Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
H arper
Two hours ago I was sitting on an airplane about to fly off to NYC and start afresh.
Now I’m attempting to hover above a hospital toilet and pee on a stick. Which is much, much, much harder than it sounds. I guarantee you these tests were invented by some man.
Mostly, I’m worried about peeing all over my hand, but when I realize there’s no way around that and go to actually pee: Nothing.
I squeeze as hard as I can and nothing comes out.
“Damn it, bladder,” I mutter. “This is important.”
“Harper, are you okay in there?” a low, deep masculine voice says from the other side of the door.
I jolt in shock, nearly losing the test stick down the toilet bowl.
“Jeez, Dax, you nearly gave me a heart attack. I thought you left.”
“I … came back. I wanted to be here. Can I come in?”
I consider this. Do I really want Daxton to watch me pee? Then again, Daxton has watched me do a lot more devious things than peeing. Like sitting on his friend’s face and squirting right into his mouth.
I unlock the door and he squeezes inside the rather small cubicle.
“What does it say?” he asks, glancing at the stick.
“I haven’t done it yet.”
“Why not?”
“Stage fright.”
“There’s no one watching.”
“There is now.”
“There wasn’t before.”
“Well, it wasn’t happening.”
I close the toilet lid and sit down, my underwear and my pants wrapped around my ankles.
“Harper, are you scared? We both know it’s going to be positive.”
“Yes, but this will confirm it, won’t it? This means we’ll know for sure and my life will change forever.”
It’s hard to fathom it. It feels like I’m standing at the edge of a cliff with swirling waters churning beneath me, about to jump in.
“I’ve always wanted a baby,” I continue, “but this wasn’t exactly how I pictured it happening. This is so so messy.”
“Life often is.”
“I thought I’d be building a family.”
“Families come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.”
“Do many families consist of the step-brother getting the step-sister pregnant?” I whisper-hiss.
“Some,” he says.
“What will I tell my mom? She’s going to be so disappointed in me.”
“Melanie could never be disappointed in you, Harper.”
“What will I tell everyone else ?”
“We’ll work it out.”
I peer up at him. “Promise?”
I’m already certain I want to keep this baby. It’s strange, I’ve suspected precisely for ten minutes that I’m pregnant and I already feel a burgeoning love for this strange little ball of cells growing in my belly. That doesn’t mean I’m not scared. It doesn’t mean I’m na?ve. Babies are hard work – I’ve seen the bags under Molly’s eyes. Being a single mom is even harder – that I know first hand.
“I promise, Harper,” he says and somehow I believe him. Daxton is a rock. Dependable, solid, strong. You could lean on him and he’d never buckle.
“Okay.” I nod decisively. “I’m going to do this.”
I stand up and lift the toilet seat.
“Can you turn around, please?” I ask him. He does as I request and I think about waterfalls and rivers and running faucets and soon I’m peeing on the stick.
“I did it!” I say, placing the stick carefully on the sink, wiping and pulling up my pants.
“Okay, I’m timing,” Daxton says as I wash my hands.
Then we’re both standing in the hospital bathroom, staring at each other, waiting for the seconds of his watch to tick by.
“You did this before?” he asks.
“You never had a pregnancy scare with a girlfriend before?” I ask, placing my hand on my hip.
“No, I’m always very careful.” I raise an eyebrow. “I’m usually very careful.”
“It was only once. My period was late and I panicked. Birth control isn’t 100% effective anyway, you know?”
“But you weren’t?”
I shake my head. “I think stress made my period late. Laurent was being particularly obnoxious at the time. I should have taken it as a sign.” I let my eyes peek towards the test. “How much longer?”
“Thirty seconds,” he says.
I chew my cheek.
“Do you still feel nauseous now?” he asks. “I can probably prescribe you something to help with the sickness if you’d like.”
“No, I feel okay now actually.” Ever since I’ve been in Daxton’s company. “It’s something about your scent. It seems to counteract the sickness.”
I’ve said it before but someone really ought to bottle that man’s scent. Like stepping into a forest of pine. They’d make a fortune.
“Your scent smells different,” he says. “I’m surprised I didn’t notice that right away.”
“Different how?”
“Even sweeter,” he says, holding my gaze as he glides his tongue over his bottom lip. My cheeks warm. His gaze falls to my mouth. I sigh, my lips parting and he starts to lean towards me …
The alarm on his watch beeps and we both jump apart.
In tandem, we snap our gaze to the stick.
“You look,” I tell him, suddenly overcome by nerves.
Because … what if I’m not pregnant? Does that mean I have to stick with my stupid plan and move to New York?
Does that mean I never get to kiss Daxton Stanton ever again?
“Right.” He squares his shoulders and tilts his head from side to side as if he’s about to stride into a boxing ring, then he steps forward and peers down at the test. “How do I read this thing again?”
I can’t help giggling. “Minus for not pregnant, plus for pregnant.”
“Errr.” He scratches his head. “There’s no plus sign.”
“Oh,” I say, my stomach plunging with a disappointment I was not expecting.
“But there’s no minus sign either. There are two lines.”
“Two lines?” I say. “What the hell does that mean?”
I scrabble around in the trash can for the box and pull out the instructions, skimming them until I find the relevant section.
“It says … one line for not pregnant. Two lines for pregnant. How many did you say there were?” A broad smile draws across Daxton’s face. What does that mean? Is he relieved? “Daxton?”
“Harper, you’re pregnant. We’re going to have a baby.”
I don’t know what the hell possesses me but I whoop and fling my arms around his neck, squeezing him really tight. He wraps his arms around me and squeezes me just as tight.
We hold each other like this for several long minutes as the fan in the bathroom whirls and his wristwatch keeps right on ticking.
Then he pops me back down on my feet and I come back to my senses.
I jump away from him.
Pregnant!
What the hell are we going to do?