Page 74 of Boss's Baby: A Fake Fiance Romance

She started past me. “Anyway, I’ll get some family time in and come back tonight. Try not to miss me too much.”

“Not making any promises.”

One more smile and she was gone. But I couldn’t spend too much time thinking about how much I wanted her. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve and the night of the big party. All eyes were going to be on us, and everything had to go perfectly.

Or else this whole thing could come crashing down around us.

Chapter 32

CASSIDY

The nurse’s questions had put me into a state of mild shock. Actually, nothing “mild” about it—I felt like I wanted to scream.

I’d told her about my symptoms, and right away she’d seemed to suspect something. However, as the questions became more and more specific, honing in on a certain subject, my stomach tensed more and more.

“Have you been sexually active?”

Well, yeah. Weird thing for me to answer in the affirmative, but Josh and I had definitely been that.

“Are you on birth control?”

At first I was happy to say yes, but she wasn’t done there.

“Have you been taking it regularly at the same time every day?”

I’d opened my mouth to say yes, but the more I’d thought about it, the more I’d realized that maybe, maybe, the answer was “No.” I mean, up until recently I’d been taking it out of habit, as though holding out hope that it’d be because I’d eventually meet someone who’d make it necessary. But between work and everything else, I realized I might’ve been slipping.

The last question was the one that made my blood run cold.

“Have you been late with your cycle?”

No way. It had to have happened. How would I not notice something like that? But I scanned back through December and tried to remember when it was. All that came to mind was work, Josh, the buyout, the plan—everything but actually having my period. And it’s not like that was easy to forget.

The horror dawned on me—I was late. Very late.

“When was the last time you had your period?”

November for sure. But since then…

She’d taken her notes and was gone. And there I was, waiting for Dr. Shaw in that little examination room I’d been to so many times as a kid. Through the closed door I could hear the chatter of the staff and muffled Christmas music.

I hadn’t seen Dr. Shaw since I was a teenager, and at that moment, he was the only person I wanted to talk to.

Pregnant. That’s obviously what the nurse had been getting at. Hell, she’d all but said it. But there was no way it could possibly be the case. I’d always been able to stay cool about things, but this last month had been trying. I was certain that everything going on with me could be explained by nerves—hadn’t I read somewhere that anxiety could cause a woman to miss her period? Was that a thing?

Thankfully, I didn’t need to wait too long before Dr. Shaw arrived. It was odd seeing him. He had the same broad, heavyset body, the same watery blue, sympathetic eyes, the same neatly parted hair and the same mustache. But everything had been fast-forwarded about ten years, like in one of those age-filter apps.

He smiled as he laid eyes on me. “Cassidy Marten. He put his hands on his wide hips and shook his head. “It’s been what, fifteen years?”

“Something like that.” I smiled back, remembering his kindly way with me ever since I was a tiny kid. “It’s good to see you.”

“Of course, likewise.” He glanced down at the files in his hands before turning his attention back to me. “I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to, but I’m sure you’ve got more pressing matters on your mind right now.”

“Am I pregnant?” The words shot out like machine gun bullets. I was a bit embarrassed, but I couldn’t hold it back any longer. I needed to know.

He smiled faintly. “Like I said, more pressing matters on your mind.”

“I know there’s no way to know right at this moment, but still—”

“You’re right about that, unfortunately. Most reliable way to find out if there’s a pregnancy is to do a blood test. Problem with that is—”

“It’s the holidays.” I cut him off, which was rude, but my mind was going at a mile a damn minute.

“It’s the holidays. And even if it weren’t, it’d still take two or three days to get the results back. Right now we’re looking at five days at the soonest.”

That wasn’t going to work, not at all. “There’s nothing else I can do? What about the pregnancy tests at the store?”

“There’s always those, sure. But they’re hardly reliable. I’ve had plenty of patients over the years take one and have it come up one way only for the bloodwork to say another. Good way to have your hopes dashed, or to get the surprise of a lifetime.”

---