the back of a movie theater. And my heart was more than intact.

He also hadn’t pushed me to spend time with Aria or to let my daughter know how important we’d become to each other. And it was past time that I acknowledge just how important he was.

Beyond the awesome sex, we had similar interests and views on a variety of issues. And he made me laugh and couldn't care less that I wasn’t super thin. In fact, he loved my curves and the extra padding I carried around my middle. He made me feel like the most beautiful and desirable woman in the world.

While I waited for my alarm to go off, I realized that I’d had the perfect opportunity to not just let Aria, but Colton’s family, know about our relationship a couple days ago when we were all together after Brenley had baby Micah. Now I couldn’t wait to let him, and everyone know how I really felt about him.

Looking back on the last few weeks, Colton seemed pretty content with how things were going between us. So maybe it wasn’t as serious as I now believed and wanted it to be? Nope, not going to talk myself out of believing this was real between us.

Throwing back the bedcovers, I decided to text Colton and ask him to come over tonight for dinner, but before I could get up, Aria comes running into my room and juped onto my bed. Normally, I’d grab her and tickle her until she begged me to stop. But not today.

Today the motion of the mattress as Aria bounced several times made me dizzy, then a sudden surge of nausea rose up. “Sweetie stop.” I placed a hand on the bed to steady myself, then took a deep breath. But that didn’t help. And before I can say another word to my confused daughter, I took off for the bathroom and puked my guts out.

I managed to get her off to school and reassure her I’m fine, and that I must have eaten something that didn’t agree with me. Then I made a beeline for the closest store before heading to work.

Thirty minutes later and a sleeve and a half of saltines and a glass of defizzed lemon line soda, I sat in the bathroom staring at six different brands of pregnancy tests all with the same result.

Someone knocked on the door. “Shay? Are you in there?”

What was Brenley doing here? Scooping up the tests, I shove them into the pockets of my apron. “Bren, what are you doing? You just had a baby!” Rushing out of the bathroom, I switch from freaked-out, holy-hell-I’m-pregnant mode to concerned-friend mode.

“Hayden was driving me nuts. He’s so worried about every little noise Micah was making. He was the same with Allie. So, I pumped enough for him to bottle feed the baby when he gets hungry, showered and headed over here.” She eyed me as I tried to put distance between us. “Why were you locked in the bathroom so long? You look like you didn’t get any sleep last night.”

“Yeah, well, that’ll be me again soon enough.” I mumbled under my breath.

“What was that? Shay, you’ve got me worried. You’re always ready to go first thing in the morning?—”

“I’m pregnant.” After I said it, I covered my eyes with my hands, then peeked through my fingers to see her reaction.

“That’s funny. It sounded like you said you’re pregnant…and you’re not joking. You’re pregnant! Oh, my lord, that’s awesome. What did Colton say?”

“I haven’t told him yet. I just found out. Look.” I pulled out the pee sticks and dumped them on the counter.

Instead of looking at the evidence, she looked at me, her eyes wide with concern. “Are you telling me I’m the first to know? Okay, I’ll cover for you. I can handle things around here for an hour before my husband comes looking for me. The girls should be here soon anyway to work the front end. Now get over to his place and tell my brother he’s going to be a daddy.”

“But, I’m too old, Bren. And we used protection. Every time.” I was losing it, but getting pregnant was so not on my radar.

“Thirty-seven isn’t that old to be pregnant, Shay. You’re in good health and you’ve always talked about regretting not having a sibling for Aria. I really don’t see the problem here.” Brenley said.

Pacing I threw up my hands at how rational she sounded. “The problem is, he’s your brother. What if things don’t work out between us? I couldn’t handle it if something happened to our friendship.” Why was she acting so calm? Why wasn’t she freaking out like me?

“Okay, here’s the thing, Shay. What if things do work out you and have a beautiful family together? Stop looking for the what if and live your life without any regrets, otherwise you’re gonna be unhappy and miserable, and you don’t want your daughter to see you that way? You want her to go on and have healthy relationships. So show her what’s possible.” Brenley stepped into my path and hugged me. “And I’m going to remind you of something you said to Hayden when you first met him.” Brenley smirked.

I can’t remember anything I said to Hayden that first day other than the slight shock that Brenley had fallen fast and hard for the silver fox adventure show host, and oh, damn. “Okay, let me have it.” I hung my head and braced myself.

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