by Marla Monroe
Little Julie was growing fast. She was going to be a little stinker, she could tell. The men doted on her, and Lacy didn’t seem to be able to keep from holding her all the time. She still thought Julie was ahead of schedule in all her firsts, like turning over and raising her head. She just seemed to be developing faster than was normal to Elissa, but she didn’t say anything about it.
A little after three, the men walked through the door, whooping and yelling. They were excited to have the harvest behind them. They would still have to plow the fields up to get them ready for winter, but the worst and the most pressing of the season was behind them.
Gray picked Elissa up and swung her around in circles, kissing her all over her face as he did.
“Put me down, idiot.” She chuckled at him. “You’re going to make me dizzy.”
“Give her to me, Gray. I want some sugar.” Clint grabbed her and pulled her up into his embrace.
She savored his kiss as he plunged his tongue in her mouth. He licked along the roof of her mouth, then nibbled her lower lip before letting her slide from his arms.
“How are you doing today?” he asked.
“I’m relieved to have the garden finished. I was a little sick this morning, but I lay back down for an hour and felt fine when I got up.”
Gray frowned. “Why didn’t you call us if you were sick, baby?”
“I would have if I’d still been sick when I woke back up, but I think I just needed the extra sleep.”
“If it happens again, we need to see the doctor. I don’t want you sick with winter coming up. Cam said he expects there to be snow on the ground this time next week. We’re going to take the crops in the morning.” Gray wrapped an arm around her waist. “I know you’re excited about going to town.”
“Lacy and I have to get things to get ready for winter.” She looked up at him. “One thing we all need is coats.”
“Not to mention scarves, gloves, thermals, and you need a hat,” Clint told her.
“I have all of that on my list.”
“Let’s go over your list after dinner and go to bed early. We need to be ready to leave by eight in the morning. They’re going to pick us up,” Gray told her.
They quickly finished dinner and helped Elissa with the dishes, then poured over her list of things they needed in town. The guys added a couple of things to the list, but for the most part, she’d thought of everything.
“Time for bed,” Clint said with a yawn. “I’m about dead on my feet.”
They all three took a shower, playing around as usual, then fell into bed. Elissa giggled as the guys cursed the cold sheets. She had two hunky men to keep her warm. As soon as they settled down, Elissa fell asleep.
* * * *
Gray woke with a start when Elissa crawled over him, barely missing his balls in the process.
“What the fuck?”
Then he heard her retching in the bathroom. Ah, hell. He climbed out of bed and hurried into the bathroom to see about her. He grabbed a cloth and wet it before kneeling by her and pulling her hair back from her face.
“Easy, baby.” He bathed her face with the cool cloth. “Are you okay now?”
“I don’t know.” She leaned against the wall.
He tried to pull her over to rest against him, but she shook her head. “Cool.”
He nodded and rinsed out the cloth with cold water again and bathed her face and neck with it. She sighed.
“I think I can go back to bed now. I just need to lie down for a few minutes.” Her voice sounded weak.
“I’ll carry you, baby. Just relax.” Gray picked her up and carried her back to bed. When he knelt on the mattress and laid her in the middle, Clint woke up.
“What’s going on?” he rubbed his face.
“Elissa got sick. She’s going to lie down for a little while and see how she feels.”
“Fuck. She’s pregnant, Gray. Is she okay?”
“I guess that’s a possibility,” he said. “She still doesn’t feel well.”
“She needs to see the doc while we’re in town, then.”
Gray agreed. Elissa had curled up on her side with her back to him. He gently rubbed circles on her back as Clint rubbed up and down her arm.
“We’ll make sure she does. If she’s pregnant, she will need vitamins,” Gray said in a quiet voice.
“Wow,” Clint said, shaking his head. “A baby. I guess I knew it would happen, but I hadn’t really thought about it.”
“I know what you mean. Don’t harp on it too much, Clint, just in case she isn’t. This could still be a virus or something. She’s been really busy the last two or three weeks with Lacy’s garden, then ours.”
“You’re right. I’ll keep quiet until we know something,” Clint said.
Gray tried to go back to sleep, but his mind wouldn’t quit circling around the possibility that they were going to have a baby. It would mean some changes, that was for sure. An image of Elissa round with their baby formed in his head, and he found he liked the way she looked. He hoped she wouldn’t have morning sickness for very long. He didn’t think he could handle her sick all the time. It made him feel bad to know she felt bad.
He wasn’t sure how long he laid thinking about all the changes that having a baby would bring to their lives, but the alarm on his watch went off sometime later. It was time to get up. He glanced over at Elissa and hated to wake her. Still, they needed to get her to the doctor, so she would have to wake up and get ready.
“Baby? Can you hear me?” Gray ran the back of his knuckles down her cheek.
“Hmmm?” She smiled without opening her eyes.
“Time to get up, baby. How do you feel?”
“Okay.” She opened her eyes and yawned then stretched. “What time is it?”
“It’s six.”
“Yep, better get up.” She crawled over and draped herself on top of him. “You’re warm.”
“Don’t fall back asleep, Elissa. We need to get up.” He wanted to hug her close and stay there for another hour, but that wasn’t possible. “I need to wake Clint up.”
“Clint, wake up,” Elissa called out. She reached over and poked him with her foot.
“Stop kicking me, you little minx.” Clint reached out and grabbed her ankle. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine. I’m going to dress and fix us something quick to eat.” She slid off of Gray and started pulling clothes out of the dresser.
Gray watched her for a few minutes then climbed out of bed and started dressing as well. Clint groaned and finally made it out of bed about the time Elissa headed downstairs. Gray followed her. He didn’t want to leave her alone in case she got sick again.
They ate a quick breakfast and were ready to leave when Cam, Phillip, and Lacy pulled into the yard with the two transports. Cam had driven one over, but would ride with Phillip and Lacy while Gray drove the other one with Clint and Elissa. He refrained from saying anything to the other men about Elissa being sick. There would be time for that once the doctor had seen her.
Once everyone was strapped in, they took off in the direction of town. Pulling the storage bins behind them would slow them down quite a bit. He figured it would take them a good three hours to get to town. Maybe more. He hoped Elissa would be okay riding. He glanced at her sitting between him and Clint. Clint had an arm around her shoulders.
“How are you doing, baby?” he finally broke down and asked.
“I’m fine, Gray. Don’t worry about me. If my calf would stop aching I would be perfect.”
“Your calf? The one you got bit on?” he asked.
“Yeah. I guess it is that one. I didn’t think about that.” She tried to pull up her pant leg to look at it, but they were too tight on her legs.
“Don’t worry about it right now, baby. We’ll look at it later. Besides, we’re going to pay a visit to the doctor since you’ve been sick.”
“I don’t need to see the doctor, Gray. I’m fine.”
“Baby, you c
ould be pregnant.” He watched her face when he told her.
Elissa’s eyes grew wide, and her skin paled for a second.
“I—I guess I could be. I hadn’t really thought about it. I just figured it was from all the late nights we’ve had lately.”
“Still could be that, but there’s still a good chance it’s not. I want the doctor to see you in case it is.”
“God, if I’m pregnant, that would mean I would have the baby around”—she hesitated—“June.”
“That’s a good time to have a baby. You won’t have to go through the hottest months that way.”
“I guess.” She grew quiet.
“What is it, baby?”
“I guess I’m just worried. I mean the only thing I know about babies is what I’ve learned with Lacy and little Julie.”
“We’ll all have to do some learning,” Clint butted in.
“Well, I still have all those books from when I was studying for Lacy, and she has quite a few that I don’t have. I’m sure she will let me borrow them.”
“Why don’t you lean against Clint and take a nap, baby? We’ve got a long drive ahead of us. You’re just going to worry yourself sick if you keep on right now.”
She sighed and leaned back against Clint. He wrapped his arm around her and kissed her cheek. Gray caught his eye and noted his friend looked worried. He guessed he looked the same way. He would feel better once the doctor had checked her out. Then they could relax and enjoy the moment.
Chapter Eighteen
Elissa let the guys help her dress once Jeff and Scott had left the room. She was nervous, to say the least. The idea of being pregnant hadn’t really bothered her until Gray brought it up. Now she was worried. Especially considering her calf was aching and the doctor had seen something when he looked at it. She was sure he had, because he’d sighed when he did.
“Hurry, Gray. I want to know what the test results say.” Gray was putting on her shoes for her.
“Honey, the tests aren’t going to be ready any sooner one way or another.” Clint struggled to get her blouse buttoned back up.
“I know. I’m just nervous. What did my calf look like, Gray? He saw something, didn’t he?”
“I don’t know, baby. I wasn’t looking then. Clint?” Gray looked over toward the other man.
“I couldn’t tell that it looked any different, but I really wasn’t paying that much attention.”
“You two are no help at all,” she fussed.
“Hey, I beg to differ. I put your shoes on you.” Gray tweaked her nose and helped her down off the table. “Let’s go wait in the waiting area.”
They took seats outside in the hall and waited for someone to come and get them. They had told the others that they were taking Elissa to get her leg checked out again. If she turned out to be pregnant, Lacy would be excited, she was sure. She risked a look at the men and wondered how they really felt. Would they be excited or disappointed? Their lives would change with the addition of a baby to the household. They might not like that right now.
She wasn’t sure how she felt about it yet. The idea was still new to her. Well, it really didn’t matter, because if she was then there was nothing she could do about it anyway. Everything would work out.
“Doc wants to see you in his office to go over the tests with you.” Scott showed them down the hall to Jeff’s office.
They piled in and took chairs around the desk. Scott stood over by the door, and Jeff sat behind the desk. He looked serious, and that worried Elissa. Something wasn’t right.
“Okay, I want to go over the tests results with you. First of all, congratulations, you’re going to have a baby sometime in June, according to the dates.”
Clint and Gray each squeezed her hand and kissed her on either cheek. She continued to watch Scott’s face for any sign of what he was worried about. There was something wrong. She just wished he would get down to it before she made herself sick trying to guess.
“You’re anemic still. You said you’re forgetting to take the iron pills. You can’t afford to do that anymore with a baby growing inside of you. Okay?”
She nodded. She would take the blasted horse pills. She’d conveniently forgotten them on several occasions. They were hard to swallow and tasted bad.
“Most of your other lab work all came back normal. What didn’t come back normal is worrisome, in that I don’t know how it will affect you and the baby.”
“What are you talking about?” Gray asked, scooting up to the edge of his chair.
“The little sample off her calf I took shows that the cells have changed.”
“Changed how?” Clint asked.
“For one thing, they’ve grown some. The cells are all slightly larger. Have you noticed that the area is slightly raised, Elissa?”
“No, I really hadn’t paid attention.”
“So you don’t know when it happened, then.” Jeff made a note on the paper in front of him.
“No. What else is wrong?” she asked.
He hesitated then sighed and leaned back in the chair. “There’s an enzyme in your blood that wasn’t there in your last test. I don’t know what it is. I’ve never seen anything like it before. There isn’t a lot of it, but even one instance is unusual.”
“There’s something foreign in my blood? Did it come from that thing that bit me?”
“I don’t know, Elissa. I have to assume it did. While you’re all here, I would like to get blood samples from you two to compare to all the other samples I have.”
“Yeah, sure,” Clint said.
Gray nodded and squeezed Elissa’s hand. “So what does this all mean for Elissa and the baby?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I’ll need to follow her closely to see if anything changes.”
“With winter coming up, that’s going to be difficult,” Gray pointed out.
“I know. It will mean that every time the weather is clear, you’ll need to bring her in for me to check.”
“Will the enzyme be in my baby, too?” Elissa asked.
“I don’t know if it will cross the placenta or not, Elissa. I wish I could give you more answers, but this is all new to me. All I can say is that it’s been nearly three months since you got bit and you’re doing fine. You haven’t had any residual problems that I know about. That is a good thing.”
“The only thing I’ve noticed is that it ached yesterday when I got sick, and again today. It’s not bothering me now at all.”
“I want you to keep notes of anything unusual that you notice or feel between office visits.” Jeff leaned forward now. “It’s very important that you keep a close eye on your weight and appetite. One thing I have learned is that all the women here who have gotten pregnant and have been attacked by one of the animals have trouble with eating enough and needing more rest than usual.”
“We’ll make sure she eats enough,” Clint said.
“How much is enough?” Gray asked.
“Just make sure she doesn’t skip meals, and that she gets enough rest. Elissa, you can do anything you want to do, just be sure you rest in between.”
He gave her some prenatal vitamins and more iron pills in case she couldn’t get back soon enough due to the weather. They gathered up her pills and the diet instructions Scott gave her on the way out.
“We’ll drop this off with the transport then go look for Lacy so you two can shop.” Gray carried her pills and the diet for her.
Elissa was feeling overwhelmed. She wasn’t sure if it was all because of what Jeff had told them, or if being in town with people around her was getting to her. She’d gotten used to there being no one around sometimes, to just Cam, Phillip, and Lacy around with her guys at other times. Now it seemed like there were people everywhere.
After dropping everything off at the transport and finding out from Cam that Phillip and Lacy were getting lunch, they headed in that direction. They found them finishing up their meal.
“We can wait on you to eat,” Phillip assu
red them. “It will be another hour before they can even get to our stuff. They’re having trouble with one of the pumps.”
“What did the doctor say about your leg?” Lacy asked.
They all looked at each other. Elissa sighed. It was up to her what she told everyone.
“I’m pregnant.”
“Oh—my—God! That’s wonderful! Julie here will have a playmate soon!” Lacy squeezed the baby.
“Congratulations,” Phillip said and shook the guys’ hands.
“There’s more though, isn’t there?” Lacy cocked her head to the side. “I can tell you’re worried.”
“I have some sort of enzyme floating around in my blood that doesn’t belong there. He thinks it came from the bite.”
“That’s not good, is it?” Lacy frowned.
“He wants to see me every time the weather clears up.”
They talked for a little while longer until their food came, and then everyone was quiet while they ate. As soon as they finished eating, they headed for the store. Lacy kept up a steady conversation, and Elissa was glad for it. She didn’t want to think about anything right then. She had plenty of time to worry once they got back home.
Phillip kept the baby while Elissa and Lacy filled Gray and Clint’s arms with packages. At some point, Cam joined them and informed them that the trailers were empty and everything had checked out great.
“Why don’t we go and put all the packages in the transports while you ladies finish up?” Phillip suggested.
“Give me Julie.” Lacy took the baby and settled her on her hip.
The men gathered everything up and disappeared from sight.
“Are you okay, Elissa?” Lacy watched her closely.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll probably make myself crazy about this once I get home, but right now, I’m fine.”
“Everything will be fine. I’ll tell you a secret if you promise not to tell the guys.”
Elissa frowned. “Sure.”
“I think Julie is growing and maturing at a faster rate than she is supposed to be. She’s only a little over three months old, and she’s developed like a five-month-old baby. I know you’ve been seeing it, too. I’m keeping a journal about it, but I don’t want the men worried.”