“Can I bring Sophia?”
“Sure, why not.” He scooped her up and grabbed her lead.
We chatted as I drove through the streets, busy with weekend shoppers stocking up on groceries while family groups headed to the movies and groups of teens huddled outside a bowling alley.
When we arrived on the outskirts of town and were directed into a huge parking lot, Richard took one look at the signs billowing in the wind and swung around to face me. His already-pale face blanched and one hand gripped the seat belt slung across his chest. “Harry, we agreed to give us a go.” He waggled his hand between us. “Whatever it is. But this is too much. No way are we ready to move in together.”
Richard’s reaction had me thinking I should have given this more thought. I took his hand and placed it on my cheek. “It’s not what you think.”
“Then why are we here?” His voice was nearing screech level as he jerked his head at the arrows pointing to the Home and Garden Show.
“It’s for Fifi.”
“Huh? Remind me again who Fifi is. The name’s familiar but I can’t place her. Is that another of your relatives?” He slid down in the seat so only the top of his head was visible from outside. “This isn’t another family thing, is it? I can see Aunt Flora choosing tableware patterns. Or worse, she’s set up a gift registry.” He hugged himself and his feet banged on the floor.
He was getting himself into a frenzy and an image of him racing out of the ballroom flitted through my head. But I was determined not to react to his hysteria. I unbuckled my seat belt and leaned over. “Hey, I wouldn’t do that to you.” I bit my lip and tamped down a desire to say I’d warned him about my relatives before the wedding. “Fifi is my tortoise.”
“Huh?”
“You remember Fifi. In her terrarium?”
“Oh shit. Your pet!”
“Yeah, you know. Little legs, likes nibbling lettuce, hibernates in winter. That Fifi.”
“I don’t remember her actually. She’s been in hiding.”
“Right. Well, that’s why we’re here.”
He sat up and brushed a hand through his tousled hair, which had me wanting to do the same. “Shit. Your pet tortoise.”
“Yeah.”
“Fifi?” he squeaked
“Correct.”
Richard sighed. “I’m an idiot.”
“No. I should have warned you, but I thought it’d be a great place to spend a couple of hours. I love coming to these home and garden shows though I’m not much of a gardener. That’s why we’re here to give me ideas for an outdoor space for Fifi.”
Richard smirked. “It's the perfect place for your aunt.”
“Nah. She hates the outdoors.”
“Flora. Her name is Flora as in Flora and Fauna.”
I should have seen that coming. Auntie had been teased her whole life about her name. “You’re so ferny!”
Richard cracked up. “Look at you making jokes!”
I continued, “But let’s leaf the puns alone and get in there.”
He groaned. “Good idea. They’re getting worse.”
After buying our tickets, I avoided the huge expo center teeming with people and headed to the outdoor section.
Despite his initial reluctance, Richard admired the water gardens with ponds of wriggling carp, the tropical ones with fragrant trees and flowers and people serving drinks in coconuts. He was fascinated with the desert area full of cacti and grasses swaying in the breeze.
Sophia sniffed at everything, and I begged her not to pee on any of the prized plants lining the paths.
I was interested in the sections for pets, particularly the tortoise enclosures. While I wasn’t comfortable leaving Fifi in the garden when I wasn’t home, I wanted her to enjoy being outdoors as much as possible. A large enclosure with mesh over the top was perfect.
“Harry!” Richard’s shriek clutched at my heart as it bounced over the trees. Oh, God, what now? My eyes darted over the crowds wondering if Auntie was hiding behind a potted plant.
“Look!” Richard was cowering beside a flowering shrub and pointing at something while Sophia growled.
My gaze followed his, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. A snake perhaps? Or a huge spider? I didn’t know Richard well enough to discover if he had any phobias. I leaped in front of him and outstretched my arms to protect him. “What is it? Tell me.”
“T-The… t-thing…” His stuttering and trembling hands clutching at his scalp told me he was terrified. “Are you allergic to something? We can go right now if you are?” I searched his face for signs of swelling.
“The g-g-gnome.”
“Huh?” A what?
“That fucking gnome is staring at me.”
I scanned the garden displays, and my eyes alighted on a very traditional one with rose bushes and carnations. It’d be something Aunt Flora would love. Nestled beneath a tree was a little terracotta figure, complete with rounded glasses, a blue jacket, pointy red hat, and a pipe. “The elf thing?”
“That’s no elf,” he snarled. “Get your facts right, Harry. It’s a gnome.”
“Sorry.” He was genuinely frightened, and while I’d never met anyone with a phobia to garden ornaments, I needed to bone up on gnome terminology if Richard hated them. “Let’s go. I’ll come tomorrow and check out the enclosure for Fifi.”
“No, I don’t want to ruin this for you. Give me the car keys. I’ll lock me and Sophia inside and wait until you’re done.” He took a step back, his eyes never leaving the gnome. “We need a code word so I know it’s you.”
“Won’t you see me through the window? It needs a clean, but it’s not that dirty.”
Richard shook his head. “I might be on the floor.”
I counted to five in my head. “Fine. Fifi.”
“Fine. Fifi. Got it.” He nibbled a nail. “You don’t have a weapon, do you?”
“Nah.” Without thinking, I blurted out, “Left my sword at home and lost my lightsaber in a battle last week.” I regretted the words as soon as they were out of my mouth.
“Harry! This is serious! Sophia will have to protect me.”
“Sorry again.” Shit! I’m the idiot. Making light of his genuine fear wasn’t being supportive. “I’ll be as quick as I can.”
We headed in opposite directions, but as I passed the gnome, I gave it a kick and it toppled over. “Take that, you fiend!”
57
Richard
“Any other symptoms aside from the stomach issues and the exhaustion?” I asked the omega sitting on my exam table turning a not fun shade of green.
“Pretty much just that. The stomach thing comes and goes, but the exhaustion, I could literally sleep anywhere. I fell asleep on my kitchen stool waiting for the microwave to warm my soup.”
“Are you sexually active?” The light bulb must’ve switched on because his hands immediately went to his belly. “Why don’t you go leave a urine sample in the bathroom, and we will find out soon enough if you are going to be a daddy.”
And sure enough he was, and in his words, “This is so much better than cancer.” He wasn’t wrong, but also how did they get cancer out of those symptoms that were so classically pregnancy-related.
I froze and went over my patient’s symptoms. Jesus! He wasn’t the only one. There was another omega experiencing the same symptoms. And that omega was...me! I was a dumbass. Because what had I done? I’d explained them away.
Sure, I didn’t jump to cancer like my patient, instead I thought about concrete things like my shitty diet and extended work hours, and really, aside from a couple of days, my stomach was more yuck than kill me now.
I stopped at the pharmacy on the way home, not wanting the people at work to see what I was up to. If I wasn’t pregnant, they didn’t need to know about my little misdiagnosis, and if I were?
No, this was better even if it cost me more money than the twenty-cent test strips we had in boxes at work. I could have taken some home, but by going to the
pharmacy, I’d avoid any prying eyes.
The drive home was filled with all the what ifs and what am I going to do. What if I was pregnant? What if I wasn’t? What if Harry didn’t want this baby? What if he did? What am I going to do if I am pregnant?
And really, I already felt it in my core that I was. Was Harry going to be mad? That I didn’t know. Would he treat this baby like the treasure they were? Of that I had no doubt. It was he who wanted the perfect little family life when we first met, and while I probably couldn’t give him that perfect happy ever after, I could give him me—and our baby. And maybe, just maybe that would be enough.
I walked in the door, locking it behind me and telling Sophia to follow me. She wanted her walk. Of course she did, but I had myself so worked up I needed to take this test before I combusted. I ripped open the package and peed on the stick, watching as first one line and then the second turned blue.
I was pregnant.
I had a baby growing inside of me.
I was going to be a dad.
“Sophia, let’s get you your walk while I figure out how to life.” She just wagged her tail and followed me to the hook where her leash lived without a care in this world except possibly when she was getting her next cheese treat.
I clipped her leash to her harness and grabbed a bag in case she left a deposit along the way, and we stepped out into the glorious fresh air.
I let Sophia lead. She knew this neighborhood better than I so she should be in control of where we went, or at least that was my theory. About a block in, I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to talk to someone about my pregnancy, someone who could talk back and preferably didn’t have a tail or any connection to Harry. Which left my old roommate Jesse. He’d been there, done that, got the stretch marks.
I took out my phone and called him, and to my amazement he picked up on the first ring.
“Richard! I was just talking about you yesterday. How the heck are you?”
“Pregnant.”
“What? There was no lead-in? Hey, guess what? I met a guy and we have been dating and sometimes he knots my ass and it is freaking fantastic, but you know how some birth control is pretty sucky at preventing births? Well surprise, no birth control is worse. So, happy you’re an uncle day. You know, something like that.” I had to give it to Jesse. He knew how to take an intense and awkward conversation and make it somehow less so.
“So it is insanely creepy how much of that is spot-on.” I tightened up on the lead. “Sophia, heel.” She stopped as we reached the corner. “Good girl. Now look both ways so we can cross.” She didn’t even come close to looking at anything other than me. “Fine, we can go now.” She jumped off the curb and off we went.
“Sorry. Traffic.” Or possibly traffic as the case might be. “So yeah, I met a guy. His name is Harry and he is everything I want in a guy, and for real, not like before.”
“How long have you known him?”
“I don’t know, half a year maybe?”
“So he’s not like the others,” Jesse concluded.
“I already told you that.” I rolled my eyes and then informed him that I was doing so.
“Tell me everything.” And so I did, from our first meeting to my stupid decision to run out of the wedding and the incident with the gnome. “So what should I do?”
“Go tell your alpha you’re pregnant.”
“Just like that?” I asked, wondering if it could possibly be that simple.
“Yeah, just like that.”
Everyone needed a friend like Jesse.
If only he could have been there when I got home and the panic set in.
58
Harry
I was putting a load of washing in the machine and transferring another lot to the dryer when I heard a banging and Uncle Enrique’s voice yelling my name. Shit! What’s happened?
Uncle practically fell inside when I flung open the front door. “Don’t you ever check your phone?”
“What sort of question is that?”
“Well?” He had his hands on his hips as his eyes darted around the room.
He waved his own phone in my face. “Richard has been trying to get ahold of you.”
After giving him a look, I headed into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water. “Want one?”
“Did you hear what I said, Henry?”
“I did.” I brushed past him and plonked myself in my favorite armchair. “We were hoping to get together later.”
“Call him.”
Don’t do this. Please. “Didn’t realize you were running a dating service. Or are you an intermediary now because I’m not trustworthy enough to speak to Richard directly.” I gulped a mouthful of water and wiped away drops that trickled over my chin. My family was something else.
“Talk to him. He sounded strange… anxious even.”
That’s not good. I sat up, and after grabbing my phone, noted the number of missed calls from Richard. Thinking back to our time at the Home and Garden Show, I asked, “This isn’t about the gnome, is it?”
“What are you babbling on about?”
“Forget I said anything. I’ll give him a call, but I’d like you to leave, Uncle. I can do this by myself.”
“Your boyfriend needs you.” Uncle hovered over me. “I’m not going anywhere until you speak to him.”
I mumbled ‘dictator’ under my breath and glared at my uncle. Was Richard my boyfriend? It was such a vague, old-fashioned word. But Richard’s voice faltered and trembled as he answered the phone and said, “Harry?”
My stomach clenched, and I gripped the phone so tightly, I was surprised it didn’t crack. Shit, Uncle was right. “I’m coming over. Be there in ten.”
“Okay.”
Grabbing my keys, I raced out the door with Uncle Enrique behind me. “Thank you, Uncle.”
“Don’t fuck it up.”
My uncle rarely swore, which showed how worked up he was. “I’ll do my best not to.”
I made it to Richard’s in half the time it should have taken. The door was open as I tore inside yelling his name. His feeble voice responded with, “In the bathroom.”
He’s sick! As I reached the doorway, Richard was lying on the floor, his knees curled up in a fetal position, and Sophia was whimpering by his side. “I’ll take you to the clinic.”
“No,” he sniffed. He patted the tiles, and it was then I focused on the stick-like things of different shapes and sizes surrounding him.
I kneeled on the cold, hard floor and picked up a high-tech looking one that showed the word, ‘Yes.’ Another had a plus sign, while a third showed two pink lines. “I give up. What is all this?”
Richard’s hand slithered over the floor and picked up another stick. He shoved it at me, and I blinked at two words hovering in front of me. ‘You’re pregnant.’ I read them over and over but they didn’t make any sense.
I was an adult and college-educated. I could read, but I couldn’t comprehend the meaning of those words. It was as though they were needling me, desperate to make me understand, but I was in a daze and nothing was penetrating my brain.
“Harry?” Richard’s plaintive voice had me shaking my head and focusing on the man on the floor who had tears streaming over his cheeks and onto his tee, leaving large wet patches in the cotton fabric.
Slumping onto the floor, I pulled him to me and with my arm under him, Richard lay his head on my shoulder. “You’re pregnant,” I whispered. Sophia licked my face, and I patted her with my free hand.
“Mmmm,” he sobbed. “How did this happen?” His body shook as he howled on my chest and twisted my shirt in his clenched fingers.
Stifling the urge to explain how omegas got pregnant, I kissed his hair. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
Richard lifted his head. “W-What d-does that m-mean?”
“I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”
“But I’m having a b-baby. Our b-baby. Yours and m-mine.” His shoulders shook as he stammered, and the word
s echoed around the small bathroom.
“Yeah, I got that.” Took me a few seconds, though.
“But this wasn’t planned. We hardly know one another.”
“You like chicken fingers and dogs.”
“And Thai food,” he mumbled.
“You’ve got a phobia about gnomes.” Richard trembled. “You’re good at your job according to my uncle and survived Aunt Flora’s interrogation.”
“Wow!”
I pressed my lips on his brow. “How’d I do?”
“Not bad. But none of this was thought out. I’ve ruined your life.”
I sat him up and put one hand under his chin and the other on my heart. “Firstly, while it’s a huge shock, a baby isn’t going to ruin my life or yours. On the contrary. We’re going to be parents, Richard, and be responsible for a life. How amazing is that?”
“I guess.” He wiped tears off his cheeks and yawned and then lay on the floor and gave Sophia a cuddle. I put the dog on my chest, and Richard snuggled into me and closed his eyes that were red and puffy from weeping.
“We’re both professionals, and we’ll sort out the work/life/baby balance. We were both there doing the deed as I recall.” My thoughts returned to our marathon sex session that first night.
“Mmmm.” As his breathing slowed and his chest rose and fell, Sophia also fell asleep, and I lay on the cold tiles experiencing a silent freakout. What do I know about babies? Could I put the little one in a sling as I give a closing argument in court?
I winced as my heart thundered in my chest and adrenaline surged through my veins. I gulped mouthfuls of oxygen hoping I wasn’t having a panic attack.
The cold from the tiles seeped into my body reminding me of fog drifting and creeping around a forest. I squeezed my eyes shut and took deep breaths.
A cold nose nuzzled my jaw. “Hey, Sophia.” She studied me with her huge brown eyes. “Do you think I can do this? Blink once for yes, twice for no.” But she opened her mouth and licked the scruff on my chin. “I’ll take that as a yes. Come on. Let’s get your lord and master into bed.”
Love at Blind Date Complete Series: Books 1-4 Page 21