Page 70 of Grump's Nanny

“Yeah, you did,” I replied, hugging her back.

“That was great!” a voice said from behind me, and I turned to see Anna walking up to us, a pair of skis slung over her shoulder.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, giving her a hug.

“Kevin is at some meeting or event or something with James. I wasn’t paying that much attention,” she said. “But he mentioned that you were giving the kids ski lessons, so I figured I’d take advantage of the opportunity since my best friendisan Olympic-qualified skier.”

“You are more than welcome to join in,” I said, pointing up the hill. “Ben’s about to come down. Aren’t you, buddy?”

He gave me a shaky thumbs up, and I clapped for him, with Anna, Katie, and Leann, who’d gone after Katie, at my side, clapping too.

“I’m ready,” he said.

Then he started off down the slope. He stayed upright, unlike how he’d done last week when he’d been so confident and had bent down for more speed. But he was steady, and he slid in a straight line, his skis never wavering.

When he reached the bottom, he turned to the side to stop like I’d taught him, and his sisters both erupted into cheers and applause.

I, on the other hand, opened my mouth to congratulate him, then immediately turned to the side, and vomited into the snow.

The celebration stopped instantly as Anna and the kids backed away from me, giving me space until I was done. I coughed a few times and spit to clear my mouth of the foul taste, then stood up and looked at Anna.

“Why don’t we all head back inside?” she said. “Haley can get cleaned up and we can all play a game while she does that.”

I nodded, grateful for her help, and we all trudged back inside, the lesson cut very short for the day.

Anna pulled outSorry!and sat down at the dining room table with the kids while I went to my room, peeling off layers as I went. I barely made it to my bathroom before I felt sick again, and I bent over to throw up into my toilet. Once I was done, I sank back onto the floor, panting. What the hell did I eat? Or had I gotten a stomach bug?

After a few minutes where I waited for my stomach to stop churning, I crawled the couple of steps over to the cabinet beneath my sink, where I kept most of my toiletries. I reached for some mouthwash, and when I did, I noticed something.

Sitting at the back of my cabinet was a box of tampons I’d bought the week before in anticipation of my period, which I now realized should have started no less than five days ago.

And I hadn’t had even a hint of it starting.

No. No, no, no, no, no.

I was on birth control, so this had to be a fluke. I couldn’t possibly be pregnant, could I? Surely, this was just a random instance of a late cycle, and had absolutely nothing to do with the antibiotics I’d been on for two weeks for the sinus infection I had right before I started this job, which the doctor had warned me might affect the effectiveness of the pill. But I’d made Max wear condoms up until we broke up.

Which meant…

I pulled myself to my knees and began to heave again, trying to process what I knew but wasn’t ready to acknowledge.

I was having my boss’s baby.

My boss. James. Who I had really been enjoying getting to know better. But now, this would be a wrench in any plans we might have had.

Plans.

Fuck.

My plans to go to the Olympics. I couldn’t compete in downhill skiing while I was pregnant, or even if I was raising a newborn.

I scrambled to my feet. I needed to talk to Anna. Now.

I rushed from my bathroom and poked my head out into the hall.

“Anna?” I called.

“Yeah, Hales?” she said back.

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