“Ha! You’re a real funny guy, Mr. Byrd. Who do you think has to pee on all of these tests? Then, if it’s positive, I’ll have to do it again in a doctor’s office. Men are so damn lucky,” she grumbles, but still picks out three different pregnancy tests.
I don’t respond, just let her do what she wants. When we have everything we need, including more food than we could eat in a week, we head to the check-out line. Thank fucking Christ. I think I’d rather shop with her at a mall than come to a grocery store. It was like this before Lily came into my life too. Hell, I’d pay someone to buy groceries nine times out of ten. But this is something Lily likes to do, and for the past month and a half, I’ve not really let her out of my sight, and probably won’t until we can figure out what is up with this Chad bullshit, even if he is nowhere near the area for the time being. As soon as you let your guard down, that’s when they attack. I’m no fucking idiot, that’s for sure.
“I think I’ll start coming to the grocery store alone. I know you hate coming, and you’ve done it with me the entire time, but seriously, Beau, it’s ok.” Apparently, she’s reading my mind, or my face is saying it all.
“Nope, no way. You want to use one of those delivery services, I’m down with that. You want to pay the neighbor some money to do the shopping instead, I’m good with that too, but you don’t come out on your own. I’ll be with you. I don’t care what it’s for, until Chad is brought in for questioning or we know where he is, it’s not happening.”
“Fine, I get it, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I know how tired you are when you come in from work, grabbing a few hours of sleep and then getting up and taking me to work, going back home, sleeping, and then picking me up yet again before you have to go into work. I see what it’s doing to you. It’s doing it to all of us. Promise, as soon as this is taken care of, you take care of you too.” She holds on to my hand. I squeeze it in response.
“I promise. For now, let’s just deal with what we have to.” I pay for the groceries as she stomps her foot trying to do that as well, and I already know I’m in for an earful once we get in the truck. Lily may not realize it, but even our arguments make me smile. I just don’t let her see it. Lord knows she’d really stomp her foot at me then.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Lily
I may have grumbled the entire time I stomped to our bathroom after drinking two full glasses of water to get my bladder to agree with what I’m having to do, but I’m not really aggravated. I’m freaking ecstatic. I don’t think anything could get me down, well, except maybe if these tests come back negative.
“Lily, don’t keep me waiting.” Beau is putting the groceries away, but apparently, he’d rather mother-hen me instead.
“Oh my gosh, the food will sour, and I’m trying to pee. Go away, Beau Byrd, go away!” I’m laughing the entire time as I rip open each pregnancy test, three by the way, because Beau wasn’t wrong. We needed to make sure, and who knows, one could give a false positive.
“I’m going, but don’t keep me waiting.”
“Too bad. They take three to five minutes till they’re able to be read!” I holler back. Once I have all the tests ready, I do what the instructions say, and there is absolutely nothing pretty about trying to pee on a stick, holding it for so long, stopping and repeating it three times. If Beau had demanded to be in here, it would have never happened. I would have made him wait until I got an appointment with the doctor’s office.
I finish, placing the caps on the tests, laying them on the counter, then take care of everything else before heading out to grab Beau so he can come wait with me.
“Beau.” I’m walking down the hall. He’s standing with his back against the counter, phone held up to his ear, forehead crinkled as if he’s deep in thought. I take him in. Even though he looks like something is deeply unsettling him, he’s still a force to be reckoned with. Flannel shirt on top of a white T-shirt, dark jeans, worn from many wears and washes, and a pair of boots. Even when I tell him he should take them off before entering the house that I just cleaned, there are a lot of things he’ll do for me, but taking his shoes off at the door in the middle of the day is not one of them.