Moments later, I forced myself to look down at the little stick. The blue pregnant line was more than obvious. My heart almost burst and my stomach sickened.
“It’s positive,” I whispered roughly. My own words rang in my ears.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d stood there, staring at the damn thing, but it had been long enough. I couldn’t believe it. There was no way in fucking hell, no way at all. How could this have happened? Sure, we’d been having sex, but we had always used protection. I hadn’t wanted this to go down, not like this. I hadn’t even really given babies much thought till that point, too focused on the marriage and on Jolene to think about anything much beyond them. But now here it was, staring me in the face, the fear sinking in around me as I tried to take it in.
What would Kristo think? Would he freak out? Would he be mad at me?
I slowly turned and walked out of the bathroom, tears blurring the edge of my vision. I brushed them away swiftly and nearly keeled over on the spot as the reality of this really sank in. It couldn’t be happening, could it? It couldn’t be like this. After everything that had happened between us, didn’t we deserve a break? A chance to just be the two of us for a change, to just enjoy the company we had been so scared to keep? We had only just exchanged “I love yous,” and here I was, about to walk out there and tell him I was having his baby.
I walked back to the table where he sat, and he sprang to his feet at once. I assumed he must have guessed from the look on my face exactly what the result had been. He strode over to me and pulled me into his arms. I buried my face in his shoulder and took long, deep breaths, my brain a wreck, impossible to think straight. This hurt. I ran my hands over my belly, trying to feel for the tiny creature that was growing in there, and I wondered what the hell we were going to do.
“Let’s go, baby. We can go somewhere and talk?” He was so sweet, so loving. He carefully wound his arm around my waist and pulled me in close. He planted a kiss on my cheek, and I leaned into him as we headed back to the car.
“I don’t think I can go back to work,” I murmured finally, finding my voice once again. He shook his head, as though that much should have been obvious.
“Agreed.” He nodded. “Come on, let’s get you home. You need something to eat and some rest, and then we need to talk.”
“I can’t believe this is happening.” I felt the tears rise up again, and I shook my head as my body began to shake. “I’m so sorry, Kristo. I know you wanted it to be just us—”
“Hey.” He reached over and tilted my head in his direction, looking me dead in the eyes. “I wanted to marry you, remember? And that means taking on everything that comes with it. Whatever you’re dealing with, I’m dealing with. You understand?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. Some of the weight of it lift from my shoulders. I reached out to touch his cheek and managed a smile. “I’m so glad you’re here, Kristo.”
He took my hand and squeezed, and I inhaled deeply and let out a long, shaky breath. I still had so much to think about, to deal with, to plan, to discuss, but for the time being, I wanted nothing more than to crawl into my bed and pretend the world didn’t exist. The world outside of Kristo, at least.