The door creaked open just as I was standing up to set the stick on the counter. “Mommy, why are you peein’ on a stick?” Caleb peered onto the counter, looking quizzically at the test. I was probably just about as confused as him, so I ignored his question.
I looked at my watch, watching the seconds tick away until the three minutes were up. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted kids of my own, Caleb really was enough for me to handle. I knew Chase wanted kids, but we really didn’t need them now. I know he liked things to move quickly, but I don’t think this was one of those things.
The door flung open all the way and Ally came in to peer over my shoulder just as the little digital hourglass disappeared on the two tests that I had taken and the word pregnant replaced it. I swear my heart literally stopped when that popped up. Ally let out a squeal and started jumping and down behind me.
“C’mon Leah, you have to be a little excited, right?” She grabbed onto my wrists to spin me around where my feet had been frozen into place, and proceeded to bounce around the small confines of the bathroom. Pretty soon, Caleb joined in clapping his hands together, even though he had no clue what was going on.
After the two of them finally calmed down, I pushed Ally out the front door. “You need to leave. I need time to process this and I can’t do that with all of your squealing.” She was way too bubbly about this and I really needed to have as much peace and quiet that I could get before Chase came home. What in the hell was I going to do?
Chapter 11
Chase
The house was unusually quiet when I came home from work. I was already a little nervous to tell Leah about what exactly had happened at school today, and the silence really wasn’t helping my nerves. Normally, Caleb was running around like crazy and Leah was cooking dinner on her nights off. I quickly found Caleb in his room with a stack of books, reading to his favorite stuffed animals and Tootsie. I swear, that dog had some patience and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the story about the little bugs that I had heard about a hundred times.
“Hey buddy, did you have a good day?”
His brown eyes flicked up for just a second before going back to being glued to his book. “Yup, me and Mommy played all day after she picked me up from school. Then Auntie Ally came over but Mommy kicked her out. She told me it was quiet time now.”
“Cool, little dude.” Leah kicked Ally out? Obviously, the little man was over exaggerating, which he tended to do. I walked over and fluffed his hair before crouching down to kiss him on the forehead.
The big weekend was coming up when he would be gone at Roy’s and I wasn’t looking forward to it. It was definitely going to be strange. I had planned to keep Leah and I pretty busy, so we could keep our minds off it. “Where’s Mommy at?”
“I think she’s in bed. She was in a bad mood after she peed on the stick. She came in a little bit ago to check on me and then went back to your room.”
Peed on a stick? Ok-ay. Kid just keeps getting weirder and weirder every day. “‘Kay bud, I’ll go check on her and then fix us some dinner.”
I walked down the hallway towards our room, the door was open but the room was dark. “Baby?” I slid across the bed and wrapped my arm around her waist, where she was lying face down buried in a pillow. She slightly lifted her head and looked up at me through swollen eyes. I reached out and pushed back her matted hair, swiping at the one lone tear that was rolling down her cheek.
Leah normally wasn’t a crier, so something was definitely up. I guess my little bit of bad news could wait, no reason to upset her anymore. I wanted to wrap her up and take away whatever the hell was wrong, but she didn’t look like she wanted me to. Actually, she looked like she was sort of pissed at me.
“What’s wrong, Leah? Just talk to me, whatever it is will work it out.”
She let out a loud huff, burying her head in the pillow once again, and mumbled something incoherently. I leaned down so I was right next to her and gently moved her head to the side so I could cradle it between my hands. “You know I didn’t hear you, so just spill it.”
“Ugh, Chase.” She scrubbed her hands over her face and peeked out between her fingers. “I’m pregnant. And it’s your entire fault,” she added at the end with a groan.
“What?” I jumped up to my knees, grabbing at her hands to pull her up with me. “Seriously?” I was going to ignore the little fact that she was blaming this all on me. Pretty sure, it took two to tangle and she had no problem with that.
She nodded her head, squeezing her eyes shut and sniffling. “I knew you would react like this.”
“Of course, what did you expect? I’m happy as hell, our baby is in there.” I splayed my hands across her flat stomach and leaned down to kiss it.