Comfort Zone (Awkward Love 4)

“Yep. That’s about right.” I nod slowly, the doubts beginning to creep in.

He shakes his head and lets out a loud laugh. “Man, she’s going to kill you. But it’s okay. You can kill her back for not telling you about the baby.”

I frown. “She’d know if she was pregnant by now, wouldn’t she?”

He shrugs, a smirk on his face. “She might. You wouldn’t. Not until she tells you.”

Shit.BeccaI slouch over the toilet bowl, clutching my waist, wishing death would come and put me out of my misery. The morning sickness has been consistently bad, but this is just ridiculous. It’s like it’s gone into overdrive and is insistent on making me suffer for twenty-three hours out of the twenty-four in a day. I’m pretty sure I heaved up part of my intestine before—either that or it was the six-inch hot dog Amy dared me to eat two weekends ago.

So much for my stress-free weekend.

The best thing about being here is that I’m five hours away from Mom. I don’t mean that the way that sounds—okay, maybe a tiny part of me does, but it’s mostly just because if anyone is going to figure out that I’m pregnant, it will be her.

For obvious reasons, I want to be the one to tell him, and I’m going to do it this weekend. I’m not sure why I’ve kept this to myself for two weeks. I think part of it was that I wanted to be sure that this is what I want. We have so much going on in our lives already, without adding this. I’d have to drop out of my course—unless they let me take a bucket to class. Then there’s Liam’s new job and that we have less money coming in. I don’t want to put any more pressure on him than he’s already feeling. Our lives aren’t ready for a baby. But apparently, I am.

I stagger over to the bed and lie down, groaning as I faceplant into the pillow. After a few moments, I work up the energy to glance over at Brooke. She’s sprawled out on the other side of the bed, where she’s been since Liam left. When she knocked on the door, I couldn’t turn her away, even though the last thing I felt like was company. We’ve been getting along well over the last few months, but it took a long time to push our relationship past just being civil to each other. It finally feels like were at the beginning of a friendship. I don’t want to set that back by coming across as rude.

I sneak a glance at her huge stomach and cringe. It’s like it’s taunting me. The idea of pushing this kid out in about eight months is enough to induce a panic attack.

“So, have you told him?”

I stare at Brooke in shock. “What do you mean?” I say.

I try to sound as natural as I can, but I sound like I just sucked on a helium balloon.

“Liam.” She grins. “Have you told him you’re pregnant?”

My first reaction is deny, deny, deny, but then something snaps inside me and the thought of being able to talk to someone about this becomes too tempting to pass up.

“I’m telling him this weekend.”

“I’m shocked he hasn’t suspected something already,” Brooke says. “How exciting for you both. Congratulations,” she says as she leans over and gives me a hug. “Morning sickness sucks, right?”

“It’s the frigging worst,” I mumble.

“And on that note, I better go, or I’ll be sleeping here all night.”

I giggle at the sight of her awkwardly rolling off the bed and struggling to her feet. Beached whale enters my mind until I remember that I’m looking into the future. Pregnancy is turning out to suck. It’s one fucking turd after another, and right at the end is the biggest turd of all. I have to push this thing out? I shudder. Then the guilt kicks in. I feel bad about hating it, because I know Loz would give anything to be in this position.

Stop whining and suck it up.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay until Liam gets back?” Brooke asks.

She frowns at me, not looking convinced, even when I plaster a smile on my face and sit up. As if on cue, the door opens and Liam walks inside. He stops midstride, his eyes glued to Brooke’s stomach.

“Hello? Liam.” She waves at him. “My eyes are up here. You’re not making me feel like less of a whale, you know.” She laughs as his face goes red.

“Sorry, it’s just, uh, really popped since I saw you last.”

“I know.” She grins. “And in about a month, I’ll pop out a baby.” She opens the door, then winks at me. “See you guys later.”

Liam climbs onto the bed, lying down next to me. He lines his sexy face up with mine and my heart melts. Then he smiles, and I melt some more. Or maybe that’s pregnancy side effects and I’m oozing…I’ll look into that later.