Valentine's Surprise

by Moxie North

  “Yup, on the dot. I’ll have the Thai, you set the table. No card, no candy, and no giant stuffed animals. You know how I feel about that,” she said, giving him one of her baby growls she was always practicing.

  “Ohh, scary,” he mocked. “I won’t forget. I did find a bag of those cinnamon-flavored candies you like. It’s like three pounds. I left it at work. I’ll bring those tonight.”

  “Ohh, bitchin’. Have a good day, call me, text me, carrier pigeon me,” she said, and then stuck her tongue out at him.

  Cash leaned down and covered her mouth with his. Sweeping his tongue deep into her mouth, he tangled with the tongue that had tried to be saucy to him.

  “You have a good day too, Sprite,” he said, after breaking off the kiss.

  That kiss got all of Cassie’s juices pumping, and from the glow in her mate’s eyes, he knew it.

  “Tonight,” he growled. His growl was a promise that they would uphold one time-honored Valentine’s tradition…knocking boots.

  Cassie watched him turn and walk away. She turned to the shower that was now steaming and got in. She was nervous and excited. Tonight she would tell him about her little parasite. Her own freaking supernatural spawn. Maybe she’d call it spawn. That was a cute nickname, right?

  * * *

  Cassie and Cash spent the day checking their watches and remembering to text each other at regular intervals to prove that everything was normal.

  The guys at the shop were just as excited for tonight as Cassie was. They were giving her advice all day that just made her more nervous. She threw up again at work when Jasper brought in burritos. Normally they were one of Cassie’s favorites, but the smell hit her and had her bolting to the bathroom.

  Cash kept busy and ignored any advice he got. He wasn’t so worried about telling her that he knew; she would get over that. Now he was more concerned about whether she would take everyone else knowing in stride. Wyatt brought that up a few days ago. He wondered if she was going to feel left out that everyone knew about shifters smelling pregnancy and feel like they were making fun of her.

  Alpha to the rescue again. He assured Cash that she would realize that they were all just giving her time to adjust and tell him herself. Cassie wasn’t one to hold a grudge. Cash knew this was true, but he didn’t want anything to mess up this evening.

  Before he left, he made sure to grab her cinnamon candies. He’d also grabbed a half dozen bags of candy hearts. He figured they would last through the next few months. Maybe they’d even settle her stomach like over-sugared antacids.

  He did break his promise and stopped to pick up an order of flowers from the florist that he’d put in. To avoid any issues, he asked for them to do a bouquet in white. No red, no pink, no obvious Valentine’s reference. Just a bunch of roses mixed with white hydrangeas. He was going to hopefully beat Cassie home and have them in a vase on the table before she got there.

  As he left work and got through his errands, his bear was antsy and wanted to run. Cash promised him tomorrow. Tonight they didn’t have time. Tonight they celebrated and everything had to be perfect.

  * * *

  Cassie ran into the house, fumbling the bags of take-out boxes. “I’m here, I’m here,” she called out, kicking off her shoes by the door in the mudroom.

  “In the kitchen,” Cash called out.

  Cassie rounded the corner and her eyes first went to her man. He was standing, pouring her an orange soda in a huge plastic tumbler. It had her favorite silicone straw in it. It was extra wide so she could suck down the caffeinated goodness faster. The baby books Effie had sent her had been enlightening. She knew she was going to have to cut back on the caffeine. Although, it said some wasn’t too bad for the baby. She could go down to one, maybe two orange sodas a day. Her kid was going to be cracktastic, anyway.

  Past the perfect picture of a man was their kitchen table. Cash had set it with their dishes, water glasses, real cloth napkins that Cassie had no idea they even owned, and a vase. The vase was crammed full of white flowers. She could smell them from where she stood. They were all perfectly white. Stunning in their simplicity.

  “You got me flowers?” She couldn’t help but whisper to him.

  Cash looked over his shoulder and turned back to her. “Hell no, those are mine.”

  Cassie was still looking at them as she walked towards him. “Liar, you got me flowers.” Her was voice full of awe. She knew she should be pissed at him, but she just couldn’t. They were too amazing.

  Instead, she smacked him on his hard chest. “Asshole.”

  “Totally, but look, all white, no pink and no red. They will look just as pretty tomorrow and not be a reminder of your distaste for…what did you call them?”

  “Manufactured holidays designed so men only had to be nice to you once a year,” she said, walking around him to lean over the table and breathe in the scent of her flowers.

  “Yeah, that,” he chuckled. “So, hungry?”

  “Starved, let’s bring the bag to the table. No need to dirty up more dishes,” she said, still distracted by her pretties.

  “Since I’m doing the dishes, I get to decided how many dishes get washed.” Cash was opening a cupboard and pulling out serving dishes.

  “We have serving dishes?” Cassie said surprised.

  “Yeah, babe, we have serving dishes.”

  Cassie gave a shrug and came over to help. They dished everything out, and she had to admit, it did look much nicer than take-out containers and plastic bags on the nice table Cash put together.

  “Happy Valentine’s Day, Sprite,” Cash said, offering his glass of iced tea as a toast.

  Cassie clinked her orange soda with his glass. “Right back ‘atcha,” she said smiling at him.

  They ate and talked about their days. Both seeming to linger over their food. The tension in the room was growing, and both were pretending they didn’t feel it.

  “Uh, so, what do you want to do now?” Cash asked. His plan to show her the room was there, he just didn’t know how to do it.

  “Well, I have something I want to show you.” Cassie sat her napkin on the table and cleared her throat.

  “Okay,” Cash said hesitantly. “Can I give you something first? I know we said no gifts, lame cards, or anything. This is not any of those things.”

  “Oh, sure!” Cassie appreciated the brief reprieve.

  Cash helped her up and took her hand walking her down the hallway. As they got closer to the room that Cassie had been working so hard on, she was surprised when they stopped at the door opposite.

  “I need you to just take it in and don’t jump to any conclusions. Just, well, uh…” Cash scrambled for what to say. He raked a hand through his beard and looked down at her confused expression. Figuring he was going to do this one way or another, he cracked open the door and reached his hand in and flipped on the light. Pushing the door wide open, he stepped back and let her walk in first.

  Cassie stepped past him, and her breath caught in her throat. It was a beautiful nursery. Not the one she’d done, but the one that Cash had put together. The wall opposite her had a totally modern cool round crib against it, and there was a floor-to-ceiling replica of the tattoo on her stomach. Cassie’s hand unconsciously went to the ink and her baby underneath.

  The room was everything she would imagine that she’d raise a child of Cash’s in. It was hip and sweet. It was blue without leaning too far to one gender. Cassie turned in circles in the center of the room. On her second rotation, she stopped as she faced Cash. He had a furrowed brow and looked nervous.

  “Sprite, I didn’t know how to tell you I knew. I’ve known since before you did. I could smell it. I waited and waited for you to tell me. I started to worry you weren’t happy about this. That you weren’t ready, or you thought I wasn’t ready. I am, you are, we both are. I’m fucking over the moon, I didn’t think I could love you anymore, but I’ll be damned if you didn’t take it to a whole other level. I have to take breaks at work b
ecause I get fucking teary-eyed thinking about you carrying our cub. I love you, Sprite. I love our baby. If you don’t like the nursery, we can change it. Anything you want,” he promised.

  Cassie watched her big man fumble his words. Of course he’d known. How could he not? He could smell everything on her. If he knew that meant everyone knew. They all kept her secret. Not spoiling the surprise. For that, she would be forever grateful. She wasn’t mad, it was just another reminder that this family was always careful with each other.

  Looking past her mate to the door across the hall, Cassie started to giggle. Then her giggle turned into a chuckle, then she bent over holding her stomach as she laughed loudly, tears rolling down her cheeks.

  “Sprite?” Cash said, stepping forward.

  Cassie held up one finger as she tried to catch her breath. Cash stopped and waited for her. He didn’t know if she was hysterically crying or happy crying. With Cassie, it was an unknown until she announced which emotion had started the tears.

  Catching her breath finally, Cassie walked to her mate and took his hand. She led him across the hallway to the other door and opened it, turning on the light. The soft lamps hanging from the ceiling illuminated the room with a dark green glow.

  Stepping back, she let Cash walk through.

  Cash strode into the room and stopped short. It was his turn to spin looking at every corner of the room. The furniture was black, glossy, and very ornate. The walls had a mountain scene painted on it, the dark colors contrasting with the bright greens she had chosen. Those were their mountains. The room was exactly what Cassie would have picked, exactly what he would have imagined raising their child in. It was so insane to know what was perfect after you see it.

  Turning back to her, he saw her leaning against the door frame, her eyes still red and bright.

  “Baby, you did this?” Cash asked.

  “I was going to surprise you tonight. You were right; I was worried you didn’t think I was ready. Maybe physically, maybe mentally. I wanted to show you that I was. That I was happy and so ready for this. Then you go and make the perfect room for our baby,” she said, ruefully shaking her head.

  “No, this room is perfect. It’s exactly you,” Cash said, glancing around again.

  “And the room you made is just what I would imagine raising our child in.”

  Cash started laughing and walked to his mate. “Goddamn, I love you.”

  “I love you too. What are we going to do with two nurseries?” she asked, laying her head on his chest.

  “Use one now and save the other for the next baby?”

  Cassie smiled into his chest. Tilting her head back, she agreed. “Yeah, save it for the next baby.”

  “I love you, Sprite. More with every breath I take,” he said, his eyes shining bright with his bear agreeing.

  “I love you too, big guy. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

  “Happy Valentine’s Day,” he said and sealed that with a kiss.

  Epilogue

  “You know, I really would have preferred having you under my care a lot sooner than now,” Dr. Edison Rochon said with a frown.

  “Well, we had some communication errors,” Cassie offered.

  “This family…always has to do things the hard way.” Eddie shook his head. “Let’s see, your blood work looks good. I’ll go ahead and run a full series, but there’s nothing right off the bat that looks odd. We should go over your diet. I’ve heard rumors about you.”

  “Flat out lies! Ask Cash, I even ate a banana this morning. A whole one!” Cassie said indignantly.

  “It’s true, she did.” Cash was sitting behind his mate on the examination table, Cassie leaning against him. She hadn’t stopped touching him since they let on that they both knew about the baby. The only time was when he was at work. She had even taken to just holding his hand as she walked around the house. Cash didn’t mind, and he certainly wasn’t unused to trailing behind her like a puppy.

  “Wow, a whole banana. Should we take out a notice in the paper?” Eddie mocked.

  Cassie blew him a raspberry, and then followed it with just sticking out her tongue.

  “Really? I’ve got toddlers that behave better than you.” Eddie put her folder down on the counter.

  “Your mom’s a toddler,” Cassie mimicked under her breath.

  “Real mature, Sprite,” Cash said with a grin.

  “Fine, if I give you an ultrasound so you two can ooh and ahh over your little lima bean, will you leave me to my very important job of saving people’s lives?” Eddie asked, fake glaring at the two.

  “Hah, I heard you pulled a Lego out of Kingston’s nose this morning. Conner told Cash.” Cassie gave the doctor a told you so look.

  “Hey, that Lego could have traveled to his brain! I got it out in the nick of time,” Eddie declared. He walked to the wall and hit the lights. “Man, let your mate lie down so we can get this over with. You all making babies left and right. Didn’t our parents tell us shifter births were rare? I’m sure I heard that growing up.”

  “Old wives’ tale. Told to us so we would all be in a hurry to procreate and give them the grandbabies they so desperately desired,” Cash said wisely.

  Turning on the ultrasound machine, Eddie tucked a sheet into Cassie’s leggings while she pulled her shirt up. There was only the slightest rounding to her normally flat stomach. Eddie squirted a huge blob of warm gel on her stomach.

  “Now remember, I can’t tell you what it is since it’s, again, a lima bean. If you are lucky, maybe a gummy bear, no pun intended.”

  “We just want to make sure she’s all right,” Cash said.

  “He’s all right,” Cassie corrected.

  “Awesome, already fighting over gender which everyone knows is the best way for the fates to gift you with a hermaphrodite.”

  “Cool,” Cassie gasped.

  “No, not cool, babe. Complicated,” Cash corrected.

  “Still…” Cassie trailed off.

  Eddie put the wand on her stomach and started smoothing the gel around. It was just a blur of black blobs and white smudgy areas.

  “Huh,” Eddie said, moving the wand around her stomach again.

  “Huh, what?” Cassie asked. She couldn’t make anything out on the screen.

  “Here, let me switch to 3D.” Eddie clicked a button on the machine.

  The second he did that, two egg-shaped black circles appeared on the screen. Each circle contained what looked like a gummy bear, for lack of a better description. Inside each little gummy was a flickering light in the middle of each chest.

  “Fuck me,” Cash said, squeezing his mate’s hand.

  Cassie couldn’t tear her eyes from the screen. She was trying to assimilate the data and was failing. “Fuck me, twice,” she murmured.

  “Of course, why am I not surprised? Congratulations, you two. Twins. Both have good heartbeats and appear an appropriate size. We are going to have to watch you closely. You are tiny and have a shit diet. We need to take good care of these little buggers,” Eddie said, not looking away from the screen. He was printing out copies of the pictures for them.

  Cassie turned to Cash. She was in no way surprised to see her big burly mountain man crying like a baby. “Baby, don’t cry. I’m sure they are both girls,” she offered with a giggle.

  “Like I care. We’re having twins!” Cash grinned through his tears.

  “Babe, two rooms!” Cassie said with a laugh.

  “The fates always know. You still doubt me about that?” Cash brought her hand to his mouth. He pressed a kiss on her knuckles.

  “No, Cash. I don’t doubt you. They seem to have my best interests in mind all the time. I love you and our gummy bears,” she said through her own watery eyes.

  “You can’t call them that,” Cash laughed.

  “Watch me,” she said with a wink.

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