For two and a half weeks, Reyna did the jobs she was scheduled to do. She helped her mom in the bakery whenever Jenelle needed an extra set of hands. She spent her spare time in her room, crafting trinkets to celebrate other people’s dreams coming true, and trying not to think about how close she’d come to realizing a dream of her own.
But life went on and she had plenty to keep herself busy, especially as everybody turned the corner toward the holiday season. The bakery saw a sharp increase in advance orders, and there was a flurry of automotive work people wanted out of the way before they started Christmas shopping.
It was a relief to get an invitation for her and her mom to join Meredith and her family for Thanksgiving. They were instructed not to bring a single thing, but that would be the day Jenelle Bishop showed up for a dinner without a dessert. Because Meredith had already made pies, they showed up at her door with a peach cobbler that might not have been traditional for the occasion, but which Reyna had been thinking about all day, and a special cupcake for Meredith’s daughter, Sophie.
But as soon as she stepped through their front door and the formerly beloved aroma of Thanksgiving cooking washed over her, Reyna’s stomach did a slow roll. She stopped in her tracks and closed her eyes, willing the wave of nausea to recede.
It was probably the transition from the hot car to the frigid outside air, and back into heat. Whether it was from the oven or thermostat setting, Meredith’s house was very warm.
“Hey, Reyna.” Meredith’s fiancé, Cam, appeared to take the baking dish out of her hand. “You feeling okay? You look a little pale.”
“I’m good.” She thought she was, anyway. “It’s a little warm in here after being outside.”
He looked over her shoulder. “Yeah, that’s a long twenty feet from the car to the house.”
“You’re a funny guy. Now I see why Meredith agreed to marry you.” She took off her coat—which didn’t help settle her stomach much, despite being instantly cooler—and then held the cupcake so her mom could do the same.
“Reyna!” Sophie, who had recently turned seven, dumped a handful of silverware on the table and ran to get a hug.
She squeezed the little girl and then introduced her mother. “Sophie, do you remember my mom? Mrs. Bishop?”
“Hi,” she said shyly before running back to finish her task.
The beautiful lakefront home was very open concept, so Meredith was able to wave to them from the stove. “Happy Thanksgiving! Mrs. Bishop, that isn’t a dessert I see in Cam’s hands, is it?”
Reyna took advantage of everybody’s distraction as they fussed over the food and Cam stowed their coats to take a few deep breaths. She hoped she wasn’t coming down with anything, though she couldn’t remember being around anybody who was sick. But a lot of people came through the bakery and the garage’s office, so there were probably germs everywhere. What a miserable time to not feel well, though.
She loved everything about Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing drenched in pan gravy. Cranberry sauce. The green beans with French fried onions on top. Sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping. And pumpkin pie with double the whipped topping. It was a day when nobody questioned seconds and calories didn’t count.
It was when she looked at Sophie, who was showing off the turkey made from tracing around her hand that she’d made at school, that another reason for her unwelcome and inexplicable aversion to her favorite smells struck her.
Her hand went to her stomach and as soon as she realized it, she yanked it away. Nobody seemed to have noticed, since Sophie still had the spotlight, and Reyna slipped into the guest bathroom because she definitely needed a minute.
Her period was late. Not by a lot. Maybe a week, she thought as she stared at her pale reflection in the mirror. Closing her eyes, she tried to visualize the small journal she kept for tracking such things. Usually she was more on top of the dates, but she hadn’t looked at that page since the day she and Brady decided they weren’t having a baby after all. She had known she’d go back to it sooner or later, but it had hurt too much to think about her cycle after that.
Forcing herself to open her eyes, she reminded herself she didn’t know anything for a fact yet. It could still be a stomach bug. Or maybe it was the combination of heat and smells in Meredith’s house. Feeling a little queasy didn’t mean she was having a baby.
Right now she just needed to get through Thanksgiving dinner without the two women who asked the most questions about her life thinking there was a reason to ask her any questions. After splashing a little cold water on her face, she dried it a little more enthusiastically than necessary with the guest towel to give her cheeks some color and rejoined the festivities.
Thankfully the nausea abated and she was able to get through the meal without anybody suspecting something might be up with her. She didn’t go back for seconds of the marshmallow-topped yams as she usually did; she didn’t want to push it before dessert. It was going to take more than a little nausea to keep her away from that peach cobbler.
Cam and Meredith, who’d hit it off when he spent the summer in the cottage next door because he hoped to find out more about his biological family, were wonderful hosts. Actually, they hadn’t hit it off right away. The sparks that originally flew hadn’t been of the fun variety, but that had changed over the summer. And the relationship between Cam and Sophie, who would officially become his stepdaughter in a few months, was a joy to watch.
“I heard you’re restoring an old car for somebody,” Cam said during dessert, and Reyna almost choked on her cobbler. “A Chevelle?”
“For Brady Nash,” Meredith added, giving her a knowing look.
She didn’t know the half of it. “Yeah, he got it cheap because it was abandoned in a field or something. It’s going to be a side project for me, so it’ll probably take quite a while.”
“I didn’t realize you did restoration work,” Cam said.
“I don’t. I mean, I can do a little bit. Mostly I’ll be doing the mechanical work to get her running like a dream again, and helping him run down some of the stuff it’ll need cosmetically.”
“That’ll keep you both busy,” Meredith said. “Together.”
If she wasn’t afraid she’d miss and hit Sophie, Reyna would have kicked her friend under the table. “It’ll keep me busy for sure. Hey, Sophie, how’s school going?”
Judging by the look she gave her, Meredith recognized the diversionary tactic for what it was, but Reyna didn’t care. Sophie’s chatter about her teacher and her friends and the school library dominated the rest of dessert and by the time she took a breath, everybody seemed to have forgotten about Brady and his Chevelle.
Reyna couldn’t forget about him, though. When she was finally home, she took out her journal and sure enough, her period was a week late. That still didn’t mean anything, she told herself. There were a lot of reasons for a cycle to go awry. And she knew that sometimes a woman’s wishful thinking could be so powerful, her body would react. But she was going to have to find out for sure. Very soon.
The next five days were a jumble of occasional but mild nausea combined with a heap of contradictory feelings. On the one hand, she wanted to have a baby so being pregnant would definitely be a cause for celebration. But on the other hand, Brady had made it clear he’d changed his mind, which was going to escalate their situation from awkward to possibly painful.
She needed to know, one way or the other, but the last thing she wanted to do was walk into a Blackberry Bay store and buy a pregnancy test. There were a few places in town she knew she could buy one, and she knew the employees at all of them. Some well enough so they’d comment on the purchase, and it wasn’t something she was ready to answer questions about. And some just well enough so they wouldn’t say anything to her, but would definitely enjoy using that story to revive the hell on men hashtag. So she’d decided to wait until her regular trip to the city.
Tuesday afternoon, she went to the post office first to ship a few things from her Etsy shop, as usual. Then, before she lost her courage, she drove directly to a drugstore and bought two home pregnancy tests. After stowing them in her glove box, she took a deep breath and made her way to the big warehouse store to stock up on supplies for the bakery.
By the time she got home and helped her mother put everything away, Reyna was practically vibrating with anticipation. She wasn’t sure if it was a good anticipation or more like dread, but all she could think about were the tests in her car.
“Are you okay?” her mom asked when they’d turned off the lights and Reyna was walking her to her car. “You’ve seemed a little, I don’t know…off? For a while now.”
“I’m fine.” She didn’t like fibbing, but she also wouldn’t like her mother dragging her upstairs and standing outside the bathroom door while she peed on a plastic stick. Not that her mom would be upset—she’d probably be thrilled—but she would definitely want to know the results, and sooner rather than later.
“Are you still upset about Lucas?”
Clearly her mom didn’t believe her. “I’m not upset about Lucas, Mom. I’m not upset at all. I promise.”
“Okay.” She kissed Reyna’s cheek and got into her car. But she had to give one last shot as she closed the door. “When you’re ready to talk, you know where to find me.”
She waited until her mom’s car was out of sight before she retrieved the tests from her glove box, and then she went up the stairs to her apartment. After setting the drugstore bag on the bathroom vanity, she went out and made herself a grilled cheese sandwich and heated up a can of tomato soup. Not only was she starving, but she also wasn’t sure if being cold could affect the test, so she wanted it to warm up to room temperature before she used it.
Or maybe she was just afraid, she admitted to herself as she bounced from app to app on her phone, none of them able to hold her attention long enough to be a distraction.
But once bedtime rolled around, she knew there was no sense in putting it off any longer. It wasn’t going to be easy to go to sleep after getting the results, no matter what the test said, but she wasn’t going to sleep anyway. Not until she knew for sure.
Reyna went into the bathroom, and a few minutes later she took a deep breath and picked up the plastic stick. In the little plastic window was an unmistakable plus sign.
She was having a baby.
* * *
There had been many feelings in his life Brady would have described as nervous but as he stood wiping his palms on his hips and waiting for Reyna to hit the button to open her door, he was afraid his knees would give out and he’d topple down the exterior staircase and land in a heap in the parking lot behind the building. His stomach was in a knot and breathing regularly seemed to be something he suddenly had to focus on.
Can you come over? The door at the top of the stairs behind the building.
When he’d read her text, his first thought was that it had something to do with the Chevelle. But on the way over, it had occurred to him that didn’t make any sense. If she had a question about the car, she would have just asked it. Or called him. And she probably would have invited him to stop by the shop during regular business hours.
Instead she’d invited him, after hours, to her apartment. She wanted privacy for whatever she wanted to talk to him about and that could only mean one thing. She wanted to talk about the baby.
And there was a certainty deep down in his gut that she wasn’t looking to plead her case again and get him to change his mind. He was good at math.
He was considering making a run for it before he vomited his nerves all over whatever was under the stairs when Reyna opened the door. When her gaze met his, he felt the familiar punch of desire. He could barely remember a time those blue eyes hadn’t had that effect on him.
Then he noticed how pale her skin looked and the way her lips pinched even as she smiled. “Hi.”
“Come in,” she said, stepping away so he could enter.
Brady looked around as he reached back to close the door behind him. He’d always wondered what her place looked like because she was very private and it was hard to imagine what her tastes were. Apparently they were plain, with beige leather and old but sturdy wood furnishings filling up the small space. The walls were beige, and the blue carpet was the only real pop of color.
He noticed the doors. “This is a two-bedroom?”
“Yes. It’s small, but it’s big enough for me. And not only is the price right, but you can’t beat the commute.”
He chuckled at her joke and resisted craning his neck to get a better view through the open door to her bedroom. All he could see was a slatted footboard that looked like maple, and a blue floral armchair with clothes flung on it.
“The bathroom’s the door in the middle,” she told him, and he could tell by the way she said it, she’d noticed he was staring at her bedroom.
“What’s in there?” he asked, assuming she’d tell him it was storage or something like that.
“It’s not part of the tour.”
That was mysterious. “But now I’m curious.”
“Don’t be. You’ve seen what you need to. You know where the fridge and the bathroom are. What else does a guy need to know?”
“If I try to guess what’s behind that door, will you tell me if I guess right?”
“Nope. Do you want a water or…?” She paused as she pulled open the fridge. “Or a water, I guess.”
“I’ll take a water.” If nothing else, holding it would give him something to do with hands.
She must have had the same thought because she cracked the seal on her bottle, but then just twisted the cap back and forth without taking a drink. She was also looking anywhere but directly at him, so when she took a seat at her small table, he moved the only other chair to the spot directly across the table before sitting down, so at least he’d be in her natural line of sight.
She was still twisting her cap, but then she set the bottle down, exhaled sharply and looked at him. “So, I have news.”
“Is it good news or bad news?”
The anxiety in her eyes almost broke his heart, as did the slight tremor in her voice when she spoke. “I…don’t know. I think it’s good news. I’m not sure if you’ll think so.”
“I need you to say it.”
“I’m pregnant.”
It was as though fireworks went off in Brady’s brain—his entire body, actually. Huge and terrifying and exciting and bright and thrilling. He knew he should say something, but he honestly felt as if he’d forgotten what words even were and there was no way he would string any together in a coherent way.
But her shoulders relaxed and her mouth curved into a genuine smile that made her teary eyes crinkle. “You look like it’s good news.”
He nodded because he still wasn’t sure about words. And then he got up and walked around the table because, no matter how their relationship stood, he was going to hug the woman who’d just told him she was carrying his child.
She got to her feet as he reached her and stepped into his embrace. With his arms wrapped around her, he rested his cheek against her hair and closed his eyes.
“We’re having a baby,” he whispered.
“Yes, we are,” she whispered back.
He held her until he was fairly confident he had his emotions under control, and she was smiling when he pulled away. After going back to his seat, he took a long swig of the water and she did the same. Then he took a deep breath because they had a lot to talk about.
“It worked the first time,” he said, putting off the harder stuff. “How does that even happen?”
“We had health class together, so I know for a fact you heard Mrs. Wells say ‘It only takes once, ladies and gentlemen’ about three times per class.”
“I thought she was just trying to scare us into abstinence.”
“Apparently it’s actual science.”
“Huh.” He twisted the water bottle in his hands. “Do you feel okay?”
“Yes. I’ve had a little queasiness around strong food smells, which took a little fun out of Thanksgiving dinner, but I feel fine.”
“Good. That’s the most important thing. Do you need anything? Do you…” He let the question trail off because now was not the time to trigger Reyna’s pride.
“I’m good. I have insurance, and I do well for myself with the garage.”
He almost asked her what her plan was for a maternity leave with a one-woman shop, but he bit his tongue. None of that was for tonight. “I’m here for you. Anything you need.”
“I need sleep,” she said with a low chuckle. “It’s been a rough couple of days, and I’m exhausted.”
He stood up. “I’ll get out of here, then. There’s plenty of time to figure out the rest.”
Reyna followed him to the door and watched him put on his coat. “About that. I know we have a lot to talk about, but are we… I don’t know. Reverting to the original plan?”
“I think that’s for the best. And obviously, we should start being seen together as soon as possible.” He was about to suggest meeting at the café for dinner, but then he had a better idea. “The town Christmas festival is Saturday. If we go together, everybody in town will know we’re dating by the time they light the tree.”
“Good point. And a good plan.”
“I’ll come over before the parade, then. And now you should get some sleep.” He had his hand on the doorknob, but he turned back to her. “It is good news, Reyna. As Christmas gifts go, I don’t see anything ever topping this one.”
That made her smile. “So it’s a gift, then? Not a lump of coal?”
“Definitely a gift. The best gift ever, actually.” He grinned back at her. “We must have been really good this year.”
“I wasn’t sure if you’d be happy about it. I know you said you wanted a baby, but then you changed your mind, so…”
“I didn’t change my mind about wanting a baby. It wasn’t so much being a father as the…us part that didn’t feel right.”
She flinched. Just slightly, but he saw it and realized she’d misunderstood because she didn’t have all the information. But, before he could figure out if or how to explain, it was gone. She smiled and shrugged one shoulder. “Yeah, the you-and-me part wasn’t going to work out.”
It was his turn to flinch, but hopefully it didn’t show on the outside. He already knew she felt that way, but the casual way she said it made his chest ache. He’d meant sleeping with her while hiding his true feelings, but that was a hard thing to say out loud. And now he wasn’t going to try to explain it. It would easier to accept that he and Reyna weren’t meant to be.
“So I’ll see you Saturday?” she asked as he pulled open the door.
“I’ll be here,” he promised.
As he walked to his truck, he tried not to think about how accepting that he and Reyna weren’t meant to be was going to be made a lot harder by spending the next few months pretending they were.