Her Christmas Pregnancy Surprise

It was no secret that she was pregnant. Every single person she knew had read it all over the internet. Even total strangers who recognized her from her picture would offer their congratulations. But at least the paparazzi wasn’t following her every minute of the day.

Pepper sat down on the stool. “I can’t stay long. I just wanted to check in on Daisy.”

Stephanie’s brow rose as she nodded. “You two are becoming quite close.”

“She trusts me now. That’s a big step. The trick is getting Daisy to trust others. I don’t know what was done to her in the past, but it was bad. The poor thing. She just needs lots of time and love.”

Buzz. Buzz.

Pepper looked at her friend. “You can go ahead and get that.”

“It’s not my phone.”

It rang again. That’s when Pepper realized the sound was coming from her coat pocket. “That’s strange. It’s not my normal ring tone.”

She pulled the phone from her pocket and glanced at the screen. Her name and number were displayed. She was calling herself?

Pressing the phone to her ear, Pepper said, “Hello?”

“Pepper. Oh, good.” It was Simon’s voice. “We mixed up our phones this morning in the kitchen.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“If you can let me know where you are, I’ll swing by and we can exchange them. I’m really lost without mine. I didn’t realize how much information I store on it.”

She didn’t want him to have to go out of his way. “I can stop by your office.”

“No need. I’m still in the car.”

She gave him the address. He promised to be there in a few minutes.

“Did I hear correctly?” Stephanie asked. “Simon is coming here?”

Pepper nodded. She wasn’t sure how she felt about having him here at the shelter. She knew it shouldn’t be a big deal, but with every day that passed, it was like another part of her life was revealed to him. Soon he would know everything about her.

“I’m going to go visit Daisy while I wait.” Pepper got to her feet and moved to the back of the building.

Daisy was isolated from the other adoptable dogs, but wouldn’t be for much longer. When the puppy saw her, her tail started to wag. Pepper wanted to believe it was her the dog was excited about and not the little dog biscuits she’d started baking and kept in her pocket.

“Hey, girl. You look happy today.” Pepper opened the crate. “Let’s go stretch your legs.”

Daisy wiggled around excitedly while Pepper tried to attach the leash. “You are a wiggle tail.”

The leash attached, Pepper placed Daisy on the floor and off they went, strolling along the back of the building. It was taking Daisy a while to be leash trained, but she was finally taking to it.

“Pepper?” It was Simon’s voice.

Daisy stopped in her tracks. And the teeny tiny puppy let out a really big howl. Pepper didn’t know such a large sound could come from something so little.

Pepper knelt down and picked Daisy up. She ran a hand over Daisy’s short fur. “It’s okay, girl.” When Daisy continued to howl, Pepper decided to distract her with a biscuit. It worked.

And then to Simon, she said, “We’re over here.”

When Simon stopped in front of her, his gaze moved from her to Daisy and then back again. “I didn’t know you worked here.”

“She doesn’t.” Greta stepped up to Simon and extended her hand, with her long, polished deep red nails. “I run this shelter. And you would be Simon Ross.”

He turned a blank expression to the woman. He hesitated for a brief moment before shaking her hand.