Page 316 of As The Shifter World Turns

That was true but I put it down to the same issue: giving up trying to get pregnant.

“You’re nauseous and you’re tired all the time.”

“Yeah, so?”

He yanked open the drawer and pulled out something I couldn’t see. “Please don’t hate me for suggesting this.”

He hadn’t suggested anything, so I said nothing. He placed what was in his hand on the kitchen island. I blinked, unsure what I was seeing, and yet the objects were so familiar to me. I used to have a stash in our bathroom but Nate and I had tossed them on the advice of the therapist. That had been hard and yet also freeing.

I pushed the stool back with such force, it tipped over and the noise made Charlie cry. “I’m sorry little guy but I have to go home.”

Neil put a hand on my arm. “You’re upset, I get it. But I’m your friend and you always want me to be honest with you, right?”

I nodded, unable to form a response, while tears filled my eyes.

“It’s up to you, obviously, but I’d go home to Nate and take the test. Or if you don’t want him upset if it’s negative, take it here.” He shoved one test in myhand and without saying goodbye to him or Charlie, I walked down the stairs, the test crushed in my fist.

Nate was asleep. I sent up a quick thank you to the universe for night shifts and slipped into the bathroom. I considered waking up my mate but if I wasn’t pregnant, he didn’t need to know about it. I’d share that with the therapist later in the week and probably feel bad for not telling my mate what I’d done.

One last time. I did what I had to do and sat on the edge of the bath, the phone in my hand, waiting as the minutes ticked by. Not wanting to disturb Nate, I turned off the alarm seconds before it went off.

Taking a deep breath, I peered at the test. Two pink lines. Something I’d never seen before. My heart jolted and my bear squeed. He’s never done that before. Ever. What if it was a false positive? That would be worse than all the negative results.

“Neil,” I whispered into the phone. “I need another test… just to confirm.” Now it was my friend’s turn to squee. I met him at the door, not wanting him to knock or ring the doorbell. He had Charlie on his hip and the three of us stayed in the bathroom while waiting for the result of the second test. Even Charlie was quiet.

“Two pink lines!” I stared at both the tests, trying to take in that I was pregnant.

“Is this a private party or can anyone join in?”

“Nate!”

146

IT’S NEVER TOO EARLY

Nate

“It’s too early for all of this,” Daire said as we stood outside the baby store. “But I kind of don’t care.”

We’d both been over the moon excited about the baby and every time there was a commercial about a baby item flicking across the television, on the radio, or even before we watched a how to short online, we wanted it. We were worse than a kid with the Christmas catalog from their favorite store.

And now here we were, walking back to the car after we stopped for some curry that Daire had been craving, and we spotted a baby store. How could we not go in? How could we not buy all the things?

“Will it make us feel better to have everything we need ready to go?” I asked knowing that it would.

“Absolutely.”

“And if we buy it now or buy it later, we’re still going to need to put a lot of it together, right?”

He bobbed his head up and down.

“And when your belly enters the room before you do, you’re not going to want to put shit together, but then you’ll feel bad that you aren’t helping make things for our baby… so in a way, we are doing this right on time.” There was a great deal of gymnastics needed to logic that out, but I managed to and was rewarded with a kiss.

“Let’s go buy all the things.” He took my hand and we walked inside.

It was a small boutique, but what they lacked in size, they made up for in excellent taste.

“I love this set.” I rubbed my hand along the bamboo crib. It boasted being sustainable and some other things about the environment and I did appreciate that, but what attracted me to it was the warm color of the bamboo. It didn’t have the harshness the white furniture had and felt less cold that some of the other sets shouted to me.

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