Page 85 of Nanny for the Doctor

Chapter29

Mae

It’s been a few more days since the last time I had sex with Reed, and things are actually going smoothly. As far as weeks with him go, this one has been pretty damn good.

I know he went and apologized to Johnny, which made me feel so much better, but I still haven’t brought myself to tell him about the pregnancy.

In fact, I haven’t told anyone, and I’ve never kept a secret for this long. I never had to.

I’ve also never lied to Johnny or kept him out of the loop, and it feels especially weird to keep this from him.

With the age gap, Johnny has always been more like a parent than my sibling, but he was the cooler parent I could talk to about stuff that was too embarrassing to bring up with Mom and Dad.

Like a black little storm cloud hanging over my head, the news hovers in the back of my mind. Reed has noticed, but he’s doing his best not to push it because of how well it went last time.

I’m still in avoidant behavior land, though, and I know I can’t put it off much longer. A decision needs to be made before I run out of time.

“What am I going to do?”

Stuffing the wet clothes into the dryer, I snag a fabric softener sheet and hit start. I need clothes for tomorrow, my weekly grind starting over again, even though all I want is to sit in this apartment and pretend like Sunday will never end.

Knock, knock, knock.

Whipping my head toward the front of my apartment, I wonder who could be banging on my door like there’s a fire at 9 p.m. on a Sunday.

When I open up, I find Stevie outside in the hall. She’s huffing breaths like she just ran up twelve flights of stairs, and her eyes are as big as dinner plates.

“Whoa. Hi, Stevie. What’s up?”

She holds up a pregnancy test while she catches her breath, and after personal experience, I now know what a positive result looks like.

A wide grin stretches over my face. “Oh my God! Are you pregnant? Am I going to be an auntie?”

But then Stevie shakes her head, and my smile fades. “No. This isn’t mine, Mae.”

She raises her brows at me, and I freeze.

“Oh, come on. Is this yours?”

I blink, unable to even breathe, let alone respond to her.Fucking hell. Did I actually leave that at their house the other day? Shit!

“Um, look, I don’t know who…I mean, it’s not…” I’m a stammering mess, and Stevie just looks at me like I’m more than easy to read.

“Some poker face you got there.” Stevie shakes her head. “Look, Johnny found the test, not me.”

“What?!”

My heart hammers and nausea swirls through my stomach. I’m going to be sick right here in my doorway.

“If you would have told me…” She sighs. “I couldn’t cover for you because I didn’t know what was going on. So I just told Johnny the truth. Said it wasn’t mine. Well, it didn’t take him long to put two and two together.”

I fall to the side, leaning on the doorjamb, heaving breaths to ward off the need to throw up all over Stevie’s Dr. Martens.

“Oh, babe.” She puts her arm around me. “Johnny’s out of his mind. I’ve never seen him like this. And…”

Stevie hesitates, and as the tears roll down my face, I shout, “What?”

She jumps, flinching back before meeting my eyes again. “He’s on his way to Reed’s.”

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