Seven of Hearts

31. Leah

31

LEAH

L ogan left today.

I couldn’t help my teary-eyed goodbye at three in the morning as he kissed me on the porch, then hopped in his car to drive to Raleigh to catch a seven AM flight to Chicago.

The gray January sky matched my mood. It was Gio and Ellie’s first day back at school, and I had hoped that the distraction of the hustle and bustle would be enough.

It wasn’t.

I had grown so accustomed to the routine of Logan checking my blood sugar and stabbing me with the insulin pen that the sight of needles didn’t knock me out immediately.

That was good, considering I had to do it by myself today.

Logan had been indispensable, taking the last week to coach me through doing it myself. He was fast and efficient at it. I wasn’t.

We had talked about his trip endlessly. How he needed to take a few days to officially move out of his apartment, finalize the offer he had gotten for his car, and deal with some business at the Chicago offices. He claimed it wouldn’t take more than two or three days, but two days felt like an eternity.

Pregnancy had given me the house cat mentality, where I was convinced that my current circumstances would be my life forever.

We had spent the remainder of my Christmas break staycationing in Beaufort. We drove out to the beach to catch early winter sunsets. We stopped at touristy surf shops to peruse the packed aisles for trinkets with names engraved on them, hoping to stumble across the right name for our little one.

Twice, we had dinner with Steve and Erica. They were great neighbors, and I loved spending time with them and their kids. Logan and Steve were strikingly similar in personality; both the strong silent types.

Erica promised to drop in whenever I was home, while Logan was away. I had told her I’d be busy at work, but I had severely overestimated how much work the DeRossis and Lawsons would let me do.

I was on strict orders from my bosses to not do anything apart from driving the kids to and from their activities and sitting with my feet up. They treated me like family, which was why I kind of hated them right now. I would have given anything for a deep-cleaning home project or pulling down everyone’s Christmas decorations.

Unfortunately, Maddie and Hannah Jane had put their husbands to work, taking down the trees and garlands before my first day back.

It’s like they knew I would climb up a six-foot ladder while thirty-two weeks pregnant.

Maybe Logan had put them up to it. I wouldn’t put it past him.

I had just settled at the kitchen table with my testing kit when my phone rang.

Saved by the bell.

“Hello?”

“Hey, honeybee. Whatcha doing?”

I missed the intimate gravel of his voice, and it hadn’t even been twenty-four hours yet.

I sighed and put the call on speaker. “Considering my bosses are all about relaxing and not pushing myself too hard before the baby comes , I’m sitting at home instead of making dinner for the kids.”

Logan chuckled. “You’re having a baby in eight weeks. I’m pretty sure it’s normal and encouraged to slow down.”

“Yeah? Well, I hate it,” I clipped with an edge of annoyance in my voice.

“I know, sweetheart. I’m sorry I’m not there to keep you company.”

“They’re paying me to be a glorified driver. They wouldn’t even let me pick up groceries because they were worried I would try to carry them inside. I hate getting paid to sit around and do nothing. It makes me feel like shit.”

“It sounds like you have employers who care,” he countered.

“I wish they’d care a little less. I’m bored out of my mind. I have nothing to distract me from every little pain or new symptom, which means I spiral, and then?—”

“Leah,” he said with a chuckle. “You’re spiraling.”

I growled.

“I’ll be back soon,” he promised. “I’m wrapping up at the office today and dealing with my car, getting out of my apartment tomorrow, and then I’ll be on a plane.”

“But what about all your stuff?”

“I’ve packed the rest of my clothes. I don’t have much else to get rid of. I’ve listed most of it online and already have offers. Hopefully, they’ll all show up tonight and I can have an empty place so I can come back to you.”

“But what about that storm?”

A doozy of a snowstorm was supposed to hit Chicago the day he was scheduled to fly back. I kept hoping that he’d come back early or that the weather system would dissolve into thin air, but it looked like I was out of luck with both.

“I’ll figure it out. I don’t want you to worry.”

“Telling me not to worry doesn’t stop me from worrying,” I countered.

“Have you tested yet?” he asked.

“Don’t change the subject.”

Logan chuckled. “You’re stalling.”

Before I could respond, the phone chimed with a video call request. My heart leaped as I swiped to accept it, and his face filled the screen. The office he was in looked rather blasé. It was basic and not at all personalized. Not exactly what I would expect of a vice president.

“That’s your office?” I asked with a grimace.

Logan chuckled. “Yes. What’s with the judgmental tone, honeybee?”

“It’s just . . . plain.”

His smile was kind. “Everyone in the company has the option to work remotely as long as they have a secure connection and follow security protocol. The office is basically just a co-working space. And there’s a really nice coffee maker here. That’s a big draw.”

I laughed. “So why did you move all the way to Chicago if you didn’t have to be there in person?”

I could see the answer in his eyes before he said it. “Because I was looking for any reason to leave and stay gone. Ten months ago, it would have taken an act of God to bring me back for good. Now I can’t wait to get back.”

The baby took that as his cue to tumble around inside of me, warping my belly as he somersaulted. “He’s moving so much. Apparently, he takes credit for that.”

Logan’s smile reached his eyes, making them crinkle at the corners. “I wish I was there with you. Now, stop stalling and test your blood sugar.”

“Logan . . .” I whined.

“Baby, I’m already worried sick because I’m not there with you. Test while I’m on the phone that way I can call one of my siblings if you need help.”

I grumbled as I unzipped the testing kit, because I knew there was no use in arguing with him. If I stalled any longer, he’d call Kylie and Kristin to come over and physically restrain me while one of them did it for me.

“You can do it.” His voice was calm and reassuring.

I managed to load the lancet, and only felt mildly nauseous at the thought of the droplets of blood beading on my finger. The alcohol swab was unsettlingly cold. Every sensation was heightened without him here. Without his shoulder for me to lean my head on. Without his calm reassurance that it was okay to be scared of things.

“Press it to your finger and look at me,” Logan said. “Tell me everything you want to eat as soon as the baby’s born.”

I laughed. “I want the largest sub you can find. I don’t even like cold cuts, but there’s something about not being allowed to eat them for nine months that makes me want a giant, mayonnaise-y turkey sandwich.”

He grinned. “Prick your finger. Do you just want the sandwich or do you want the chips and cookie combo?”

I hesitated.

“Come on. You can do it,” he said. “Press it and tell me what your favorite flavors are and I’ll make sure to have them all there. Are you a salt and vinegar girl?”

“God no,” I groaned as I pricked my finger. “Salt and vinegar chips are for masochists and psychopaths.”

“Did you do it?”

I nodded.

“Good girl. Squeeze your finger if there’s not enough blood to fill the test strip. Think about the cookie. What kind of cookie do you want?”

The room started to spin as my blood was soaked up into the test strip. I set the glucose meter on the table and rested my head beside it as I pressed a tissue to my finger and waited for the result.

“All of them. Chocolate chip. Double chocolate. Oatmeal raisin. White chocolate macadamia.”

Logan groaned. “You like oatmeal raisin cookies? What is wrong with you?”

“Look, if you don’t like oatmeal raisin cookies, you’re either a serial killer or a five-year-old. They’re delicious and I will not stand for the oatmeal cookie slander.”

“How are your numbers?” he asked.

I glanced at the meter. “Fine.”

“Good girl. I’m going to call you first thing in the morning so I can be there when you give yourself the insulin injection.”

Realistically, I knew he probably had things to do and couldn’t stay on the phone with me for forty-eight hours. But a deeper part of me couldn’t stomach the thought of staring at the walls until he came back.

“I’m sorry I can’t be there with you right now,” he said with sincerity weaved into every word. “But I couldn’t push this off any longer. I didn’t want to wait and cut it close to your due date.”

“I know,” I sighed as I packed up the testing supplies. “I’m just going a little stir-crazy. I feel gross, and my moods swing faster than a see-saw.”

Logan chuckled. “If you’re good, I’ll bring you a treat.”

“Are you bribing me?”

“Is it working?”

“Maybe,” I glowered.

There was a long pause as tenderness softened his features. “I love you, and I miss you.”

“I love you too,” I said as I shifted in the chair, trying to ease the ache in my hips. “Don’t be gone too long.”

“Just a few more days. Take care of our baby.”

“He wants a treat too,” I clipped with a little more sass than usual to mask the storm cloud hanging over my head.

Logan snickered. “And what does he want for a treat?”

I thought for a moment. “Some of that almond cake you were telling us about. From that bakery by your office building.”

“The bee sting cake?”

I nodded. “Just a little piece. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I almost asked Maddie if she knew how to make it.”

“I’ll bring you some. Promise.”

We said our goodbyes, but as soon as the call ended, the silence sunk in.

I was halfway through Marley & Me and my second box of tissues when the doorbell rang.

“H-Hold o-on,” I blubbered as I tried and tried again to get up off the couch.

I didn’t have to wait. The door opened on its own and Kylie traipsed in, followed by Kristin and Zoey.

“Geez! Marley & Me ? What is wrong with you?” Zoey clipped as she grabbed the remote and paused the movie.

“It was that or A Walk to Remember ,” I blubbered.

“Do you just want to be sad?” Kylie asked as she unloaded a pile of snacks onto the coffee table.

I dabbed my eyes with a tissue. “Yeah.”

“Enough of that,” Kristin said as she squeezed onto the couch beside me. “I’m picking the movie. You obviously can’t be trusted.”

The Solomon sisters piled in with me and passed around bowls of popcorn and movie theater snacks.

“What are you guys doing here? Also how did you get in? The door was locked,” I said as Kristin queued up Miss Congeniality.

Kylie laughed. “I’m your best friend. You really thought I didn’t have a key to your house?”

I lifted an eyebrow. “I never gave you a key to my house.”

Kristin reached into the popcorn bowl that was perched on top of my belly. “Logan left a spare at my house for emergencies.”

“We figured being super pregnant and hormonal and alone constituted an emergency,” Zoey said. “And we were right.”

“We should come up with a baby name once and for all,” Kylie said as she grabbed a handful of popcorn. “I love names with the letter X in them. They’re so modern. What do you think of Xavier or Phoenix or?—”

I threw a handful of popcorn at her and laughed. “You’re terrible at this.”

“What about Maddox?” Zoey suggested.

I threw a piece of popcorn at her and laughed. “You’re both terrible at this.”

“Well, do you have any better baby name ideas?” Kristin asked.

“No,” I said with a snicker as I munched on popcorn.

Kylie rested her head on my shoulder the way Zoey was resting hers on Kristin’s shoulder. “It must run in the family, then.”