Alarm

Then I stopped.

Alarm!

I focused on the display in front of me and felt my heart rise into my throat. Silently, I counted. Had it been the fifth of the month? The sixth? It had been almost two weeks since I moved down here officially…what was the date today? No wait…that was last month, not this month. This month was…was…

Oh, shit.

Leaving the cart in the aisle, I walked up to the pharmacy desk and picked up a little blue and white box. I bought it and headed straight to the restroom.

By the time I returned from the restroom, my cart had disappeared, and I had to do all the shopping again.

I sat in the jeep in the driveway, gripping the wheel with my hands and trying to come to grips with the thoughts in my head.

It wasn’t working. I couldn’t even decide how I felt about it. Everything was still so new, so uncertain. Major life changes were also major stressors, and those would impact a relationship. I’d just moved, just changed jobs, and Aiden was still recovering from a bullet wound.

I rubbed my hand over my stomach.

Had he saved more than one life?

I opened the jeep’s door and walked slowly over the driveway stones, staring at my feet as I went. I unlocked the front door and stepped inside. Aiden was on the couch, watching The Avengers. The box of toys was off to the side, apparently abandoned. He looked half asleep but glanced up as I came through the doorway.

“Hey, babe,” Aiden said as his eyes met mi

ne. “Where are the groceries?”

I glanced back at the front door as if I expected them to be walking in on their own.

“Uh, I left them in the car.”

He narrowed his eyes and tilted his head as he looked at me.

“Do you need help with them? I’m allowed to lift stuff now if it’s under twenty pounds.”

“No, I can get them.” I walked slowly into the room, still staring at my feet, and sat down on the couch. I motioned toward the television. “Um, can we turn that off a minute?”

“Sure,” he said. He grabbed the remote from the floor and paused the movie. “What is it?”

I could hear my heart pounding. I found I was unable to look him in the eye as I tried to figure out what words I should use. While in the car, I’d played it over in my head so many times, so many scenarios, so many outcomes.

I really didn’t know how he was going to respond. He was only now beginning to recover from losing his son, and there was no predicting how he would react to this. I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about it yet.

“Chloe?” Aiden prodded. He gripped my thigh with his hand. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”

I licked my lips. There was no getting out of it now—he knew something was up.

“I have something I need to tell you,” I said slowly.

Aiden stilled. His arms and legs tensed.

“When I was at the store, I, uh…” I trailed off, the words still not coming. Was it best to just blurt it out? Ease into it? Come up with some other topic altogether and try again in the morning?

No, I couldn’t do that. I had to get this out.

“I thought something was a little…well, a little off.”

“What do you mean, off?”

“I hadn’t been paying attention,” I said quickly. “With you in the hospital and everything, I just wasn’t keeping track. I didn’t realize what it was at first, but then I checked, and…”