It was way too early for her to have a belly, but most of Chloe’s pants really didn’t fit. And the stuff she’d dug through from storage—most of which was now shoved into Tom’s barn because there wasn’t room for it all in the house—wasn’t much better. Why didn’t she own more yoga pants? Why had she donated all of her hip hugger jeans? Feeling desperate at the slow delivery window offered by the online maternity clothing stores, she texted Olivia.
Chloe: I have another favour to ask.
Olivia: Shoot. And I’ve got some info for you, BTW. I was going to stop by after lunch. Which you should come to next week.
Lunch was at Dani Foster’s house. Dani, Tom’s little sister. Olivia’s sister-in-law. And hostess-with-the-mostest. Chloe wasn’t ready for that. Also, she knew that Dani’s weekly Sunday lunch wasn’t Tom’s thing most of the time. So she ignored that and got right to the point.
Chloe: Do you have any maternity pants I could borrow? I want to barf every time I do up a button.
Olivia: Absolutely. I’ll bring you some. We need to talk about the first thing, anyway.
She showed up thirty minutes later with an overflowing garbage bag. “Rafe was so happy I was getting this out of the closet.”
“My tummy thanks you.” Chloe lifted Tom’s t-shirt, blessedly long enough to hide the fact that her current pants weren’t done up.
Olivia laughed and threw a pair of jeans at her. “Try these on. You may never go back. I didn’t for like three years.”
“I’m trying them all on, are you kidding me?” Chloe shimmied into the first pair and let out a happy sigh. The waistband was a long, hugging piece of spandex that smoothed over her sensitive midsection instead of digging in at exactly the wrong spot. “Tell me about the secret other task while I do a fashion parade.”
Olivia glanced around the cabin. “Is Tom out?”
Chloe appreciated the diligent dedication to subterfuge, not that it was necessary. “Yep, Sunday afternoon training with the search and rescue team. But he knows about the closure.”
“All right.” Olivia whipped out her notebook, all business. “I have a shortlist of options. None of these places know that I’ve scouted them, because I’m a professional. But I also have another idea, a bit more out of the box.”
“Let’s start with the shortlist.”
“The new emergency services building at the highway has an under-utilized training wing. In the long term, it’s designated for emergency response coordination, but I think they might be open to a short-term lease. And since they’re both county services, there may be some accounting savings to be found.”
“How would the fire and EMS departments feel about people coming and going all day?”
“Hard to know without asking them. I’m not actually a mindreader, although I enjoy you giving me credit for that.”
Chloe laughed. “Touché.”
“Next option is the old municipal building, where the art gallery is now. The second floor is empty, but I think it comes with the same higher operating costs, especially in the winter, and I don’t know how great the elevator is for accessibility.”
Chloe knew the space, and was pretty sure that was a non-starter for her bosses. “Could be trading up into the same set of problems, yeah.”
“And finally, but this may not be available in time, a little birdie told me that the Optimist hockey group is moving out of their offices in the arena in the summer.”
“Oh!” Chloe stopped trying on clothes. Olivia had her full attention now. Like the new fire and EMS station, the arena was owned by the county. That gave them two viable options that would basically be a neutral cost. The rent for the library would reduce the expenses for another county department. “That’s genius.”
Olivia beamed. “And just to round out the idea pool, the out of the box option is staying where you are, but giving up some of the space—leasing it out to cover the operating costs. If the library board is going to consider selling the building, why not think about retaining the primary investment?”
“Very good questions for someone other than me.”
“We need a town hall so I can ask those questions of the right person.”
Chloe puffed her cheeks out as she thought through the options Olivia presented. Basically, there were three options. That was good. “Yeah, we need something. Okay, I’ll figure out how to keep the balls in the air a bit longer, and put these ideas into the director’s ear.”
Olivia gestured between them. “Let’s celebrate with comfy clothes.”
“You are truly a lifesaver on many levels. I cannot wear regular pants a second longer.”
“Still feeling crappy?”
“I’m literally on a tea, soup, and cracker diet these days. It’s rough. But my next midwife appointment is in two weeks, and hopefully by then, I’ll be feeling better.”
“Good news for Valentine’s Day?”
“Fingers crossed.” It would be nice to actually be romantic with Tom on cupid’s day, instead of crawling into bed early while he rubbed her back.
Olivia stuck around until Chloe had oohed and aahed over the entire bag of clothes, then headed back to her family.
The options she’d presented were so well thought out Chloe didn’t want to wait until the next day to put them in front of her boss, so she went to her computer and logged in to her work email remotely. There was no time like the present to get a discussion going. She opened a new email window and began typing.
Something had shifted when Tom got home. Chloe was in the kitchen, humming.
“You sound happy,” he said, dropping a kiss on the back of her neck. “And you’re…cooking?”
“I’m prepping. Let’s not get crazy. I felt like something fresh.”
“Salad for dinner sounds great.” He went to the fridge and grabbed leftover chicken to add for some protein. “Cheese?”
“I’m good, but add some if you want it.”
She bustled around, grabbing plates from his cupboards and filling water glasses, and it was nice.
It was even nicer when they sat down and there was a moment when she glanced across at him and he realized she was about to tell him about her day. Without him asking, without any hesitation.
Right up there with wanting to figure out how to be transparent about what he wanted was his craving for her to share right back. Maybe she was starting to trust that he was on her side. Team Chloe, all the way.
“Olivia came by while you were out. I think we have a decent plan to save the library. Or the start of a plan, anyway.”
“Yeah?”
Chloe nodded slowly, her mouth set firmly. A warrior expression. A woman on a mission. “I regret that I didn’t fight for this before Christmas. We lost a few weeks.”
“You were reeling. Two unsettling pieces of news, back to back.”
She chuckled. “Unsettling is a polite way to describe it.”
“Terrifying?”
“Life changing,” she said softly. “But not terrifying. Not for long.”
Another little share.
It was the sweetest thing he’d ever heard. Just as good—fucking great—was the way she held his gaze as she poked at her salad.
He grinned, and his own happiness was reflected on her face. “Great salad,” he rumbled.
“You haven’t even tried it yet.”
He didn’t need to. But then he did, and it tasted amazing. Maybe it was heightened by the unexpected optimism zinging off her.
The next thing she said surprised him, too. “I was thinking that it might be time to tell our parents about the baby.”
“Are you ready?”
“No.” She laughed. “But at some point, I need to rip off that bandage.”
“I want to say it doesn’t matter how they react, but…”
She held his gaze. “It doesn’t matter. It might hurt in the moment, but we’ll get past it. I’ll get past it.”
He squeezed her hand. “I’m right beside you. And I’m really excited.”
“I know.” She said it softly, sweetly, then took a deep breath. “Hey, want to go for a walk in the snow after dinner?”
“You are feeling better.”
“Enough for a tromp around the house.”
They went further than that. They went all the way out to the barn, because Chloe remembered that one of her boxes also had books in it, and she didn’t want those exposed to the moisture. On the walk back, she took the flashlight so he could carry the books.
Halfway back to the house, she stopped abruptly. “Look,” she whispered. “A bunny!”
He saw it. Just past the glare of the light was a snowshoe hare. A bunny. The sheer delight in Chloe’s voice did funny things to his heart.
All three of them stood stock-still for a moment, then the hare silently bounded off into the woods.
Chloe let out a happy sigh, and they plodded back to the house.
Once inside, he set the box on the table so Chloe could dig through it once she was out of her winter layers.
“Ah, there is the book I was looking for,” she said, holding a middle-grade fantasy novel aloft.
“You have the most eclectic reading tastes of anyone I know.”
She wiggled her entire body happily. “Thank you, I take that as a compliment. But this isn’t for a re-read. One of our pint-sized patrons wants to read it.”
He twisted his neck to look for the telltale label on the spine. “It’s a library book?”
“Nope.” She danced—still in a good mood, clearly—to her bag and stashed it in there. “But the library copy went missing, and who knows when we’ll be able to acquire another one.”
So she was going to give some kid her own copy.
Pine Harbour was going to miss the fuck out if the library closed. Tom frowned. “How often do you give people your own books?”
She shrugged. “Not often. And I have a lot of books. It’s fine.”
“It’s more than fine,” he said. “It’s really nice.”
“Book friends share,” she said simply. “Speaking of which…can I read the thriller on your bedside table?”
He gestured to the bedroom. “Be my guest.”
They read together for an hour, tucked under the covers, all cozy and warm. After a while, Chloe shoved the blankets off, and there was something in the way she did it, a new curve to her abs under the sweet layer of softness that caught his eye.
“Look at you,” he murmured, crawling down her body.
She set her book down. Confusion was writ large on her face. “What is it?”
He beamed up at her. “Your belly.”
“It’s the crackers,” she sighed.
But it wasn’t. There was a firm roundness that had not been there before. The swell was different. He knew every inch of her body. Loved the soft parts, the shadowy dips. This was new and exciting.
“Can I touch you?”
“Of course,” she breathed.
He started at her hip, and she squirmed.
“Hold still,” he growled, and she grinned, he could see it in his peripheral vision. But she settled for him as he traced his fingers to the edge of her panties.
One of his most favourite things about Chloe was her matter-of-fact choice of underwear. Plain cotton, always, often in a cute cropped short style that revealed the bottom curve of her ass. Usually black, sometimes white. Tonight they were pale pink, ruthlessly innocent looking.
He followed the top ribbon of elastic over the dip between her hip and her belly, and then he felt it. Low, right above her pubic bone, the firm swell that had caught his eye.
“It’s too soon,” she protested.
He was no expert, but her body was changing and he could see it and feel it. “I love it anyway,” he said, kissing her hip. Then he glanced up. “How are you feeling?”
He’d meant it to sound innocent. He wouldn’t rush her. But it came out husky and full of honest need.
She smiled softly. “The same. But if you want to…”
He wanted to. “Gently?”
She nodded and he stood.
“Let me make love to you.” The words were rough, but he was endlessly gentle. There was no other way to be right now, not when he’d just felt the start of her belly, where she would grow his baby.
With a soft sigh, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, an endless caress of her lips and tongue and warm, sweet breath. He ghosted his hands over her back, down to her hips, her ass, and then up again on her sides, to where she shivered as he neared her breasts.
“Tom,” she whispered.
It hadn’t been that long.
She’d been sick, and they’d both gone back to work. There was a lot in the mix.
But damn it, he’d missed this. Her.
She buried her face in his neck, her lips brushing against his skin. “Want to hear something funny?”
“Always.”
She stretched out, a flushed, wanton woman. “I thought it would be weeks before I wanted to do this again, if at all, and I was kind of sad about that. I was hoping maybe by Valentine’s Day, we’d get back to this. It’s like you read my mind.”
He grinned. “I like that. But you can hit the brakes any time.”
“I’m good.” Her eyes were bright. “This is nice.”
He covered her with his body. Kissed her, caressed her. Stripped her bare and tasted her all over before stretching out and tugging her up to straddle him.
“Get on top,” he said, and he could hear the reverence in his voice. Could she hear it, too? He felt closer to her tonight than ever before in their relationship. Like their partnership was clicking into place in a whole new way. “I want to see you.”
He wanted her to set the pace, too. To guide their pleasure tonight.
She made a noise deep in her throat as she tugged down his briefs and his cock swung out and up, ready for anything. Then it was his turn to make sounds, because the pace she’d decided to set was slow, torturous. Amazing.
Raking her fingernails over his hip, she lightened her touch just before reaching his groin.
“Touch me,” he panted.
She obliged in the most literal of ways, grazing her fingertips against his balls, making his nuts tighten up and pulse.
“Chloe…”
She smiled. “Missed this.”
His cock flexed, nodding in agreement. Fuck yeah.
Taking him in hand, she rocked her hips forward, rubbing her sex against his hard length. The warm, wet contact short-circuited his brain and drove his hips hard off the bed. She tightened her grip, giving him a tight sheath to buck into, and on the third pulse, she lifted up and fit him against her entrance.
“Already?”
“Want you,” she whispered as she sank onto him.
Tight.
Hot.
He reached for her, cupping and squeezing her hips, her bottom, and then higher, filling his hands with her breasts. She shuddered at the lightest touch to her nipples, leaning into it at first, then pulled his hands low to her hips again.
Before long he let his fingers quest again, this time to where their bodies met, to her clit.
“Okay?”
“Very okay.” She bit her lip and pulsed her hips, rubbing against his touch. Deep inside her, his cock flexed and throbbed. It wouldn’t take much for him to go off and he wanted to get her there, too.
Love you, he mouthed. She gazed down at him, her eyes hooded, her mouth swollen.
Each slow rise of her body brought a new sway, a hypnotic swing to her breasts, a jiggle at her hips, and it drove him wild. He wanted to bury himself inside her, to claim her and love her and make her his own.
And when she threw her head back, baring the long, sexy expanse of her neck, he felt his orgasm start almost by surprise. She came too, and he said a silent prayer as she clenched around him.
She meant so much to him. He would do anything for her, his beautiful queen who secretly gifted books to people and thought bunnies were magical.