Page 33 of Merry with a Single Dad

“Open it.”

Knowing something was amiss, I narrowed my eyes at her. When my eyes landed on a home pregnancy test, I busted out laughing.

And then I stopped.

“You think you’re pregnant?” I asked, suddenly realizing that she must have bought this for herself and not me.

“What?!” she barked. “No!”

“Then who’s pregnant?”

“Just take it.”

“I’m not pregnant, Cassie. I shouldn’t have had that much to drink last night. I’d barely gotten over the flu, and I mixed alcohol on an empty stomach?—”

“Then explain your weird reaction to the wine at Thanksgiving. And you’ve been complaining about being tired more often than not.”

“Cassie, it’s just crazy busy with everything. Besides, I just had my period?—”

Never in all the time I’d known her had I ever seen Cassie’s eyes get that big. “When?”

“Shit,” I whispered as my stomach dropped. “I’m late.”

Chapter Thirteen

Chris

Emily was acting . . .different.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but something was off.

When she came home last weekend, hungover and out of sorts, I joked about my good girl turning “bad” and Santa adding her to his naughty list. She laughed even though it made her head hurt.

The next day, we took Hudson to a nearby Christmas tree farm to pick out our tree. We took a picture in front of it and made hot cocoa that night.

I worked like a dog all week because people were calling out left and right because of the flu that was still going around. Even as tired as we both were, it was strange that neither of us made a move to be intimate at night.

The stress of the holidays was the most likely culprit.

I wanted her more than I did when I first met her. I loved her more and more every passing day. And when she looked at me, I felt the same thing from her.

But, like I said, something wasdifferent.

I blamed the funk we were in on the aftereffects of the time change and daylight savings time that had us both crashing into bed without a second thought every night.

Tonight was Friday night, and all I wanted to do was get home and spend the entire evening with my family.

Family, I thought, smiling as I pulled into my driveway. The only thing I didn’t love about my life right now was that Emily and I lived in two separate households. I hoped that would be changing very,verysoon.

I walked through the front door with an especially merry pep in my step.

Just like every Friday, Emily and Hudson were at the kitchen table. I knew they’d already spent time outside with the dogs, and as usual, Hudson sat at the table playing with his Legos after doing his after-school reading time. As part of Hudson’s nightly homework, I instituted a required twenty minutes of reading before television or games.

Hudson’s mom had always been an avid reader, and although Hudson didn’t remember this about his mom, it was always important to her that we do our best to instill a love of reading in our son. When I told Emily the story one night after reading Hudson a bedtime story, she’d practically broken down at the sweetness of the tradition I kept alive in honor of Kayla’s memory.

“Emmy’s finishing her homework,” Hudson whispered as I met his hand in greeting.

“Okay,” I whispered back. Emily’s “homework” consisted of emails, budgets, and managerial tasks for Mannered Mutts.

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