Chapter 29
29
ZARA
“G ood morning,” I say as Colson walks into the kitchen. “How are we feeling this morning?” I smile at him as I rush around the counter to help get to him. The blue cast from the middle of his upper arm to the tips of his knuckles is on full display. “Come and sit on the couch and I’ll bring you breakfast,” I tell him nervously looking back at Gabriel, who is hiding his smile under his coffee mug. “Breakfast that your father is going to make because no one needs the house to burn down,” I joke with him as I get him situated on the couch. “What do you want for breakfast?”
“A toastie,” he replies, which I’ve learned over the past three days since I’ve been here is a fried egg, melted cheese, and bacon between lightly toasted pieces of bread.
“You got it, kiddo.” I hand him the remote and walk back into the kitchen.
“Okay, I’m going to try to do it, and you watch,” I tell him, and he just looks at me. “I have to learn how to do the simple things.” I walk over to the fridge, grab the pack of bacon, and then reach for two pans. I put the bacon in the small pan at the back before turning it on medium-low. “Is that right?”
“Yeah.” He nods at me, and I stop to kiss his neck before going to the fridge and grabbing the eggs and butter.
“Okay, so do I do the bread first or the eggs?” I ask him.
I place a bit of butter in the pan to melt, then put the bread in the toaster, before going to crack the egg. I follow his instructions for that part and break the egg into the pan, breaking the yolk before grabbing the tongs and turning the bacon over to the other side. I watch the edges of the egg sizzle a bit, moving back to the fridge to grab a slice of cheese. I move the pan back and forth, seeing the egg isn’t stuck to the bottom of the pan before I try to flip it. Something I didn’t do yesterday, and the egg was runny in the sandwich, which made it gross. The bread pops out of the toaster, so I place it on the plate, putting the cheese on top of the egg to melt a bit before I place it on the bread and then add the bacon. “Oh my God.” I look at Gabriel. “Did I do it?” I ask, shocked that not only did I do it, but it looks good enough to eat.
“You did it, Sweetheart,” he confirms, wrapping his arms around me, placing his hands on my stomach. “Colson, come eat.”
Colson gets off the couch, coming over and pulling out the stool with his good arm before sitting on it. “I made it with love.” I wink at him before taking a step back and waiting for him to try it. “If it’s good, I’ll make myself one. If it’s not good, I’ll eat that one,” I mumble to Gabriel, who leans against the counter, the both of us waiting for his reaction. “Maybe he shouldn’t be my taste tester?” I suddenly get nervous. “What if my cooking makes him sick?”
“Sweetheart,” Gabriel says at the same time as Colson takes a bite of the sandwich I just made.
“It’s good,” he announces, smiling. “Really good.”
“Better than Dad’s?” I side-eye Gabriel and laugh at the same time.
“Almost,” he says and he eats his sandwich while Gabriel makes me mine.
He places it on the plate right in front of me before he looks over at Colson. “Get dressed.” He looks at the clock. “We leave in twenty.”
Colson nods at him, and brings the plate to the sink before coming back to me. “Thanks for breakfast, Zara.” After we told him I was having our baby, I told him he needed to stop calling me Miss Zara.
“You’re welcome, big guy.” I take a bite of my sandwich as he runs to his room. “Can we not get hurt when you are here?” I ask him as he tries to jump up and touch the ceiling halfway there. “I just met your mother, and I need her to like me,” I say to the empty doorway as Gabriel just chuckles.
“Boys will be boys,” he says, “and she likes you.”
“She won’t like me if her kid gets hurt on my watch,” I point out to him, when he puts his cup in the sink and comes to kiss me before walking to our bedroom to get dressed, “because I would not like me.” I met Patricia when we got in and went straight to her house. I wanted to sit in the truck since I didn’t feel like it was my place, but Gabriel wouldn’t hear of it. So awkwardly in her entranceway she met the woman who is pregnant with her ex-husband’s baby. Never thought I would be the one to say that, I laugh to myself. I also am never going to admit I secretly checked her out to make sure I was prettier than she was. At least to me. But it was like night and day. She had dark brown hair and brown eyes, which is the opposite of my light strawberry-blond, ginger hair with green-gray eyes. I am also a couple of inches taller than her.
Twenty-two minutes later, I’m getting a kiss on the lips from Gabriel and a side hug from Colson as they rush out of the door. “Call you when I drop him off,” Gabriel says before rushing out the door. I walk over to the window, watching both of them get into the truck and drive off. I smile to myself as I turn around and head back to the kitchen, cleaning it up from breakfast. For the past three days, this has been our routine. A routine I didn’t even know made me happy. It’s almost a glimpse of what my life could be, and I have to say it’s pretty much even better than I imagined it would be. My heart speeds up, and my stomach twists and turns when I think of maybe bringing up that I could move here. But he hasn’t brought anything up. When I tried to talk to him about it, he said, “We’ll figure it out.” I don’t know what that means, and I’m too chickenshit to ask him. What if this is what he wants? What if he doesn’t want me here full-time but wants me to visit on occasion? I mean, I don’t even know if he wanted me to come with him this time, I just packed my bag and came along.
After finishing the kitchen, I walk into Colson’s room, seeing that he threw his cover over his pillows as I make my bed, so I just leave it, but I do pick up the dirty laundry, tossing it into the basket before going into my bedroom, where his father has made the bed in the same manner. I fix it the way I like it before going to my bag and grabbing something to wear for the day.
I place my computer on the table, going through e-mails when my phone rings. “Hello.”
“Zara,” the woman says, “this is Gaby from Dr. Sperling’s office.”
“Hi.”
“We have a cancellation on Friday morning, and we can see you then.” I look, seeing that it’s three days from now.
“That works,” I reply, hoping Gabriel will be able to come up with me.
“Perfect, we’ll see you then.” She hangs up the phone with me, and I immediately call Gabriel, who answers after five rings, sounding out of breath. “Hey, sorry for disturbing you, but the doctor called.”
“And?” I hear him walking away from the noise.
“She moved my appointment to this Friday morning,” I say and wait for him to tell me if he’ll be able to make it or not.
“We can head up on Thursday after work. I have to be back by Monday.” My heart sinks, knowing he’ll come with me but leave and I’ll be alone again.
“I have two meetings next week to finalize a couple of things, plus two other meetings that were pushed back.”
“Sounds good,” he affirms as I close my eyes. “We’ll figure it out,” he says and I want to snap at him, but instead I pretend I’m okay.
“Yup, got to go,” I snip, hanging up the phone before I say something he isn’t ready for.
Instead, I go on with my day as planned, telling myself if it’s not bothering him, why should it bother me. Even when he gets home and starts dinner with me helping him, I put on a smile while secretly wanting to ask him what he thinks about me moving here with him.
By the time we get back to my house, I feel like I’m going to crawl out of my skin. I start to look at everything around me and hate it all. The following morning, he makes sure everything is okay with Colson before we head out to the doctor. He slides his hand in mine as we walk down to the waiting car that takes us to the doctor’s office.
“You nervous?” Gabriel asks from beside me when we sit in the waiting room.
“A little,” I admit to him. “I took a picture this morning, and there is definitely a baby pooch.” I open my phone to show him the side picture I took. “Like, you see it, right?”
“It’s there,” he agrees, and I glare at him. “What?”
“You aren’t supposed to say that, Gabriel,” I hiss at him, grabbing my phone from him. “You’re supposed to be, like, I see nothing.”
“Sweetheart”—he leans in—“your body is changing because of our baby and it’s a beautiful thing.”
“Well, it’s only because I feel like I could eat twenty-four hours a day and I’d still be hungry. Yesterday, I made myself two toasties.” I hold up two fingers. “After the one you made me.”
He chuckles, and before I can say anything more, my name is called through the intercom, “Zara Petrov, room three.”
“Here we go.” I stand, and he gets up with me, walking behind me. When we get to room three, he looks around. “Are you nervous?”
“Like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs,” he admits, and I can’t help but laugh at him. “My great-grandfather always says that.”
“It’s cute.” I kiss his lips and then move my hand to wipe the lip gloss off him. The door opens, and the nurse comes in.
She takes my information and tells me to pee in a cup and then undress from the waist down, then put on the sheet, sit on the table, and wait. “I don’t like her,” Gabriel states once I come back and give her the plastic container, where she sticks something inside and confirms I’m pregnant.
“What? Why?” I ask him, sitting on the exam table.
“She was robotic.” He stands next to the table. “I’m also not moving from beside you,” he tells me, and I roll my lips and nod.
The door opens, and the doctor comes in. “Hi, Zara,” she says, “and Dad.”
“Gabriel,” he tells her his name.
“Gabriel.” She sits down at the desk and opens the computer. “Okay, so your last period was in November.”
“Yes, but I was on the pill,” I say nervously. “I got some spotting, but I thought it was stress.”
“Did you ever double up?”
“Yes,” I admit, “and there was almost a whole week when I didn’t take it.” I sound like a neglectful person admitting that. “I found my fiancé cheating on me.” The doctor’s eyes go wide, and she looks over at Gabriel.
“Not me.” He points at himself. “I’m the guy she met after,” he declares proudly.
“Okay, so let’s see how far along you are first and then we can answer any questions or concerns,” she explains, turning off the lights and then coming back. “Lean back and we will start.”
I do what she says and feel Gabriel slide his hand in mine. I look over at him while he puts his hand on the top of my head and bends down to kiss me. “You’re doing great, Sweetheart.”
“Isn’t that sweet?” the doctor says, grabbing a white bottle. “This might be cold.” She moves the sheet off me and squeezes the gel onto my stomach. “If you aren’t that far along, we might have to do this internally.” I’m so nervous I don’t even know what to ask. I suddenly want my mother here to just tell me it’s going to be okay or maybe explain to me what the fuck is going on.
She presses down on my stomach with the wand, moving the gel around with it. “Okay,” she shares and presses something, and the sound of swooshing fills the room, “I didn’t think we would be able to hear the heartbeat, but there it is.”
“Oh my God.” I look up at Gabriel, who is looking at the monitor with the doctor, as if he knows what the fuck he’s looking at.
“Oh, this is—” The doctor starts and moves the wand from left to right and back and forth. “Um”—she looks at us—“I…” She smiles and I don’t know what she’s going to say, but nothing, and I mean nothing, could prepare me for the next words. “You’re having twins.”