Page 128 of Lavender Lake
“Your room?” he asked.
I nodded and the two of us went back inside and headed up the stairs. Once I had the door to my bedroom closed, I turned to him.
“Muddy knows I’m pregnant,” I said without preamble.
“How?”
“She suspected, and then I confirmed it by puking on her tulips. She understands why I want to keep this between us until after the wedding.”
“But after the wedding, we tell people.”
“We have to.” I took a seat on my bed and propped a pillow against the headboard and laid down. Cas sat at the foot of the bed and patted his lap.
I stretched out fully and placed my feet on his thigh.
We sat in silence for a moment. It felt like contentment, but also as though each of us was waiting for the other person to talk.
Finally, I broke the silence. “Look, Cas. This baby threw us both for a loop. And I don’t want you to think that you have to be involved?—”
“Stop right there,” he commanded.
I fell silent.
“It takes two to make a baby. I love you. I’m not going anywhere. You hear me?”
I nodded.
“Say it. I need you to say it.”
“I hear you,” I murmured.
“You thought I was going to bail.”
“I thought this wasn’t something we planned,” I said slowly. “And so I’d never ask you to?—”
“I’m trying not to get upset. Because if I get upset, that’ll get you fired up and you need to be calm. Especially now that you’re pregnant. So, I’m not going to yell. But you’re going to listen to me now, okay?”
“Okay,” I whispered.
“I’m here. I’m in this. We’re doing this. Together. Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Good.” He nodded. “Glad we got that settled.”
“But nothing else is settled. We have a bit of a geography problem.”
“Yeah, we do,” he agreed.
“I’d planned on going back to New York, but not until Dad was stable. More stable, I mean.”
“Yeah?”
I nodded. “I haven’t told my boss yet, but now . . .”
“Go on.”
“I definitely don’t want to raise a baby in New York,” I said simply.
