Chloe gasped. “What?”
Tom swivelled his head back and forth between them. “What?”
Chloe’s eyes felt ginormous as she stared at Kerry. “Two?”
“Two?” Tom cleared his throat. “I know I’m just repeating everything she’s saying, but two?”
Kerry nodded. “I think so. I want you to have an ultrasound. I’ll call over to the hospital and see if they can fit you in today so you don’t need to make the drive back down again.” She grabbed a soft, white towel from under the exam table and set it on Chloe’s belly. “You can get cleaned up and dressed again. I’ll be right back.”
And then they were alone.
Tom rose above her, smiling tentatively. “Hey.”
“Yeah.”
“So that’s exciting.”
“Uh huh.” She fumbled for the towel, and he covered her hand with his.
“Let me.” He wiped the gel off her skin, and just for a second, she felt his fingers tremble. Then he carefully rolled her waistband up over her belly, lobbed the towel into a linen basket, and helped her sit up. “Chloe,” he whispered.
She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a tight, squishy hug.
The next three hours passed in a surreal blur. They sat in a too-quiet hospital waiting room for a while, then were ushered into a dark ultrasound room for a set of pictures. The tech didn’t talk much, but did show them baby A, and then baby B.
It was official.
There were definitely two fetuses inside her belly.
The entire drive back to Pine Harbour, Tom clutched her hand tightly on the console between their seats.
“What do you need?” he asked after parking next to her car in front of the cabin.
“Tequila.”
“I have ice cream and pickles.”
She snorted. She’d seen the ice cream he’d stocked up on, just in case, but she’d missed that he’d also bought pickles.
Sure enough, once they were inside, he led her to the ugly anteroom off the kitchen. On the shelf above the deep freeze was a complete selection of pickles. Sweet, dill, bread and butter, gherkin.
“Did you buy one of each?”
“Sure did.”
“Why?”
“Just in case.”
She opened the deep freeze and grabbed the first tub of ice cream she saw. “Good idea.”
He followed her into the kitchen. “So…twins.”
Fucking hell. She nodded as she yanked open the utensil drawer. “Twins.”
“Two babies.”
She jammed a spoon in the ice cream, then jerked it out again. “Yep.”
“That’s great.”
“Uh huh.”
“Freaky, too.”
She looked up at him. “Tom?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m going to need you to get a spoon and eat this ice cream with me in terrified silence, please.”
Terrified wasn’t really the feeling, though. Just overwhelmed.
She needed a few minutes to process it.
She’d had hours now, but still…a few more minutes would be great. They hadn’t even told their families she was pregnant.
His gaze carefully locked on her face, he grabbed a spoon and dug in. They stood there in the middle of the kitchen, sharing a pint of Cherry Garcia, until the cold sweetness worked its magic and Chloe’s thoughts started to re-order themselves into something approaching rationality.
“Truthfully?” She looked up at Tom.
He nodded. “Always.”
“I was already freaking out about one baby. How to care for it, what it might do to my body. Two? Gong show. But…they’re going to be best friends. They’re going to hold hands when they’re three days old, and that’s going to melt my freaking heart. This is the most magical thing and the most insane thing, at the same time, and I’m really glad you got ice cream. That’s all.”
“That’s a lot.”
“Mmm hmm.”
He dug out another scoop. “You want my truth?”
“Always.”
“I freaked out when she said two. Mind went blank, hands started shaking. And I was fucking scared I’d say the wrong thing, like I did when you told me you were pregnant.”
They were both so human it hurt.
She smiled up at him. “I freaked out, too. Obviously. So thank you for sharing that you did, too. That makes me feel better.”
He laughed.
“I know I keep saying this, but we should probably call our families.” She puffed her cheeks out, wrinkled her nose, and looked up at him. “You know what?”
“What?”
“I think I want the pickles for that.”
“Do you want to call your parents first?” They’d danced around this. Tom knew Chloe’s history, and although she hadn’t dwelled on it, he knew she was nervous about telling them she was in a similar spot to what they’d experienced.
Except Tom wasn’t her father. And she wasn’t her mother. They were their own people, with their own dynamic, and Tom was committed to being the partner Chloe needed—in parenting, and in life.
She made a face, then nodded and grabbed her phone. Instead of calling directly, she texted them both a quick hey are you free to talk kind of message.
Her mother replied immediately, so that’s who got the first call.
“Mom,” Chloe said. “What’s up? No, nothing’s wrong. Everything is…great. Really great. I know, it was a weird text message to send. Sorry about that. Listen, I have some exciting news.”
Tom grinned at her. It was exciting.
“Do you know that guy I told you about?” His mouth fell open. You told her about me? She winked at him. “Yes, the park ranger. Things have gotten more serious between us. No, I’m not getting married. Mom, stop it. That’s not my thing. But… I’m pregnant.”
The silence after that was deafening.
Tom’s chest tightened and his throat went dry.
“It’s a good thing,” Chloe said softly. “Yes, I’m happy. So is Tom.” Damn straight. “That’s not all, Mom. We had an ultrasound today. There are two of them. Two babies. I’m going to have twins.”
This time the pause was shorter, and Chloe laughed. “I’m sure it’s going to be a lot of work. But we’ll figure it out. Yes, of course you can come up when they’re born. Okay. Sure. Uh… Yes. Later. Love you.”
She ended the call, and Tom swallowed hard. “So…”
Chloe shrugged. “It went better than I expected.” She looked down at the phone in her hand. “Still haven’t heard back from my father. Do you want to call your parents? Is it okay to tell them over the phone?”
“Yeah.” Tom frowned. “Are you okay?”
Chloe looked up again, her eyes glittering. “It’s a lot.”
“Come here.”
She crawled up against him and he wrapped his arms around her.
“I am excited,” he whispered against her hair. “And we will sort it out.”
“I know.” She softened against him.
“So when did you tell your mom about the sexy park ranger friend?”
She giggled. “Uh… a while ago.”
“That’s an interesting secret.”
“I’ve always told her about my dating life. So when I stopped…she had questions.”
“I like it.”
Chloe squeezed him back. “She’ll like you. And she won’t be around a lot, so she won’t be overwhelming.”
“It would be okay,” he promised. “If she were overwhelming. I have some experience in handling that. Speaking of which…it’s my turn.” Chloe went to get up. He gently held her against him. “Hey, stay right here.”
With his free hand, he found his own phone and tapped the second contact in his favourites list. The Parents, he’d called them in his address book.
His dad answered the phone in his still-accented-after-forty-five-years Italian-Canadian voice. “Hello?”
“Dad, it’s me. Tom.”
“Do you want your mother?”
“I kind of want to talk to you both. Can you put me on speaker phone?” There was some back and forth conversing on the other end, so Tom played with Chloe’s hair while he waited.
Then the connection changed, and he could hear kitchen sounds, and his mother’s voice. “Tom? What is it?”
“I’ve got some exciting news.” Once upon a time, Tom had taken a half-day course in how to teach a class with confidence, designed to help introverted scientists engage better with visitors to the park services. The key takeaway message was that smiling helped deliver a message more positively, and when in doubt, try to make yourself smile as you teach something.
Tom didn’t have to make himself smile for this. He was grinning broadly. He had Chloe cuddled up next to him, and two babies—two, still a shock, holy shit—brewing inside her.
“Well, out with it,” his father said.
“I’m going to be dad,” Tom said, his voice thickening up. Still smiling. “My girlfriend—Chloe, the librarian, Mom. You know here. She’s pregnant. With twins, actually. Two kids. I’m going to be a dad to two babies.”
Chloe looked up at him, and now he knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of that curious, is-everything-okay look as the silence stretched on.
“Well,” his mother finally said, projecting from across the kitchen. “That is quite the announcement to make over the phone.”
He rolled his eyes. “Thanks, Ma.”
“We are thrilled for you,” she added.
“Congratulations,” his father said. “Maybe come over and tell us more soon, okay?”
“Okay, Dad. Thanks.” Tom ended the call.
“Did you get grief for not doing it in person?”
“Of course I did.” He kissed her forehead. “But you had to do it on the phone, so I did it the same way.”
She laughed gently. “And you were a little afraid of your mother?”
“Obviously. Okay, more ice cream, yes?”
“Oh, hell yes.”
The loud, persistent beeping woke Chloe from a deep, disorienting sleep.
“Whatsthat?” she mumbled.
“Sorry,” Tom whispered. “That’s my search and rescue pager. I gotta go.”
“What time is it?”
“Dark o’clock. Love you. Go back to sleep.”
She murmured and drifted off again, dragged back into slumber by the bone-deep fatigue that had replaced her nausea. Pregnancy was a ride and a half.
Sometime later, when dawn was breaking, she woke up with a panicky start. Tom was gone, and it took her a moment to remember he was at work.
In all the time they’d been sleeping together, she’d never heard that pager go off. Before Babies—BB—he’d blown off a hook-up once or twice because of a rescue, but that was abstract information.
The shrill, insistent alarm still rocketed around in her mind. So loud, so urgent. She swung her legs out of bed, ignoring the now too-familiar wave of nausea—not now, puke—and headed into the living room.
One of her favourite things about Tom’s cabin was how warm it was in the winter. He had good quality windows and an even better furnace—so she could wander around in tiny shorts and a tank that let her belly hang out.
Which was great up until the moment that someone unexpected let themselves into the house.
A key turned into the lock and she yelped, dashing back to the bedroom just as the door swung open.
“Chloe?” Tom called out.
She poked her head back into the living room. “Oh. Hey. How did it go?”
“Great. Got a bit dicey there, but all’s well that ends well.” He gave her a happy, loopy grin. “I’m going to get in the shower. Want to join me?”
She frowned as she followed him. “What do you mean, it got a bit dicey? How dicey?”
He shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. I’m a trained professional. This is my job.”
Technically, she was pretty sure search and rescue was his hobby, and job-adjacent. But that was his distinction to worry about, not hers. “I know you’re very good.”
He had to be.
If he wasn’t, he could die.
Her frown didn’t go away.
“Hey.” He cupped her face in his hands. “It was fine.”
Sure. But her pregnancy hormones were blaring all the ways it might not have been through her mind. “This time.”
“I’m careful. I don’t take stupid risks, and I don’t let anyone else, either.” He brushed his lips against hers. “Do you want to come to the next training night so you can see how much I annoy everyone with my safety rules?”
She laughed gently. “No.”
“Hey, I don’t mind if you worry about me,” he said softly.
She frowned. “I wasn’t—” He grinned as she cut herself off. “Okay, yes. I was worried about you.”
It was a weird feeling to admit out loud.
Weirder still to keep feeling it inside, a twisty, needy hungry monster in her belly as they showered together and then crawled back into bed.
The thought of something happening to Tom terrified Chloe to the depth of her soul. She couldn’t shake it, and when Tom said Sean was going to come over a few days later, she leapt at the opportunity to see if Jenna wanted to come too.
“We could have a little dinner party?”
Tom nodded. “Sure. What do you want to make?”
“I fell right into that trap, didn’t I?”
He kissed her soundly. “You make a salad, I’ll roast something to go with it.”
“We’re a great team,” she said brightly.
And they were.
So why was she worried?
It was the first question she asked Jenna when their friends arrived, and Tom and Sean disappeared to the barn out back to talk about weight lifting and training plans.
“Because he’s your partner,” Jenna said, like that was a simple answer.
Maybe it would be for anyone else. For Chloe, that just amped up the fear. “How did you do it? How did you stick it out with Sean when you showed up and things were such a mess?”
Jenna laughed gently. “I didn’t really do it. Don’t you remember? I clung to you and dove into work, and just barely found the balance between keeping my heart open and maintaining some semblance of boundaries. It was rough.”
“Oh.” Chloe rubbed her belly. “I guess.”
Jenna held her gaze. “Tom loves you so much. He’s not going to do anything foolish or risky, because he wants to come home to you every single night.”
“I don’t like how much I need him to be okay. To be here and healthy. That scares me.”
“The thing that I realized, when I felt that oh shit, what am I getting into feeling with Sean…is that it was too late. By the time I had that panicky feeling of it being too much, and maybe I should get out—”
“I don’t want to get out,” Chloe hastened to add.
Jenna smiled. “No, I see that. I’m just saying, that even if you did have that thought for a split second, for self-preservation…it would be too late. You only have that feeling once you’ve tumbled head over heels.”
Well, Chloe wouldn’t go that far. She hadn’t tumbled. Had she? She hadn’t even really moved in yet, not for real. Taking a deep breath, she glanced around the kitchen. Tom’s kitchen. “How about some tea?”
“Holy crap,” Sean said when Tom swung the door to his barn open. It was a tad more stuffed than the last time they’d been out there. “What is all of this stuff?”
“Chloe’s stuff from the apartment. She hasn’t unpacked yet.” Tom turned on a lantern and the space heater to add some light and warmth to the space.
Sean carefully walked around the pile of boxes. “Is the pregnancy still kicking her ass?”
“Nah, she’s feeling pretty good these days.”
“Does she need help?”
“With unpacking?” Tom shook his head. “It’s more about space. I don’t have a lot of it.”
His friend gave him a furrowed brow look of concern. “It’s not just your space anymore, man. Make room.”
Tom frowned. Right. “I will. I am.”
“Uh huh. That’s why your wife’s stuff is in our workout barn instead of in your house?”
“She’s not my wife.” It came out without thinking.
Sean blinked at him. “Defensive, much?”
Tom felt his cheeks heat up, and he swallowed back against the rise of awkward feelings. “She doesn’t want that.”
“Nothing wrong with not liking labels, I guess.”
“Exactly.”
Sean nodded. “But it’s hard to make a case for commitment—labels or not—if she’s with someone who won’t make room for her stuff in her own house.”
Tom wanted to protest again, but Sean wasn’t wrong. So he resorted to an age old argument. “Shut up.”
His friend grinned. “Ah, the sage advice man is getting his comeuppance.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to share the space with her.”
“Of course not.” Sean’s eyes were twinkling now.
“You’re laughing at me.”
“Of course I am, man! If the roles were reversed, what the fuck would you tell me to do?”
God damn it. Tom groaned. “I should have moved my own shit out here and put her stuff in the house.”
“It’s really obvious, I’m just saying. You dropped the boyfriend ball.”
“Shut up again,” he muttered.
But the messaged was received.
Had he cleared out space when they first brought her stuff back from Owen Sound, that would have been a good gesture. Now? It would be decent.
He wanted to be more than decent.
And the whole conversation kept spinning through his mind as they planned a rope climbing workout, then on the slow, careful walk back to the house. As they all made dinner together, as Sean held his baby with one arm and ate with the other, in the tiny, cramped kitchen, not big enough for four people.
Soon his family would be four people all on their own.
If they had Sean and Jenna over again a year from now, there would be seven people at the table. Seven people couldn’t fit in his kitchen, let alone at the table.
Those thoughts continued to spiral over the next few days.
Should they move?
By Friday night, he thought about bringing up house hunting, but when Chloe came home from work, her feet hurt and she was in a grumpy mood because the HR person for the county library system hadn’t gotten back to her about the maternity leave details, and how it would affect her request for a different position, should the closure go through.
“I hate being in a financially precarious position,” she grumbled.
In that case, he wasn’t going to bring up the idea of buying a bigger—and inevitably more expensive—house. Tom owned the cabin outright. That would help them a lot if she couldn’t get a position close enough to Pine Harbour and decided to stay home with the babies after her mat leave ran out.
“That sounds really stressful,” he said. “Can I offer pickles, ice cream, or an orgasm?”
She blinked at him.
Jokes wouldn’t make her very real problems go away. But they wouldn’t hurt in the meantime.
He added a more sensible fourth option. “Or maybe all three?”