“I am a doctor. I get late phone calls.” I hear some noise in the background.
“Are you doing your makeup?”
“Multitasking is my life.” She chuckles. “I still have to do Maven’s hair.”
“You mean Kingston can’t handle that?” The man is perfection. I would’ve thought he could style his daughter’s hair.
“He thinks he can, but he can’t. He’s learning though, so maybe after Maisey, he’ll have it down pat.” We both laugh. “Stop trying to change the subject. So he knows everything now, right?”
I snap off another piece of jerky and look around the room as if I’m a kid being interrogated by the police because I stole a pair of earrings.
“Allie.” She uses her challenging tone. She assumes I haven’t told him the whole truth, and well… she knows me. She’s right.
“Almost everything,” I mumble around a mouthful of jerky. I turn the bag over to read the nutritional facts because how have I never tried this delicious dried meat before?
“I’m pretty sure the part you left out could possibly be a game changer, or at the very least a holy shit moment.” A door opens and Stella says, “Come here, Mave, let’s do your hair.”
“I was already in shock. I wasn’t prepared to see him last night, okay? And then he practically kidnapped me and told me to spend the night. I like to take things slow.”
She laughs so loudly I pull the phone away from my ear.
“Be nice, okay? Let’s remember you and Kingston early on.” They were in love but tortured themselves for years by staying apart. The giddy fairy tale believer in me says it was fate that brought them back together.
“We took it slow.”
“Just because I’m knocked up by the man doesn’t mean…” I stop talking and she giggles again, knowing her point was made. “Yeah, okay, but he might not be prepared for this news.”
“I’m pretty sure after the first news, not much else is going to surprise him.” Maven whines in the background. “Hold still, baby girl.”
Stella can say it isn’t a big deal because she’s never heard that news herself, but I took it hard when the doctor told me. It changes so much. Which is why I’m currently sitting in my clothes from yesterday, eating beef jerky on my baby daddy’s couch. In truth, I’m kind of lost in my life, which I blame on my horrible decision to stay here last night.
“I know you’re a true believer of soul mates and fate and serendipity and all that, but no one said this can’t turn out differently than you think it will. I mean, look at Kingston’s brother, Denver. He wasn’t much of a commitment guy, and now he’s married with kids. Actually!” The excitement in her voice makes me groan because I know exactly where her thoughts are going.
“Thanks, but no.”
“Come on. I’m sure him and Cleo—”
“No. I’ll tell Fisher today when he drops me off at my car.”
“That makes it sound like you had a booty call last night,” she jokes.
“Booty,” Maven says in the background.
“Ignore me,” Stella says to her daughter.
“Are you teaching our daughter bad words?” Kingston’s voice sounds faint.
“Talk to your husband. I’m gonna go,” I say. She’s clearly busy. I’m not going to ask her to come get me.
“Tell him, Allie,” Stella says.
“I’ll tell him. Let it go.”
“Tell me what?”
My head whips around to see Fisher standing there in a pair of shorts and no shirt. His longer dark hair is messy, and his olive skin is sprinkled with tattoos. Don’t get me started on the thick scruff on his face. The sight of him has my jaw hanging like a monkey off a tree. Seriously, what god made this guy?
“Gotta go. I’ll talk to you later.” I hang up on Stella and Kingston laughing as if my life is a joke. Which, at the moment, it kind of is. Especially from their perfect snow globe.
Fisher sits next to me on the couch, stealing the bag of beef jerky. Suddenly, I feel like I’m in high school, about to tell my crush I like him. He took the news about the pregnancy well; surely this will go fine too.
“So?” He uses his teeth to snap off a piece of beef jerky. “Sorry the fridge is so empty, it’s been a week from hell, but let me take you out to eat. We can go to Two Brothers and an Egg. I heard they have some killer muffins.”
A muffin sounds great right about now. Then I imagine some pancakes and eggs and my stomach rumbles—more because I have to feed my growing baby, then myself, of course. “Sure.”
“Wanna tell me who you were talking to and what you’re keeping from me?” He leans forward and rests his forearms on his thighs, staring at me over his shoulder with a softness to his eyes that makes me want to blurt it out.
“Can we eat first?” I ask like the wimp I am.
He smirks and shakes his head with a sweet smile. A smile that says he trusts I’ll spill the details in due time. “Sure, I’ll give you a reprieve. Especially since you let me sleep in and I only had jerky to offer you and our baby for breakfast.”
My insides go to mush with his word choice of our baby.
“You care if I take a shower? I have to be at the station at noon.”
I shake my head. “Go ahead.”
He rises off the couch, and I can’t help but admire his perfect form. The V of his torso, the sprinkling of dark hair that teasingly travels under the waistband of his shorts. “Keep looking at me like that and I’m gonna drag you into the shower with me.”
I snap my eyes up to meet his smoldering gaze and my insides quake.
“Sorry, I was just dazed,” I say, waving him off.
He nods with a humorous smile before heading upstairs. For a moment, I swear his white teeth sparkled like in those fairy tales. The ones where a prince saves the damsel from the tower. People think I should want a prince to rescue me. Fisher wanting me to move in so he can look after me because I’m pregnant is an admirable quality, but I’m fully capable of handling myself. It’s love I’ve always searched for, not a protector.
I lean back on the couch, remembering my grandpa on his knees at my grandma’s bedside. The words that poured out of him, how he gripped her hand, the kisses he kept casting over her as though he was afraid someone was going to wheel her away. You wouldn’t expect it from his tough war veteran exterior, but he always doted on my grandma and wanted nothing more than to make her happy. His undying love for my grandma resonated with me and instilled within me the belief that there are soul mates in this world. And if you’re lucky, you find them.
Fisher is lightning fast getting ready, and the ends of his hair are still damp from the shower when he returns downstairs. He’s in his uniform, which I should’ve known he’d be, but I can’t help gawking because he looks so good in it. Trying to avoid blatantly staring at him, I grab my purse and prepare to leave.
“Ready?” he asks, grabbing his keys off the table by the front door and opening it for me.
“Yeah.”
I wait for him to lock up before we descend the steps to the driveway. His hand lands on my elbow and I stop and stare at him.