Winnie’s eyes went wide while Georgia’s eyes filled with tears.
I honestly felt a little bad about the whole thing. I hadn’t realized she wanted me to be pregnant that badly. “I’m sorry, Georgie,” I said. “I promise one day I’ll get pregnant and you’ll be the godmother just like we talked about.”
God, my best friend was so fucking sweet I could hardly stand it.
“Uh, Cassie,” Winnie said as she reached forward and wrapped her hand around my hand that was still holding the test. “You’re looking at the control window. You need to move your thumb to see the actual results.”
I glanced down at the test and watched as her index finger slid my thumb away from the result screen. The test window doubled in size, and the pink lines had multiplied.
One.
Two.
Wait. What?
I counted them again.
One.
Two.
What?
I’m pregnant?!
I stared down at that test for who knows how long.
I was stunned.
Speechless.
I was motherfucking knocked up.
“That giant bastard got me pregnant!” I shouted when verbal function returned, and I strode straight out of the bathroom, piss-stained test in hand. My feet smacked across the tile floor of Duane Reade, and within seconds, I was striding through the automatic doors toward the parking lot.
Thatch leaned against the bumper of his Range Rover, arms crossed over his chest and face relaxed, while he chatted with Kline and Wes.
I took four stomping steps out of the entrance of the store and then chucked the pregnancy test across the parking lot. It nailed Thatch square in his forehead.
“Ow, what the fuck?” He glanced up to find me practically shooting laser beams from my eyes aimed in his and only his direction. “Cass? Honey?”
I didn’t say a word. I just pointed down at the pregnancy test sitting on the pavement beside his feet.
He titled his head to the side before bending down and picking it up.
He held the test in the air. “Did you take it already?”
“Oh, yeah,” I confirmed. “I took it all right.”
I heard the automatic doors open behind me and knew that Winnie and Georgia had followed me out. Kline and Wes glanced at the girls, but Thatch’s eyes stared down at the test.
I swear he didn’t move for a full minute.
And then, his mouth morphed into the biggest smile I had ever seen.
He looked at me, then he looked at my belly, then he looked at the test.
“We’re pregnant?” he asked when his eyes met mine again.
“No,” I snapped. “We’re not pregnant.” I pointed at myself. “I’m pregnant. I’m the one who’s going to get a big fat ass, and my boobs are going to be bigger than your giant fucking head. Goddammit, Thatcher. You knocked me up!”
I didn’t think it was possible, but his smile got even bigger.
I didn’t even pause, one step, two, I charged right at her until she had to look straight up to see me.
“Thatch,” she whispered when she saw the look on my face. I knew it was all there, everything I was feeling—wonder, love, excitement, and a whole lot of this is the best moment of my life.
The asphalt scraped at the denim over my knees as I dropped to them in front of her and put my forehead to her stomach.
There was a life in there made up of half of her and half of me.
Hands to her hips, I pushed the loose fabric of her shirt up until a couple inches of skin were exposed above the waist of her skirt.
My lips had a mind of their own, and my eyes closed at the feel of her warm, thrumming skin beneath them. When her small hands sank into my hair, tears threatened at the corners of my eyes.
“Thatcher,” she whispered again. I opened my eyes to look up at her, but my lips never left her skin.
“We made a baby, Cassie.” Her throat bobbed, and she nodded.
God, I am so in love with her.
“Are you happy?” I asked, even though part of me was scared to know the answer.
I hadn’t planned on getting her pregnant, and I certainly hadn’t been trying, but here, with my mouth a few inches away from our baby, I’d never wanted anything more.
“It’s soon,” she said gently, but her eyes were soft. Love and happiness were the only two things that could ever make her look that soft.
I shook my head. “Everything. You. Me. This tiny, surely out of its motherfucking mind combination of us. The timing. It’s all so right.”
“We’re going to need a new set of rules,” she said with a smile.
I laughed but shook my head. “I only have one.”
“Just one? I’m knocked up, the two of us are going to have to figure out how to be parents, and you only have one fucking rule?”
I pushed to my feet and put my lips to her ear. “Be worthy of my family.”
Her head jerked back, and her watery eyes met mine.
“And, baby, that’s one rule I’ll never fucking break.”
The End