“I was just thinking.” He clicked his mouse and then looked up at her. She was glowing, dressed in black leggings and heels that accentuated her long legs, and a maternity top in a blue that matched the tartan on the Christmas tree. “You look good. Feeling well?”
“I slept a lot on the weekend and read a good book. It was heavenly.”
She’d slept and he’d been doing some business in Halifax. They hadn’t seen each other at all over the weekend. “I’m glad. And yes. Unless something falls through, it’s the house in Kingsburg.”
“The one with the lighthouse!” Her eyes lit up. “Oh, that’s great. It’s so impressive.” Then she looked at him thoughtfully. “It does mean that you’ll have a good friend in the area.”
He hadn’t actually considered that before. It was true. At least for a while, Bran would be here. She would be here, and their baby. He had ties to the South Shore without ever intending to.
“It also means I’ll be leaving to go back to New York in a few days.”
“I suppose it does.”
Did she look disappointed? He almost hoped so. Plus they hadn’t really come to any conclusions.
He wasn’t sure quite what to say when her face changed and her hand went to the swell of her belly. “Whoa.”
Alarm skittered through his veins as he shot up from the chair. “Are you all right? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She looked up at him with wide eyes. “I think the baby just moved.”
He guided her to the chair. “Really? What did it feel like?”
“I don’t know. Like butterflies, kind of, but running in a line down my belly. I’ve felt similar things lately, but not this strong. Oh, my, maybe the baby has been moving and I didn’t know it!” Her face broke into a smile. “Oh, there it is again.”
She reached for his hand and put it on her top, pressed against the solid curve. He didn’t have time to react or hesitate; one moment he was standing there and the next he was crouched by her side, palm pressed against her navel. He waited, holding his breath, and then felt the tiniest flutter against his hand. “Is that it?”
She grinned and nodded. “You can feel it? I wasn’t sure it would be strong enough.”
It was. His child was in there, moving around, and his mother looked like a flipping angel, a perfect picture of motherhood. Something joyful and expansive filled his chest, while a balancing cold trickle of fear ran down his spine. This was amazing! And absolutely terrifying.
He waited, but there was no more movement, so he reluctantly took his hand away and stood again. She let out a huge breath, and then looked up into his face. “You okay? You’ve got a bit of a deer-in-the-headlights look about you.”
“I’m all right. Terrified, but all right.”
“I know. It takes some getting used to.”
“It just got really real today, I think. I told my friend Branson, too.”
She stood and went to him, putting her hand on his shoulder. “I’ve had a few months of pregnancy so I’m past the surreal part. You’ve got some catching up to do.”
She’d gone through finding out and dealing with the first weeks alone, and an internet search had quickly told him what she’d probably gone through. He’d found out just yesterday that the baby was probably roughly the size of a banana now.
“Jeremy?” She called him back out of his thoughts. “I’m a bit late having my ultrasound, but it’s scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Do you want to go with me?”
Pictures of his baby. His! He felt as if he were being thrown into the deep end so very quickly, but he also knew there was really no other way. “I’d like that. A lot.”
“It’s in Bridgewater. Kind of close to that first house we saw last week.”
“That’s fine. You just tell me when we need to leave and I’ll be ready.”
“Okay.” She reached down and took his hand. “It’s going to be okay, you know. We’ll figure everything out. My mom told me this weekend to have faith, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Faith. Jeremy smiled but his heart wasn’t in it. He didn’t have faith. Not in anything, or really anyone. And Tori was making a mistake if she was placing her faith in him. He could try to live up to it, but chances were he’d fail. There was a reason that he was still single at thirty-six, and never been married. The women who liked him, he didn’t like in return. And the ones he liked, he didn’t trust. The guys were right. He was a serial dater. It kept him from being lonely, without the messiness of emotions and expectations.
He liked Tori, liked her too much. And he wanted to trust her. But faith? That was just asking for trouble.
* * *