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Nerea wasn’t in their bedroom, but the door to their bathroom was closed.
“Nerea?” Callum called.
He got a muffled reply and the sound of a toilet flushing in response.
“Are you okay?”
“No. Fool.” That much was distinct. There was the sound of water running, then Nerea pulled the door open. Her face was flushed, and her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail.
“You look terrible.”
“Love you too, dearest.” Nerea walked past him and crawled up on to the bed, collapsing face-first into the pillows.
Callum immediately curled up beside her, murmuring apologies for having left her alone all day and asking whether he could get her anything. When she shook her head, he started rubbing circles on her back. “Flu?” he asked. “Food poisoning?”
“Maybe.”
“Define maybe,” Callum said cautiously. Was this somehow not one of those despicable sudden onset stomach bugs that circled the world every winter?
Nerea flopped over onto her back with a groan. “Yesterday morning when I woke up I felt terrible. And the morning before that.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Callum was appalled.
“Because it was gone by breakfast and there was so much to do it was easy to ignore. Nerves or living on coffee or too many baked goods. Don’t worry, love, I was fine.”
“If it’s getting worse, you should go to the doctor, before they close for the holiday.”
“If it were getting worse I wouldn’t keep being this damn ravenous.”
That stopped Callum in his tracks. “Take off your shirt,” he blurted.
Nerea rolled her head to the side so she could look at him. Her eyes were wide. Callum wondered if she hadn’t thought of this possibility herself or just hadn’t wanted to.
“What is wrong with you?” she demanded.
“Take off your shirt,” he repeated, going for the buttons on her blouse.
She batted his hands away, and they settled at her hips, thumbs just brushing her belly.
He watched as she stared at his hands and then returned her gaze to his face. He saw the moment realization overcame any denial she’d been clinging to.
Then she cursed, shoved him out of the way, and ran for the bathroom again.
Callum sat on the edge of the bed and waited, a behavior Nerea had trained into him long ago, when she’d been expecting Leigh, until she reemerged.
“I can’t believe this,” he said.
“Good,” Nerea said, sitting down next to him, “Because it might not be anything at all.”
“When was your last — ?” Callum cut himself off.
“Two months ago.”
“Ah.”
“It’s not like it’s a regular event anymore,” Nerea snapped.
She had a point. Her getting pregnant hadn’t been at the top of their list of worries for some time. They were careful, usually, but they also didn’t lose sleep about it when they weren’t. They were much more disciplined about safer sex in their more casual relationships.
“So,” he said.
“It’s probably nothing.” Nerea studied her hands.
“You think?”
Nerea was silent, which was generally not a good sign.
“Okay, you don’t think so,” Callum said. “What do we do next?”
“Go find Jamie,” she said very quietly.
“What?” Callum was startled, but Nerea was thinking logically and he wasn’t. This was not a situation — no matter how possibly wonderful — he had imagined them confronting. “Aren’t you two careful?”
She looked up at him. “About as careful as I am with you,” she said. “Which you’d know, since you’re often there.”
Callum thought suddenly of Jamie and his ridiculous, infuriating book and his desire to do everything right. Which had included getting tested for STDs — which Callum had appreciated — and then several rounds of totally unprotected sex, which he had also appreciated. The problem with birth control, of course, was that no one really enjoyed using it.
“The time we....”
“Possibly. Probably.” Nerea was apparently remembering the same thing he was. “Now. Will you go get our boyfriend?”
Callum pulled his mobile out of his pocket with his other hand. Come upstairs when you can? He texted Jamie. Nerea leaned her head on Callum’s shoulder, and Callum stroked her hair while waiting for the sound of footsteps.