by Nicole Thorn
Layla brushed my cheek with her fingertips and smiled at me. “Let me take you home, love.”
I nodded, and she took my hand.
e were almost never careful, so this was our fault. This is what you get, scurrying to the pharmacy section of a store, ten minutes before closing. I mean… we asked for it.
I missed my period about three weeks ago, but I didn’t even notice it at first. I got the flu, so I assumed that was the reasoning. That, and the stress of Bennett’s mother’s death still weighed on us, and his father trying to get to know him again. But either way, it was April now, so… ‘tis the season, I guess. A spring pregnancy would be appropriate.
“Hurry,” I said to Bennett as we ran down the clothing section. “I can’t wait another day.”
“You think I can!” he asked, voice squeaking with nervousness.
The reason we were here tonight was because we were morons. I’d been throwing up for days, and I felt all weird for no reason. My mom was the one to point out that there was a possibility my hubby knocked me the fuck up, but I laughed it off… then ran for Bennett.
I thought that my parents would be kind of pissed off, but my dad and mom were having a who can be more excited? battle. It involved them both saying that they would be the better grandparent and that my baby would love them more than us. I thought Dad was winning that battle though because he smiled for three straight hours before I had a panic attack and decided to buy a test. My sisters were supposed to meet us back at our house so everyone could be there for it. It would be really disappointing if it was negative.
“Ahh!” Bennett shouted as he skidded to a stop in front of the section we needed. He stared blankly at the pregnancy tests and then at me. “What do we get?”
“Fuck if I know!” I chewed on my nail and stared at the lot of them. Mom gave us some cash and told us to get one of the good ones, so I took that to mean buy seven tests. “Hold these.” I piled some into Bennett’s arms, and he fumbled to not drop any while I got the rest.
We rushed to the check out.
We dropped all the tests on the belt then had the agony of waiting behind someone with a few hundred dollars’ worth of stuff. The cashier looked annoyed, but I hardly paid attention to her.
I tapped my foot, leaning on the candy display and worrying. My hand rested on my tummy, and I wondered if I felt a baby. A little Benny growing in me. Holy fuck, we might have made a person.
“Are you okay?” Bennett asked me.
I tapped my fingers on my stomach, and I looked up at him through my eyelashes. “You first.”
I watched his throat work as he swallowed. “I won’t lie and say I’m not freaked out a little.”
“Like in a bad way?”
He smiled. “No.”
I smiled too. “What are you hoping for these tests to say, honey?”
Looking at them all in a pile, he picked one up and examined it. “I never really thought I would get to be a dad, but the thought of it is kind of taking me over right now.”
Oh, thank God. I didn’t know what I would have done if he was unhappy about this because I was really fucking giddy. Of course it wasn’t rational to be all happy about having a baby while still living at home, but it was temporary. The money we were getting from Bennett’s parents was coming in soon, and it was a nice little chunk of change. We could definitely get a place to live, and now we both had cars. His was much better for toting around a baby than my Bug. Plus, my parents would help us, and we weren’t alone.
The woman checked us out, and she smirked when she saw Bennett and me going nuts while we waited. She didn’t comment, but I was busy hyperventilating anyway.
Bennett dug some cash out of his leather jacket’s pocket and handed it to the woman.
It was a mad dash to get back home and into the house. My entire family was there, including my parents, the dog, Melissa, and my sisters. We rushed by them without more than a scream of, “WE GOT THEM!” before we dashed into the bathroom. Then I opened the bathroom door and reminded Bennett that he shouldn’t watch me pee. He seemed to have forgotten that part, but he let me shove him out of the bathroom.
I didn’t know what I was doing, but I peed in the little thing, and I got it all over all the tests. Just… so much pee, all over the place.
Once they were all taken, I laid them out on the counter and washed my hands three times before I walked out of the bathroom. The monsters waited for me, all in a line outside of the bathroom. Except Moulder, who was right at the door. He dropped when I opened it and rolled to his back, demanding belly rubs. I gave in.
“Well?” Melissa said. “Is your Eggo preggo?”
I rolled my eyes. “We have five minutes.”
Everyone groaned, and I went to sit on the arm of the couch. Bennett joined me, and my sisters all started pacing. As usual with big events, I thought about Kylie and how she should be here with the rest of us. She would miss out on every important thing in our lives now, and there was nothing to be done about it. But I didn’t want to be sad. I wanted to be happy that I might have a baby cooking in my tummy.
“I can’t wait to play with his little toes,” my dad said, grinning wide. “I get to hold the kid first.”
Mom shoved at his shoulder. “Slow your roll there, buster. Who said you get first dibs? I’m grandma.”
“I’m grandpa! Grandpas get to hold the babies first so that we can smell their heads and absorb their youth.”
Riley and Adalyn laughed at him, continuing to pace.
Dad looked at me and pointed to Mom. “Tell her I get dibs.”
I smiled. “I feel like Daddy gets dibs,” I looked to Bennett. “You should get to hold the baby before anyone else.”
He looked very proud that I chose him, despite the fact that as the father, half the choices made were his. He would get say on who held the baby. If there was one.
“I don’t wanna get all excited yet,” I said, tapping on my knee. “It’ll make me sadder if there’s no baby.”
“Aww.” Mom walked over to us and put her arm around my shoulders. “Don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll be positive.”
I wasn’t so sure. Something made me worry that this was all gonna be nothing at all, and then I would have to go to sleep wishing I was pregnant. I mean, Bennett and I could try for a baby, but we both knew that wasn’t the smartest thing to do.
“So,” Adalyn said, eyeing me in her stride. “Let’s get your mind on something happy. Boy or girl?”
I smiled, and at the same time, Bennett and I said, “Boy.”
They all awed at us, and I crossed my arms, rolling my eyes. Of course Bennett and I were on the same page.
“A boy would be fun,” Melissa said. “But I hope when I have kids, I get a couple girls. I mostly want kids so I can dress them up as Ewoks.”
Dad looked so proud when he hugged her. Then he patted her head. “I approve, but you better be married too when you get pregnant.”
“Of course, Daddy,” she said with a nod. “Frankie says he’s marrying me the second I’m legal.”
Dad made a face. “All my kids are leaving me…”
“FIVE MINUTES ARE UP!” Riley yelled, making us all jump. She was a spry thing, and she only stopped to sit on the floor with Moulder. “Hurry!” she ordered me when I didn’t move quick enough.
I went to the bathroom all on my own, and I didn’t look as I grabbed a handful of tests. I wanted to read them in front of everyone so that I wouldn’t have to wait any longer. So I held them and stood in front of the bathroom door.
My eyes moved down, and I locked them on each result, taking them in, and triple checking them all. Then I started bawling.
“Oh, no,” Riley said, sounding heartbroken.
“They’re negative?” Adalyn asked.
I covered my mouth and shook my head. Crying, I said, “They’re all positive.”
They all cheered, and Bennett rushed me. He caught me up in his arms and spun me around. When he stopped,
he kissed me right on the mouth, and he didn’t bother making it all wholesome and pure for our company.
Bennett set me down and pressed his forehead against mine. “We made a baby,” he whispered.
I nodded. “I know. Pretty fucking weird, huh?”
My dad took Bennett in for a hug and patted him on the back while my mom did the same for me. She took the tests and went to put them with the others, saying that we should keep them all.
“Why are you crying?” Melissa asked when Bennett returned to me.
I cleared my face and smiled. “I didn’t know I was going to get this. I didn’t think I would get to be a mom.” I looked to Bennett. “Or get to be married. I didn’t used to think I would even live this long.” My hands both went to my stomach, willing myself to feel something. “And now I’m free, and I have a husband, and we made a baby.” I smiled down at my stomach. “I don’t even know how to put into words how I feel about it.”
Everything in my body felt different. More alive maybe, now with this little person growing in me. I got to keep him forever; this being made from love. Half me and half Bennett. The whole idea was insane, but I was in bliss. Four months ago, I couldn’t imagine I would be here in this position, and I couldn’t imagine it being any different.
Mom hugged me again, and she kissed my cheek. She wiped the lipstick away and brushed it off on her scrubs. “I am so proud of you, Layla, and you are going to be an amazing mother.” She reached out and pulled Bennett in. “And you, honey, are going to be such a great dad. I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am that you’re the father of my grandchild.”
“Thank you, Mom,” he said, getting choked up.
I got some hugs from my sisters again, and they all put their hands on my stomach, trying to feel an itty bitty baby that was barely more than anything so far. At most, I was almost a couple months pregnant. The baby was so tiny, but I thought I still felt it.
“I can’t believe how happy I am right now,” Bennett said.
“Me too.” I put my arms around him and turned my head up to get a good look at the face that I hoped my baby would have. “I can’t imagine doing this with anyone but you, Benny.”
He kissed the tip of my nose, and I wrinkled it. “I wouldn’t have anything without you, ya know.”
I smiled and opened my mouth to say something mushy to him, but Melissa cut me off, poking out of the kitchen with a cake in her hands. “And now we eat the victory cake!”
I gasped and flailed my arms.
“Cake!”
I took my husband’s hand, and I dragged him along with the others so that I could feed our baby.
Damn, it was gonna be a good life.
Nicole “Cappie” Thorn was born in California but, after a stint in Kansas, moved to a suburb of Phoenix. She spends a lot of her free time knitting and reading from her massive book collection. Her days are also wasted discussing fictional characters with her writer friend, and having very serious opinions about which house she would want to be sorted into at Hogwarts.
She likes to write about rainy towns that are infested with the things that go bump in the night. Her eclectic tastes, like Disneyland, Buffy and all things London, carry into her writing. She started writing in her early twenties and finds it wonderfully addictive.
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A Dangerous Year, by Kes Trester
(https://curiosityquills.com/kindle/a-dangerous-year/)
As the daughter of an American ambassador, seventeen-year-old Riley Collins has grown up in some of the world’s most dangerous cities. With her mother long dead, her unlikely surrogate mom – and her father’s security chief – is the hulking Benson. Tagging after him most of her life, she has learned Benson’s Rules for espionage, combat, and defense.
The only thing he didn’t prepare her for was life as an American teenager when she finds herself at an elite Connecticut boarding school charged with watching over a billionaire’s daughter with a target on her back.
Bleed Through, by Adriana Arrington
(https://curiosityquills.com/kindle/bleed-through/)
Twenty-five-year-old schizophrenic Liam witnesses a murder. He worries it’s a hallucination, but becomes convinced that his medication has given him the paranormal ability to see past events and that the murder actually happened. Burdened with secrets he doesn’t want to know, Liam tosses his pills. He spirals into a relapse and captures the killer’s attention as he bumbles through investigating the crime. Hunted by a possibly imaginary murderer, and haunted by self-doubt, Liam must distinguish between hallucinations and reality. If he doesn’t, he risks losing either his hard-won sanity or his life.
Half Dead & Fully Broken, by Kevin Craig
(https://curiosityquills.com/kindle/half-dead/)
Carter Colby is incredibly unpopular. When his popular identical twin brother Marcus dies in a motorcycle accident, Carter becomes an even bigger social pariah. Then he sees Marcus’s ghost. Marcus knows that Justin Dewar—the boy he collided with when he ran the red light—is struggling with guilt. Marcus plans to save him, but he needs Carter’s body to do so. Together, the boys become the superhero Carter always dreamed of being. The twins race to save Justin from himself. Along the way, they might even save themselves.
Charming, by Krystal Wade
(https://curiosityquills.com/kindle/half-dead/)
They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and that’s great… as long as you don’t die.
Sixteen-year-old Haley Tremaine had it all until an accident tore her family apart. Now, a troubled father and sister, and a cold headstone bearing her mother’s name are all she has left. Chris Charming has it all. Struggling to follow in his father’s footsteps, he reaches out to the one person he believes truly sees him, the one person he wants: Haley. Little do they know someone’s determined to bring the two together, even if it means murder.
Appetizer:
Book Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Quote
Main Course:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Interlude
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Interlude
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Interlude
Interlude
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Interlude
Chapter Nineteen
Interlude
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Interlude
Chapter Twenty-Two
Interlude
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Interlude
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Interlude
Epilogue
Dessert:
Closing
About the Author
Copyright & Publisher
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