Page 187 of Season of Gifts

Jay matched her lip curl and mimed a shrug, careful not to upset the tray.“Henry’s got a fantastic speech about that, if you wanna make him two for two in the dom wisdom department this morning.”

She softened into a giggle.“You too, huh?”

“Ayup.”The tray fit neatly in front of the alarm clock and lamp; he nudged the crackers toward her.“We gotta get all those worries out in the air while the unknowns are still unknowns, right?’Cause if they were knowns, we’d be a mile down the solutions trail already.”

Alice closed her hand over Henry’s on the test kit.She breathed out slow, their gazes aligned.“Whatever this says, I’m staying home from work today.”

Henry brushed his thumb against the base of her throat.“I will be delighted for your company.Perhaps with an adornment heavier than your day collar here, hmm?”

Collars and cuffs had counted as fully dressed for most of the weekend.Tomorrow might be a good night to condition the leather, if Henry didn’t have other plans.Their collars and cuffs, Jay’s harness and leash—he poured his devotion into care and maintenance, and Henry and Alice paid it back a hundred times over.

“Mm-hmm.”Alice lifted her chin, and Henry spread his hand lightly across her throat and teased her earlobe.“I was thinking that, too.”She slipped the test kit out of Henry’s grasp, shivered, and winked at Jay.“So only a mile?Not five or six?”

“Don’t wanna go too fast.”Stepping back, Jay offered his hands to steady her slide off the bed.“Might upset your little bug.”

Snickering, Alice let him escort her to the bathroom.“Kid’s not even for certain yet, and we’ve already got a nickname.”

Jay bowed deeply, nabbing the door handle on his downward sweep.“I’ll give you and Bug your privacy.”

He paced, and Henry let him.They could be parents any minute now.The baby would get here when it got here, but today, right now, lines on a test strip would make them parents or not.Henry and Alice had rejected his offer to use condoms or stick to oral, so they wouldn’t know the kid’s genetics today.But he’d be a dad.Not Uncle Jay, as fun as that was—hosting Kevin’s and Robert’s boys for a weekend together might’ve been the wildest two days they’d had all last year, and that was saying something—but Dad.Daddy.Some chubby little hands and round face with big eyes would be looking to him for answers and safety and love.

“How long does the test take?”He passed Henry without stopping, his heart thumping triple-time on each step.

“Three minutes or so, once it begins.”Henry, tracking Jay with his eyes, sat patiently on the bed with his hands folded in his lap and a fond smile flickering on his lips.

“How long’s it been?”

Henry tipped his wrist toward his chest and glanced down.“Approximately 45 seconds, I’d say.”

It wasn’t like Alice had to get undressed.She was already naked.How long could—

The bathroom door opened.

Jay stopped so fast he practically pinwheeled like a cartoon coyote about to pitch over a cliff.“So?”

“So now we wait.”

Now?What had he been doing for the last seven thousand hours while she’d been in there?

Alice sauntered up to him, her hips swaying, and pressed her hand against his chest.“Count for me, stud.Out loud, please.Count to sixty, then start again.Three times.”

He counted.She steered him backward to the bed, and his thoughts couldn’t pinball, because he had to keep the count.A fingertip push had him sitting, and polite commands had him passing over the teacup and holding the crackers.Alice sipped and nibbled; he counted.Henry’s smile grew.

“Fifty-nine, sixty.”First thing, he should— “One, two, three…”

Alice and Henry chatted, background noise, the lullaby on nights when he’d worn himself out and tumbled into dreams before them.His heart slowed, matching his count, then surged again as he tapped in time with his feet.Alice passed him back the teacup, half full, and he returned it and the crackers to the nightstand.

“Sixty.”The third one.The test would know the answer by now.

Alice splayed her hands over her stomach.She licked her lips.“Go find out for us, Jay.”

He dashed.This had to be an exception to the no-running-in-the-house rule.He skidded up to the counter and bent over the fortune-telling stick.

The lines decided it.

His knees shook.His breath whooshed out like he’d gotten clocked with an elbow under the ribs on the basketball court.He took one step toward the door and then another, his legs firming under him.

Henry had added a hand to Alice’s, the two of them snugged beside each other and raising their faces to him.His dominants.His spouses.Hanging on his every word, giving up control and letting him deliver the news.His fellow parents.

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