Page 46 of Inked Devotion

Now I was a little queasy right along with her.

Chapter 12

Benjamin

My palms were sweaty. I wasn’t sure my palms had been this sweaty since I was a teenager picking up my date for the prom. Hell, I wasn’t sure that was even the case then. Today was an all-new tension and nervousness riding me. We were going to a Montgomery dinner at Annabelle and Jacob’s home, where Brenna and I were going to tell them that we were having a baby. This was not normal and totally not in my wheelhouse. Yet, it had to be in that wheelhouse because we had had sex.

I was going to be a father.

I rested my hand on the doorway, knowing I needed to leave, but wanting to take a breath first.

I understood the mechanics of how this had happened, and yet it still hadn’t sunk in. Brenna was pregnant. We had created life, and now our lives would be forever entwined, and not merely because we were friends and had the same social circles.

Would it be a boy or a girl? Would they grow up and look like Brenna? With that same humor and wicked attitude? Would they be a little quieter and reserved? Would it be a little girl with pigtails? Or maybe a boy who wanted to learn to garden like me?

I let out a breath, knowing I was getting ahead of myself. I needed to read up on pregnancy and children and what it meant to be a parent. I didn’t even know the size of the baby at this point. Was it even the size of a grain of rice yet? Was it smaller than that? When would it be the size of a cantaloupe?

These were questions that I did not have any answers for, and it worried me. I usually had better answers for things like this, yet there was nothing. I was going to be a father. I didn’t know if I was ready.

I let out a breath and headed towards my car, knowing I needed to go pick up Brenna so we could show up as a united force. That had been my idea. Not because I felt like she needed me, but maybe because I needed her. Or perhaps because I wanted us to show up as one so we could leave together or lean on each other if things got bad. Not that I thought my family was going to shun us or be cruel, but they could be overwhelming. We were Montgomerys. It was what we did.

I headed towards Brenna’s place and tried to formulate my thoughts of how we would do this. We couldn’t just blurt it out, but maybe we could lead up to it? We didn’t have a plan. Mostly because we didn’t know what the family was going to do once they found out. We were going to be in each other’s corners even if we didn’t know what we were going to do together.

When I pulled into Brenna’s driveway, she was already standing on the porch, her cross-body bag over her shoulder, and she kept tapping her foot to whatever music was in her head. She had a dessert box in her hands, so I got out of my truck before she had a chance to move towards me and pulled the box towards me. “I’ve got this.”

“I’m fine. I may be pregnant, but I’m not without strength.” She winced as she said it, and my heart did that little leap thing.

“I can’t believe I just said that like it wasn’t a big deal. Like I’m used to it or something. Holy hell, I’m pregnant.”

My lips quirked into a smile even though I hadn’t planned on it. “Yes. We are pregnant.”

“I’m going to be the one that gets swollen ankles and deals with morning sickness.”

I raised a brow. “I’m pretty sure I’m the one that dealt with part of your morning sickness two days ago.”

She cringed as we got into the car, and I handed the cake box back over.

“I am sorry about that. It was a lot of vomit.”

“Thankfully, I wasn’t wearing shoes, so you didn’t ruin them.” I held back a shudder at that.

“It was on your bare feet, and that was probably kind of gross.”

“It wasn’t my favorite thing in the world, but it’s not the end of the world. I’m here for you. I sort of held your hair back even though I couldn’t move you to a place that would be more conducive to emptying out your stomach.”

“You did hold my hair back. See, we’ve got this? We’re totally a team.”

“We are a team. I’m not going to let you do this alone.”

“Thanks,” she whispered, before she rolled her shoulders back.

We pulled into Annabelle and Jake’s neighborhood. Most of my family lived decently close to each other around here, so it wasn’t as if we had that long of a drive, but with the way that Brenna’s skin tinted slightly green just then and my stomach rolled, I wished that we would have had a little bit more time on the road.

“So, we don’t have a plan,” she said as I pulled into the driveway.

I turned off the car and nodded. “Other than just being there. No, we don’t.”

“I’ve made cake,” Brenna blurted.

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