Page 6 of The Clearing Rain

“You’re up early,” he commented, not looking directly at her; instead, following her lead and letting his gaze drift over the view below.His cottage sat almost at the top of the hill, where they could look down at the rest of the small township of Boat Harbour Beach, as well as enjoy the stunning view of the little curved bay and the endless ocean stretching out beyond.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she replied, still not looking at him.“I’ve got a lot on my mind,” she added cryptically.“But I didn’t want to wake you, so I came out here to enjoy the morning.”

“Okay.”He took a sip of hot coffee.“Anything I can help with?”he asked lightly, knowing she’d either tell him what was worrying her, or not.It was her choice and he wouldn’t push.

“Yes.No.I mean…” she dithered, a hundred different emotions flickering across her face all at once.The first stirrings of alarm fluttered in his belly.What was going on?

“Nico…” She stopped again and turned to face him.“I don’t know how to say this, so I’m just going to say it.”It almost looked like she was gritting her teeth, as if about to deliver some terrible news and his heart rate skyrocketed.God, she was sick.She was about to tell him that she had some incurable disease, he just knew it, and his knees wanted to buckle beneath him.

“What?Tell me,” he demanded, also turning to face her, even though his heart was hammering in his chest and his mind was screaming that he didn’t want to know.All he really wanted was for everything to stay the same.Stay in this perfect moment, unaltered, as they watched the sun rise over the ocean together.

“I’m pregnant.”Her gaze locked with his, her green eyes wary and watching him.

It took him a few seconds to process her statement.What?She wasn’t sick?Not dying of some terrible disease?Then the magnitude of those two words began to sink in.It was the last thing he’d been expecting.

“Pregnant?”As in, she was going to have a baby?Theywere going to have a baby?

“Yes.”Her gaze never left his.“I did a test yesterday morning, and it was positive.Then I did another one last night, just to be sure.It was also positive,” she added.

That would certainly explain her distraction yesterday.

Her mouth took on a strange tilt at one corner, an expression he’d never seen before entering her eyes as he continued to open and close his mouth like a fish gasping for air.It felt as if he were enveloped in a fog of bewilderment, as if his brain barely understood what she’d said, and he couldn’t find the words she so clearly wanted him to say.He didn’t know what to do in the face of this enormity.

“But you’re on the pill,” he spoke the first thing that came to mind, the cloud of confusion refusing to clear.

“Yes,” she answered, clearly holding on to her patience with increasing difficulty.“And I’m just as shocked as you are.No birth control is one hundred percent effective, however, and we now have to deal with the consequences.”

Yes, he knew all that.Logically, he knew all that.But their birth control had failed?And now she was pregnant?

“You’re going to be a mother?”Even as he said the words, the enormity of the idea settled on his shoulders.“I’m going to be a father?”

“If that’s what you want,” she replied.And that’s when he finally understood the look on her face.It was a mixture of dismay, disquiet, and also of fragile hope.She was as conflicted about this news as he was.But she’d had more time than him to digest it.And she clearly had a preferred outcome.

But did he want it?Did he want to have a baby with Lacey?

They’d never really talked about having kids.She’d had an unhappy, complicated childhood because of her narcissistic mother, and he wasn’t even sure if she wanted kids of her own.Of course, Nico had already considered having children with Lacey in the privacy of his own head—would be happy to have them—but this had all come on much sooner than expected.They’d been together for less than a year.She’d just restarted her fledgling police career.And he was still establishing himself as a superior detective, and hopefully in time climbing the ladder all the way to the top.They had a brand-new unsolved murder on their hands, which’d take all their time and energy.What would throwing a baby in the mix do to all of that?

Then, there was the specter of his own father and his terrible years spent under Serge’s threatening presence.The scars Serge had left ran deep.And they also made him question his own ability to be a good father.Was Serge’s cruel treatment of his children somehow hereditary?That idea scared Nico the most.

But it was that kernel of fragile hope reflected in Lacey’s eyes that finally undid him.She would never put it into words, but she was hoping with all her heart that he was on the same page as her.She wanted to have this baby; he could feel it deep in his soul.And if that’s what she wanted…

“I’m going to be a father!”It was a proclamation this time, not merely a question.He placed one hand on her flat stomach and looked her square in the face.“We’re going to have a baby.”The fog suddenly cleared and he could see clearly, his heart swelling with pride and love.Love for this gorgeous woman.And love for something as yet undefined, but something they had created between them.

A brilliant smile lit up her face.“Seems like it, yes,” she finally replied.Her eyes glistened with unshed tears.“If you’re truly okay with this.”She tilted her head to the side in inquiry.

“Of course I am.”He pulled her into a tight embrace, and they stood holding each other with the rising sun lighting up the world behind them.

“It’s not going to be easy,” she warned.“There are a lot of things we’re going to have to sort out before it comes.”She pulled away slightly so she could look up into his face, a troubled frown replacing her ecstatic smile.“Like where is the baby going to sleep?How long can I keep working?Should we get married before?Do you want to take paternity leave?”The questions tumbled out of her mouth one after the other, like a torrent being released from a dam wall.Clearly, she’d been worrying over all the things, big and small, unsure of how he was going to receive this news.

“It’s okay, Lace,” he soothed.“We’ll work it out.It’ll all be good.One step at a time.”He pulled her back into his chest, kissing the top of her head, enjoying the feel of her lithe body against his.A family.They were starting their own little family.

There was only one fly in the ointment that could possibly spoil Nico’s joy right at this moment; the thought of his father, lurking out there somewhere.He was a threat to Nico and Lacey and now their unborn child.And Nico needed to do something about it.Sooner rather than later.

CHAPTER FIVE

LACEY SAT IN the back of the operations room watching Nico debrief the team with all the new information that’d come in overnight.Which wasn’t much.They knew squat about the poor murdered girl.No new leads, no new evidence, no closer to IDing the victim.It was now Thursday, two days since she and Linc had found her in the ditch and they had nothing.It felt like the girl had been murdered by a ghost.

Some officers were nursing hot mugs of coffee, her included, while others wrote in their notebooks.But they all focussed entirely on Nico and the photos on the murder board at the front of the room.Jay Pederson and Tasman Saito were also seated in the room.The two other detectives from the Launceston unit sat down the front, staring fixedly at Nico.Lacey nodded at Linc who sat a few chairs away, but couldn’t quite meet his eye.

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