Page 152 of Single Teddy
“Why is everyone treating me like I’m pregnant?” I asked.
Bear, who had been sitting on the porch with the cat carriers on either side, jumped up with a huge smile on his face and looked at me.
“Are you pregnant, Uncle Welsey?” he asked.
I burst out laughing, but before I could reply to him, Ruby came out and patted his little shoulder.
“Not yet, but give it a couple of months, kiddo.”
Bear did a happy dance, and I glared at my sister.
“That’s not true, Bear. Don’t listen to Ruby. Cisgender men can’t get pregnant,” I said, and Bear’s smile immediately turned into a pout.
“But don’t worry, Beary-Bear. Uncle Wesley and Uncle Teddy are really, really trying.”
“Ruby!” I shouted at my sister, and an elderly couple who were walking past the house jumped. I offered them my best smile before I looked back at my sister, and with my best threatening look, told her to shut up.
By the time I got her mouth sealed with packing tape, poor Bear looked so confused. So I had to sit down in the middle of the move and tell him that yes, Ruby was just kidding and no, neither Teddy nor I could get pregnant.
“Are you happy with yourself?” I asked Ruby when Teddy got Bear’s attention and gave him a small suitcase to carry into the house.
“Why? What did I do wrong?” she asked, having freed herself from the tape. “You guys hump like bunnies. I wouldn’t besurprised if you achieved the impossible.” She placed the used tape over my exposed arm hair and smiled brightly.
I gasped.
“You’re dead! You’re freaking dead!” I shouted and went after her, but she was already all the way outside and using Donovan for protection.
“Don’t you dare use him. If Autumn saw you, she’d lynch you alive.”
Ruby raised an eyebrow and turned to Donovan, who nodded with defeat.
“Shame. And here I thought she was a sharer. Oh well. You can still protect an innocent damsel in distress, can’t you?” she told him.
Donovan looked around us before he answered.
“And where is she?” he asked, only for Ruby to smack his arm.
She then turned to Teddy.
“You’ll protect your beautiful sister-in-law who loves you so, so much, won’t you?”
Teddy smiled and lifted her off the ground to carry her into the house like a blushing bride, and I didn’t know why, but that made me even more annoyed with her. He should be doing that with me. I mean, we weren’t married yet, but still, I should be the only one he carried over thresholds and such shit.
He returned moments later and looked inside the van with a look of despair.
“How much crap can someone accumulate in ten months? This is whack,” he said.
I rolled my eyes and pushed him to the side.
“We’re almost done. Shut up.” I grabbed a box, and so did Donovan and Teddy, and a couple more back-and-forths later, the van was as empty as when we’d started.
I returned to the porch and looked inside the house. The mud room on the right side of the staircase was full of Teddy’s and Bear’s boxes.
I still couldn’t believe it. Not only had we made it past eight months and were on our way to our one-year anniversary, but they had finally moved in. We’d been going back and forth for so long and trying to figure out what was best for Bear, plus the situation with Salieri, and before we knew it, eight months had passed before we’d finally gone ahead and done the thing.
And what an eight months it had been. It had been as beautiful as it had been explosive. As magical as it had been dark, but we were finally on the other side. And everyone could finally live their much-deserved happily ever afters. We might have lost a few things along the way, but we’d won over evil. That much was certain.
“Uncle Wesley?” Bear put his hand in mine, and I looked down at my little man, who had grown leaps and bounds since he’d first arrived on the island.
