Page 43 of The Glass Dolphin

He finished his bite of toast and nodded to her breakfast. “You haven’t eaten.”

“I don’t feel well,” she murmured. Just the sight of the scrambled eggs turned her stomach, and she switched her gaze to her hand as Aaron’s covered it.

“That might be good,” he said. “Right?”

She loved it when he spoke in his tender voice, the one that didn’t have any hint of Police Chief in it at all. She nodded. “Yeah, could be.” She looked up at him again. “Or this just could be a January flu bug.”

“You’ve missed your period,” he said.

El pressed her lips together and nodded, as if she didn’t know. She’d told him the very next day when she should’ve started and she hadn’t. Then they’d waited another week. Then she’d called a doctor, and they’d waited four more days to be able to go together.

She could just run by the grocery store and pick up some at-home pregnancy tests, but she really didn’t want to. Despite the protests and recent act of vandalism, Five Island Cove was still a small town. Everyone—literally everyone—knew who she was. She’d married the single Police Chief whose father was the Mayor, for crying out loud.

The last thing she needed was a rumor flying around about her pregnancy—or the lack of it. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if the test came back negative today. She hadn’t had to take one in November or December—her body had told her she wasn’t carrying a baby.

“At least have a couple of bites of toast,” Aaron said as he pulled her plate closer to him. “I’ll eat these or give them to Prince.” He fed his dog a chunk of egg from her plate, his smile popping onto his face because of it.

El picked up a piece of the toast he’d made for her and took a bite off the corner. She’d had a few sips of coffee too, and she could admit that by the time she finished her toast, she felt marginally better.

She scratched on the last few shifts for her schedule, and then she tucked the pencil into the pages and closed the calendar. A sigh slipped from her lips as she stood, and she leaned down to kiss Aaron again. “We want this, don’t we?”

He paused, his head moving slightly closer to hers. He’d been looking at his phone, but he’d come to full attention at her question. “I’m afraid it’s too late if we don’t,” he said. He scooted back and looked fully at her. “Why are you scared?”

“Because.” El settled onto his lap, glad when he drew her even closer, his strong arms around her tightly. “I’m…not twenty-five,” she said. “Neither are you. We have two girls we adore. Maybe I let my heart run away from me.” She played with the ends of his hair, hating this second-guessing inside of her.

Eloise was a scientist—or at least she had been before moving back to the cove to open her father’s dilapidated inn. She knew how to think logically and rationally. She understood data and facts, and she based a hypothesis off of those things. Not her silly heart.

“Sweetheart.” Aaron ran one hand through her hair. He looked at her with those dark, dreamy eyes, and El closed hers.

“I’m being silly.”

“Iwant this,” he said with plenty of punch. “I want you, whether we have a baby together or not, but I’m going to bethrilledif you’re pregnant. I don’t care how old we are. We’re together, and that means we can do this.”

El nodded, absorbing his words in a world where she couldn’t see him. “Thank you, Aaron.”

“I know you want this too,” he murmured, his lips landing lightly against her collarbone. “So doubt yourself for a minute, but don’t let it ruin today.”

“But what if—?”

“If you’re not, then we just get to keep trying,” he said, his lips sliding along her skin until the crested her jawline. “I’m having a lot of fun doing that. Aren’t you?” He didn’t let her answer, because he claimed her mouth before she could.

She didn’t need to anyway. Aaron was an attentive, excellent lover, and yes, El enjoyed their time in the bedroom. Whether she got a baby out of it or not, she certainly couldn’t complain.

“All right, then,” he said, though she hadn’t said anything. He pushed her curls off her face. “I love you. Let’s go see if we’re going to have a baby.” He smiled at her, so much love swimming in his eyes. “No matter what, we’re getting a fun date out of today, right?”

“Lunch and a movie,” she confirmed. “Before the girls come home.”

“Right.” He shifted, and that was El’s cue to get up. She stood, and he did too. She let him lead her into the garage, and they drove her SUV to the health clinic with only silence between them. It wasn’t strained, or awkward, or even upsetting. She simply liked to exist inside her mind sometimes, and Aaron let her.

She got herself checked-in, and they sat side-by-side in the waiting room. Only a handful of other women sat there, no husbands with them. Her appointment time came and went, and a couple of other women got called back.

Aaron leafed through a pregnancy magazine, which Eloise found funny, and she smiled to herself.

“Eloise?” a woman finally called, and she got to her feet as he tossed down the magazine. He followed her now as she went past the nurse and into the back of the office. “We’ll be in room three.”

She detoured into the appointed room, the younger woman right behind her. With the door closed, she said, “So you think you might be pregnant?”

“Yes.” Eloise hated sitting up on the tables in the smaller doctor’s rooms, so she settled into one of the two chairs, Aaron right at her side. She liked how sometimes he led, and sometimes she did, but that she could always find Aaron beside her.

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