Page 75 of Treasure and Tarot

“Watch tooners?”

“Sure, baby.” He didn’t have a call to do or anything. “Let Daddy get his coffee.” He washed up, then headed back to the kitchen, intent on doing his daily three-card reading, if nothing else.

The coffee made his stomach roil again, though, so he set it aside, laid out the reading, then poured a glass of Sprite before going back to look.

The question was, how will my day go? The cards were theSeven of Swords, the Two of Wands, and the Empress …

Huh.

He ran back to the bathroom, really horking it all up. Then he texted Colton.

Can you bring home ginger ale and saltines? I think leftovers have gone off.

Do you think so? They tasted good to me. But sure, no problem.

There was a pause and three little dots, then,

Should I bring home a pregnancy test? We can pick one up.

Sebastian stopped.

Blinked.

Oh, damn it. Now he felt like a dork. Wow. Pregnant. He could be…sure. He’d had two heat cycles. He was definitely having sex. A lot of sex, even.

A little buzz of excitement filled in. Oh. Oh, how exciting would that be? Of course, it would also be incredibly disappointing if he wasn’t, but. If he was…

Do you mind??

Are you kidding??

His phone rang almost immediately. “So… It’s cool if I do pick one up, I mean?”

“Yeah. I—wouldn’t that be exciting? It wouldn’t take long, if that’s what it is, and then I wouldn’t lose all those mashed potatoes.”

Colton chuckled at him. “And now I just want to come home.”

He nodded and grinned, shaking his head at both of them. “I understand that, but you’ve got plans today. Also, I have to work. I’ve got to do some recording for my podcast, my daily readings for the week, that sort of thing.” Normal things on a not-so-normal day, he supposed. It was how it worked. “What all have you been doing? Are you having fun?”

“It’s been all right. Right now, I’m outside of the Marchette building. I’ve been at Hank’s, at the historical society, going over maps. I’m on my way to the library. Tim is gathering me someinformation, so that I can make copies. It’s really pretty out here. They’re really decorated for Christmas.”

“Yeah, we’re going to have to start thinking about that.” He glanced at Abby, who was ‘exercising’ with a yellow puppet on the television. “Someone’s getting a little excited to decorate the hoho tree with her Papa.”

“I know I’m excited. My first Christmas with her, with both of you. Maybe with all three of you.”

“Yes, Abby loves Christmas.” He was so tickled about firsts.

“Yep, then yours, then mine.” Colton chuckled. “I’m so excited. I’m going to go pick up these things from the library, stop by and grab some things up from the store, and then I’ll head home to you.”

“I appreciate it. I’m gonna do my recordings and then—” He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll take Abby out to play in the snow. She likes that. She needs to get out and run out some energy.”

“Yeah, it’s not quite as deep here. It’s pretty clear. I’m surprised at how much more snow we get up there.”

It was amazing what another fifteen hundred feet in elevation would do. “Yeah, wait until they close the road, and they’re bringing things in by Snowcat.”

“Yeah, that’s not worrisome…”

Sebastian shrugged. He wasn’t worried. He’d grown up here. He had a snowmobile that was well maintained, and he always kept supplies. They had a generator, and when the roads did close, it usually wasn’t but a week, maybe two. “That part will be fine. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be a bad winter anyway, so don’t stress it until we have to. We have fun in the winter. You wait, we can get you some… Well, whatever you’re comfortable with.” He didn’t know what Colton was going to be able to do, honestly. He wasn’t like an extreme winter sports guy, but he did cross-country skiing and he had snowshoes. It was goodexercise, and he couldn’t remember not doing it so he guessed it was what it was. “It’s not too cold on your leg, is it? I mean, being up here?”

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