I stuffed the last piece of toast in my mouth and pushed the baking tray away. I wasn’t interested in either the orange juice or the other slice of toast—one slice and some water was pushing it this morning, apparently—and lay down on my back.
Nausea rolled through my stomach.
I closed my eyes.
Yes, I had. I’d accepted it. This was happening. It was real. I was having a baby.
I slid my hand over my stomach, resting it at the very bottom so my fingertips brushed my hip.
Somewhere, under my hand, through the layers of the skin and tissue and muscle that made up my body, there was a growing baby.
My baby.
Holy.
Fucking.
Shit.
CHAPTER EIGHT – IVY
“Well, that wasn’t a waste of time at all.” I slid into the only empty booth at Bronco’s and sagged against the plush back.
Kai moved the empty coffee cups to a nearby table and sat opposite me. “What did you expect?”
“I don’t know. Something more than the pee test I did myself?” I huffed, dropping my hands on the table. “I didn’t need my doctor to tell me I’m pregnant, Kai. I know I’m pregnant. So help me, Sophie, take that coffee around those tables before I vomit half a gallon of water over the floor,” I said to one of our servers who always worked the lunchtime shift.
As a mother of six, Sophie was more than acquainted with the symptoms of pregnancy, so she simply laughed and diverted around a table. “I’ll tell everyone the volcano has landed.”
“The volcano?” Kai quirked a brow.
I sighed. “Because I’ll erupt at the barest scent of coffee. They coined it last night. I was so mad I cried for five minutes.”
He looked like he didn’t know whether he wanted to laugh or not. “I’m… sorry?”
“No, you’re not,” I said dryly. “You’re trying not to laugh, you asshole.”
“It is kind of funny.”
“It’s not funny.”
“It is.”
“It really isn’t,” I insisted, grabbing a menu to read. Like I didn’t already know it off by heart.
Kai picked up a menu with far less fervor than I had and perused it. I glanced over the top of mine, but he had his gaze firmly focused on the card in front of him.
That was so annoying.
God, I was so annoyed.
With a huff, I slammed my menu card down and stormed off to the restroom where I knew I could be irrationally annoyed by myself in a toilet stall.
I shoved the door open and let it slam behind me then locked myself into a stall. The clink of the toilet seat reverberated off the empty restroom when I shut it, and I dropped myself onto it with a heavy sigh.
And buried my face into my hands.
I couldn’t believe I’d just paid my doctor to tell me I was pregnant.
Seriously.
I’d already dropped, like, forty bucks on pregnancy tests that had done just that. It really was a waste of my time, because she’d admitted that she couldn’t do anything right now because it was too soon, so bye, and she’d see me in three weeks.
Of course, she’d sent me home with a whole list of things I couldn’t eat, like sushi, and things I couldn’t do, like use a hot tub—as if those were available in our apartment building—and probably a whole bunch of other stuff that would just piss me off right now.
I buried my face in my hands and took a deep breath. I knew this was irrational, but I was tired, I was hungry, and my head was aching like crazy.
All I wanted to do was go home and curl up into my bed and wake up tomorrow morning.
I had to get a handle of this. It wasn’t going to happen overnight, and I was going through so many changes, but that was no excuse to be a raging bitch.
Especially to Kai.
I mean, this was partially his fault, but still. He wasn’t the one who was making me tired, though. It was something out of everyone’s control, and if I was going to make it through the next few months, I had to deal with the frustration.
In related news, I had to get some tissues ordered on next day delivery.
After another moment of silence, I took a deep breath and stood up. While I was here, I took control of business in the stall, then headed out to wash my hands and fix myself up.
Leaning on the edge of the counter, I peered at myself in the huge, glaringly lit mirrors. I not only felt exhausted, but I looked it, too. Shallow bags had taken up residence under my eyes, my cheeks were extra flushed, and there was a huge pimple forming on the most awkward spot on my chin.
Great.
I had to deal with teenage acne again, too.
I wiped under my eyes, washed my hands, and escaped the confines of the bathroom. It was getting warm in there, and I was thankful for the cool blast of air conditioning as I stepped into the bar.
It wasn’t like June in Montana was blazing hot, but it still felt good.
I slipped back to the booth. Kai had switched from the menu to his phone, and two tall glasses of ice water were sitting on coasters in the middle of the table.
He glanced up for a second before he resumed tapping. “You looked like you could use some water.”
I was thirsty, actually. “Thank you.” I slid the water to me, pulled the paper wrapper off the straw, and put it in the glass so I could take a long drink.
He didn’t look up, and I trained my gaze on the ice cubes in the glass in front of me.
“Sorry,” I said softly, still looking into the cup.
“What for?”
“Being a miserable bitch.”
He chuckled lightly, putting his phone screen down on the table. “You’re annoyed. I get it. I’d be annoyed, too, if I were you.”
“Oh, stop it!” I threw a napkin at him.
It failed miserably, flopping to the table immediately in front of me.
His eyebrows shot up.
“No, don’t look at me like that!” I gripped my cup tightly. “Being annoyed or tired or hormonal doesn’t give me the right to be a bitch to you.”
“I see why they call you the volcano.”
“I’m trying to be nice here.”
Kai reached over and picked up the napkin I’d attempted to throw at him. He laid it out flat between us, flattening his hands over it until it was all but straightened again.
“I ordered for you,” he said, focusing on ripping his own straw open. “Sophie said you like the grilled cheese, and you look a little tired so she recommended a side of tomato soup. I was going to wait, but you were in there a while. Is that okay? She said you can change it if you want.”
I swallowed, fiddling with another napkin. “That’s fine. I’m not massively hungry anyway.”
“You haven’t eaten anything today.”
I didn’t reply.
He didn’t say anything either.
“Why aren’t you talking to me?” I asked after a moment, staring at him. “And why won’t you look at me? Did I do something to make you mad?”
Finally, he dragged his gaze to me. “No. I wish you’d stop thinking that you did. It feels like you’ve spent the whole week wondering if you’ve upset me.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. “I’m sorry, I—”
“Need to stop it.” Kai reached over and squeezed my fingers. “Okay? Just stop, Ivy. You’re allowed to be annoyed. You’re allowed to be mad over little things. You’re allowed to run off to the restroom and take ten minutes to breathe if that’s what you need.”