Page 60 of Snowed In with Three Mountain Men

“I just got a little dizzy,” she mumbles, and she sinks down into the couch. Callum goes to grab her something to eat, but when he returns with some dried mango, she twists her head away and clamps her hand over her mouth.

“No, no way,” she protests. “That smells disgusting. Can’t you tell how off that is?”

We all exchange a glance.

“Charli, it smells fine to me,” I reply, and I reach up to rest a hand on her hand. She feels warm, a little clammy, but my instincts are telling me that there’s something going on here that shouldn’t be.

“We need to get you to the doctor,” I tell her firmly, and she groans.

“No, no, please, I really don’t need all of that. I’m okay. Maybe I just need to get some sleep, or?—”

“Not a chance,” I tell her, leaving no room for argument. “Something’s up. Dax, pull the car around. Callum, help me get Charli out there. I’ll call the doctor on the way, he’ll be able to fit us in…”

Despite her protests, eventually she seems to concede that she needs help, and she allows us to get her to the truck and toward Killinsbury a few miles away. She sits in the back of the truck with me the whole time, clinging to my hand tightly as though she might shoot off into space if she doesn’t do everything she can to keep herself pinned to the earth.

“You’re going to be fine,” I tell her softly as we pull the truck up outside the doctor. He argued about not having room for her today, but after a firm talking-to from me, he changed his mind and figured he could squeeze her in for a quick exam.

I help Charli out of the truck. She’s still a little shaky, but she leans on me, hanging on to my arm. Dax walks behind her, his hand on the small of her back. I know he’s grown closer to her these past few weeks, since they’ve been attending therapy. I didn’t think there was a damn person on earth who could convince my stick-in-the-mud brother that therapy was the right call for him, but damn if she wasn’t able to do it—and he’s been managing a lot better in the meantime. He still has a long way to go until he’s totally better, if that ever comes at all, but at least he’s on the path to it.

Inside, we’re hurried toward the exam room when the receptionist sees how wobbly on her feet Charli is. The doctor arrives a few minutes later, and I quickly run down the symptoms that brought us here as Charli sinks onto the exam table, her face pale and her eyes distant.

“I’m going to run some blood tests,” he replies with a nod. “Could be a deficiency that came out because of the hot weather. Stay here, I’m going to call in my tech…”

She screws her face up and draws her gaze away from the needle as he takes the blood, and when he goes out to run the tests, she glances up at the three of us.

“It’s going to be okay, isn’t it?” she asks quietly. I don’t see her scared much, not these days—but there’s a flash of terror in her eyes, as though she can see all of this slipping away from her.

“Of course it is,” I assure her, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her tight against my chest. I know how she feels. The thought of losing any of this, any of this life that has started to fall into place for all of us, it hurts. I can’t stand the thought of it. And I won’t let anything take her from me. I don’t care what we’re up against, it’s not going to take this woman away from me…

Tense silence fills the room while we wait for the results, and when the doctor steps through the door, there’s a smile on his face.

“Well, I’m glad to reassure you that nothing serious is going on,” he replies. “Just some low blood pressure and tiredness. You and the baby are fine, Charli.”

The world freezes for a moment. The words hang there. Baby.And the baby.Charli’s eyes nearly bug out of her head as he speaks, her voice trembling as she asks for some explanation.

“The…the baby? What are you talking about?”

He frowns, glancing between us—I wonder who he thinks is her partner here. Me, probably, though he has no idea that it’s actually all of us.

“You’re pregnant,” he replies. “Did you not…did you not know…?”

She stares at him. I can feel her trembling beneath my grip, clearly unsure what to make of this revelation. My own head is spinning, my ears ringing, and I’m sure Dax and Callum are in the exact same place too. A baby…a fucking baby…

“I’ll give you a moment,” he replies. “Let me get a test from our pharmacy…perhaps I…”

He continues to mutter as he rushes out, leaving the four of us alone in the room together, trying to make sense of whatever the hell just happened.

“Did he say…did he say that you’re pregnant?” Dax asks finally, breaking the quiet hanging in the air between us.

“Yeah,” Charli whispers. “Yeah, I think he did.”

“Is he right?” Callum demands, beginning to pace. “I mean, they can make mistakes with these kinds of things?—”

“No, he’s right,” she replies, shaking her head. “I haven’t had a period in a couple of months. I guess I just didn’t think anything of it, what with the stress that’s been going down, and I…fuck, I don’t know. I didn’t…”

She trails off again. She’s in total shock, that much is obvious. Dax takes her hand and squeezes it tight, but he doesn’t say anything.

She looks up at me, her eyes glimmering with tears.

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