ty. Now that things were mostly okay—and my body was still humming from sex—my lids became too heavy to hold open.
Maverick shifted, then pulled the blankets up over us. Before I fell asleep, I felt him kiss the top of my head. “Love you, babe.”
“Love you,” I garbled sleepily.
Nine
River
Dawn was just starting to break when I finally found the strength to lift my lashes. My bladder was screaming in agony, and my stomach was grumbling from lack of food. Groaning, I untangled myself from Maverick’s hold and stumbled to the bathroom.
There was a towel on the floor when I walked in. Picking it up, I placed it in the hamper before relieving myself. But as I sat on the toilet, an intense cramp like I had when I was on my period hit me so hard that my arms shot out to steady myself even though I was sitting down. My palms hit the walls on either side of me, and I whimpered as the pain lingered.
Inhaling slowly, I tried to breathe through the cramp, and slowly, it began to fade. When it stopped, the relief of no longer being in pain was almost euphoric. Until I wiped and saw the smear of blood on the tissue paper.
My heart stopped as I looked down at the stark red on white. “No,” I whispered, my free hand going to my lower abdomen. “No, it’s okay. You’re okay.”
I told myself it was just a little blood, that maybe Mav was just too rough when we’d had sex. But that cramp had been close to the one I’d experienced the day before when I’d picked up that box from Aunt Raven’s trunk.
Sick with worry, I washed my hands and then walked back into the bedroom. I pulled a pair of Maverick’s black boxers out of a drawer and stepped into them before finding a T-shirt in his closet to wear. Maverick was still out cold, so I went into the bathroom to make a toilet paper pad before going to the kitchen in search of a bottle of water and my phone.
My stomach was tossing, and I knew I needed to try to eat something since I’d only had a few crackers the day before. I placed a slice of bread in the toaster and then searched Google for what the spotting and cramps could mean.
Monroe had had the same thing happen to her when she was pregnant, but it had been because she was carrying twins and a vessel had ruptured while her uterus was expanding. With Maverick being a triplet, and his sisters identical with twins of their own, it was obvious multiples ran on his side. I hadn’t thought that I could be carrying more than one baby, but it was a huge possibility.
“That’s what this is,” I muttered to myself. “It’s like what happened with Mon. The baby…or babies are okay.”
After the toast popped up, I walked into the living room to eat it while I flipped through my phone. I had over twenty texts from Dad waiting on me, and that wasn’t counting the fifty missed calls from him. Rolling my eyes, I ignored his texts and skimmed over the ones from Monroe, Mila, Nova, Aunt Raven, Aunt Willa, and my mom.
They all asked if I was okay, told me my dad was pissed, but Mom had made him go home. I was thankful she’d had my back through everything. Even when I thought she was cheating on Dad and I’d been angry with her, I never once doubted that she would put me first. She might not be June Cleaver, but she sure as fuck was a great mom, and I loved her.
It was Monday, so I had to go to school. With only a few more weeks left, I couldn’t let anything get in my way to keep me from graduating. The thought of putting on the clothes I’d worn the day before made me cringe, but there wasn’t anything of mine at the apartment.
I texted Mila, knowing she was up with one or both of the boys by now, and asked if she would mind bringing me a few of her own clothes over until I could get my things from my parents’ house.
Mila: Lyric will drop them off in 15.
Relieved that I would at least have something clean to wear to school, I walked back to the bathroom and took a quick shower, not bothering to wash my hair. But as I got out, another cramp hit me. “Fuck,” I cried, bending in half from the pain.
Wetness gushed out of me, a few drops hitting the white tiles on the floor and smearing across my thighs. I blanched. This was definitely not just a little spotting now.
I told myself not to panic, but that didn’t stop it. Scared, I stumbled naked and wet into the bedroom. “Maverick!” I yelled, my voice trembling from fear and anxiety.
He jerked upright in bed, his eyes wide and alert. “Babe?” When he saw me, he jumped to his feet. “River, what’s wrong?”
“I-I’m bleeding. And I’ve been c-cramping,” I stuttered, tears blinding me. “I think…I’m losing the baby.”
He picked me up and sat me on the end of the bed. “Give me two minutes,” he said, kissing my forehead.
I sat there watching him pull on clothes. He came back to me with one of his T-shirts and some sweat pants. But before he could help me into them, there was a hard knock on the front door.
“That’s probably Lyric,” I told him. “Mila was sending me over some clothes to wear to school.”
He nodded, helping me into his clothes before picking me up again and carrying me through the apartment. Shifting me in his arms, he opened the door just as Lyric lifted his arm to knock again. There was a small gift bag in one hand that must have held the borrowed clothes, but once he saw the tears streaming down my face and how tense Maverick was, the smile on Lyric’s handsome face disappeared.
“What’s going on?” he demanded.
“You got your SUV?” Mav barked instead of answering.