Page 152 of His Big Bad Stick

“Hey,” she whispers. “I was watching the game. So boring it put me to sleep.”

I feel the sudden rush of choice words touch my tongue.

Instead of speaking, I lower down and kiss Abrielle.

Then I pick her up.

And I take her to bed.

35

Abrielle

I take one step up the ladder, then pause and swallow hard.

In my mind I can hear Colver growling and telling me to get my ass down and never climb a ladder again while pregnant.

Music echoes around the gallery.

I’ve been working alone all day today.

There’s something on my mind and it has nothing to do with paintings.

I know Colver saw my laptop last night.

It was for fun. Something silly to do while I was watching the hockey game.

Truthfully, watching the game made me anxious because all I could do was worry about Colver. Watching him on the ice, playing so big and tough. Now he didn’t get into any fights… is that a good thing? I wasn’t sure. But seeing him throw his body into other players and then have players hit him… it was stressful.

So I opened my laptop and started to look at places to live.

For the record, I do this kind of thing all the time.

I mean, who doesn’t? Right?

I don’t remember falling asleep. Pregnancy has a way of crashing like a large wave. One second having energy and then the next falling sound asleep.

I look up again and know I shouldn’t climb the ladder.

I should go next door. Talk to Jess. Treat myself to something sweet.

It’s for the baby too.

I lock up the gallery and travel all the way next door.

I laugh to myself but then remind myself that when I’m nine months pregnant, waddling next door to Jess’s coffeeshop is going to be a chore.

Jess sits at a table next to the counter with a stack of papers in front of her.

When she looks up and sees me, she mouths the word help.

“Do I want to know what this is?” I ask her.

“The paperwork, Abrielle. I hate the paperwork. Everything is paperwork.”

“You know you can hire someone to do that for you,” I say.

“I’m super cheap.” Jess smiles. “I don’t even like having employees.”

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