Page 115 of Untethered Heart
Marlin stops straight away, looking at Caleb with his big brown eyes. He listens to Caleb far more than he does to me.
“I had an appointment and a few errands to run. I’ll drive down a little earlier tomorrow, but I got most of what I needed done this morning.”
“Appointment? What appointment? Did you see Claire’s photos this morning? We should do a couple’s trip to Sweden, their accommodation looked amazing.”
Claire and Lee got engaged a few months ago. They ended up getting married a month later in a registry office. They had a cute little backyard party with friends and family, then straight away left for a big honeymoon.
She’s due back next month, and I’m so excited to spend a few weeks back in the city over the Christmas break. It looks like we’ll have a fair few things to catch up on. My stomach roils as I think of the news I’ve yet to share with my boyfriend.
“I did. She video called me about an hour ago as she sipped her morning coffee on the balcony. It was just starting to snow.” I smile and it wavers as I redirect us back to his first question.
I don’t know why I’m nervous. I know he wants children, and I know he’s ready for them now. Maybe it’s my own nerves, thinking of how we’ll handle a baby as we build our house, keep growing the distillery, and keep managing Caleb’s office in the city. But he told me months ago that we could make having it all work, and he was right. I need to trust him. No matter how hard life can get, I know he’ll always be there to walk through it with me.
“So, back to my appointment.” My hands turn over themselves before I pull my handbag off my shoulder, where it rested against my stomach.
I pull out the small rectangular box, wrapped in white with a red ribbon, and hand it to Caleb.
“Is this an early Christmas present?” he asks with furrowed brows.
“Umm, maybe?” I shrug. It’s definitely a surprise.
He gives me a curious smile as he scoops up Marlin and puts him back down on the floor so he can open the box. When he pulls off the lid, I watch his face, seeing how he’ll react to the positive pregnancy test lying inside. I started getting bouts of nausea last week and craving greasy food, which is so unlike me. All I wanted to eat was McDonald’s hash browns, and I was halfway through my fifth one when I realised how unusual that was. I took a test last week, which came back positive, but I saw the doctor this morning, who confirmed it.
I took another test this morning so I could wrap it up for Caleb, whose eyes haven’t left the box. When he finally looks up at me, his bottom lip trembles, and his eyes have tears gathering in the corners.
“Are you pregnant?”
My own tears build as I nod at him. “Yeah.”
He looks down at my stomach, then back up at my eyes, and he crumbles. He tosses the box on his desk and hugs my body to his as he laughs through his tears of joy. We hold each other, laughing and crying as the emotions take control.
When they finally calm, Caleb lifts us from the chair, letting me find my feet as he sinks to his knees before me.
He lifts my shirt, staring at my still-flat stomach, and presses a kiss there. Right where our baby grows. Resting his chin there, he looks up at me.
“Marry me,” he whispers.
“Oh my god.” The shock holds me in time for a moment before I cover my face with my hands and cry some more.
I feel as Caleb rushes to his feet, the sound of a drawer opening, then his arms sliding around me.
“Lex.”
I tilt my head back to suck up the sniffles. My hands sweep under my eyes, and Caleb continues to hold me gently in his arms. When I find the strength to look at him again, he brings a box up between us.
A glittering pear-cut diamond sits on a band filled with more dazzling stones.
“I’ve had this for about six months. I wanted to wait until you felt settled here, but I don’t want to wait any longer to call you my wife.”
“I don’t want to wait either,” I say and smile against his lips. “Yes.”
Nearly Six Years Later
“I do it,” Jasper says, his tiny hands reaching for the glass of juice on the breakfast tray.
“Daddy will take the tray,” I say, manoeuvring it out of his reach. “Why don’t you take Mummy’s present? Can you do that for me?”
“Otay.” He reaches instead for the bag of presents they’ve been helping me fill for the last few weeks.
