Dinner Plans

EVIE

My parents bustled through the kitchen preparing a breakfast feast for me, Saanvi, and Tim, both of them talking a mile a minute about how glad they were that I was okay, what if I had been caught in the fire, and so close to Christmas!

The smell of coffee wafted over the chatter. I was desperate for a cup—especially after this morning’s ordeal with Sam.

He may have let the L-word slip, but immediately afterward, he looked like he wanted to suck it back into his windpipe before shifting the subject.

I was trying to be chill about this. I knew he was stressed about his law firm, and about the fact that instead of going to work on a normal Tuesday, all his employees would be scrambling to get their computer files and get set up remotely.

“Evie, don’t you want any coffee?” Mom asked.

“Yeah, it’s weird seeing you not walk straight to the Keurig,” Dad said.

“No thanks,” I lied, forcing a smile. “I had some before I left Sam’s.” No way was I going to risk this miracle pregnancy with even a drop of caffeine, but I did wish they’d stop asking.

~There’s not even any goddamn decaf.~

I shot Saanvi a stern look. She knew full well what was going on, but hopefully she knew better than to spill the beans to our parents.

Sizzling sounded as my mother tossed a few strips of bacon on the griddle along with a vigorous helping of sausage patties. Bubbles flared around the searing meat, producing gurgles in my stomach.

But this wasn’t hunger. No. This was something else.

My churning belly, the bile clogging my esophagus, and the goosebumps flaring on my open arms clarified: I was about to throw up.

~I’ve gotta get outta here.~

I escaped without speaking a word, heading around the corner to the living room. As the odor of breakfast faded, my stirring gut thankfully did as well.

~That was close.~

Saanvi appeared behind me a moment later. Her pin-straight black hair framed the sides of her face as she squinted at me with worried sable eyes.

“Are you all right?” she asked quietly.

“Well, all of a sudden, the smell of cooking meat nauseates me. I’m just barely late for my period! How am I already getting morning sickness?”

“Dr. Nevill said yesterday that it was possible,” she reminded me. “She even said it would be a good sign. Nausea means your body is flooding with all the right hormones.”

I sighed. “This pregnancy still doesn’t feel real. After the appointment yesterday, before I went to Sam’s house, I took two tests at home just to be sure. I spent years thinking I couldn’t have this; it’s bizarre.”

“Did you tell him?” Saanvi asked gently.

I sighed. “Not yet.”

“Evie…,” she growled.

“Look, I know, okay? I will.”

“Evie, this is a huge thing for you,” Saanvi said, holding her voice as close to a whisper as possible. “If Sam isn’t excited or accepting, all of us are going to pitch in and help. We all know how badly you want to be a mom.”

~A mom.~ I can’t even imagine being one after all this time. Until I met Sam, I’d nearly given up on the idea.

“It’s not that I think Sam will be angry,” I admitted. “He’s such an amazing man, and I know he won’t be. But…”

Saanvi’s forehead pinched. “But what?”

“I’m high risk, Saanvi.” My eyes felt hot as I finally allowed my fear to see the light of day. “Dr. Nevill said that too, remember? Women with low ovarian reserve are twice as likely to miscarry. I don’t want Sam to get all excited if this isn’t really going to happen.”

“Listen, Sam’s a big boy—and it’s not fair to him ~or~ you to think you have to go through this on your own,” Saanvi said. “Let him in, Evie. And I am ~not~ talking about his cock, okay? I’m talking about all the gross, gooey emotional shit.”

An embarrassing snort sounded from the back of my throat as she caught me off guard.

“He told me he loved me this morning,” I said. “But it was like, as soon as it slipped out, he regretted it.”

Saanvi rolled her eyes. “I’ve witnessed the ~disgusting~ way that man looks at you. He doesn’t regret it.”

Saanvi might act as if she despised all the heart-wrenching, cutesy stuff, but I knew her better than that—she loved it just as much as I did.

“So do you love him too?” she asked, trying to sound like she didn’t care one way or another about the answer.

“You know…I thought about that the entire way over here. I just wanted to turn the car around and fix the way we left it…but I didn’t. The last person I said those words to, he betrayed me.”

I hadn’t even told Saanvi yet about my suspicion that Greg had set the fire. What did it say about me if I’d wasted almost ten years of my life on a man capable of something like that?

“You remember what Mom always used to tell us?” Saanvi asked with a faint smile. “There are two options when it comes to fear. Forget everything and run…”

“Or face everything and rise,” I said with a sigh. “I remember.”

Boy, did I remember—It was Mom’s answer each time Saanvi and I were stuck between a rock and a hard place. It was the same basic advice I’d passed on to Sam when he was struggling with whether to accept the merger.

Saanvi smirked. “Go get your man.”

“I can’t just leave here,” I said, furrowing my brows.

“After refusing a cup of coffee, you’re gonna sit across the table all morning nauseous over your meat?” Saanvi questioned. “Contrary to popular belief, parents aren’t stupid—especially ours. You need to tell Sam before they figure it out. Now, go. I’ll cover for you.”

***

After capturing my purse, sneaking out like a teen, and psyching myself up on the drive over, I slipped into Sam’s place with still only the vaguest idea of what I was going to say.

I dropped my keys in the shiny blue ceramic bowl on the entry table, lowered my bag to the slate tiles, and rounded the corner into the living room.

The giant wall of windows behind Sam showed off a view of the backyard’s well-kept trees and shrubs. Late-morning sunlight streamed in to illuminate where he sat parked on the black leather sofa, right where I left him, finishing up a call.

“Absolutely,” Sam said to whoever was on the other end. “That would be great. Thanks.” He hung up and set his phone on the glass coffee table, grinning at me in surprise. “What happened? I thought you were having breakfast with your parents.”

“As it turns out, I’m not really in the breakfast mood,” I said with a shrug.

I cruised across the fluffy white area rug to plop myself down on Sam’s lap. My fingers intertwined behind his neck, and his warm hands trailed up the back of my shirt without protest.

“What’s gotten into you this morning?” Sam asked with a beaming smile.

~Before the pregnancy talk, first things first.~

“I love you too,” I said, cutting to the chase. “And I’m sorry if I’ve been distant these last few days. There are some things we need to talk about, and I’ve been putting them off. I was hoping you would let me take you out to dinner tonight. Maybe Edson Hill?”

I’d decided I didn’t want to tell a guy we were having a baby together before we’d even been on a proper date. That seemed fair. Not a stalling tactic at all.

“Evie, that place is crazy expensive,” he protested. “I’m not letting you pay for that.”

“We can fight about it later, Vázquez,” I said with a smile. “But for now, just say yes.”

“I have to meet the new contractor at the firm in a couple of hours. You can ride with me, and we can go after that,” he suggested.

“Sounds good. Can we stop by my place before dinner, though? There’s no way I’m walking into Edson Hill wearing jeans.”

“Of course. But, uh…” Sam smirked as his fingertips slid into the back waistband of my denim, copping a feel of the lace beneath them. “What’re we gonna do with the couple of hours we have to kill?”

Of course, he wanted sex. Who was I kidding? The man was smoking hot. I wanted it just as bad.

Ah, what the hell. I was already pregnant, anyway. Riding his cock on this couch seemed like a damn good way to kill some time before I had to face the music.