Chapter Fourteen
Augie
I woke up later than I wanted to, hitting snooze three times and nearly a fourth.
Ever since meeting Dante, I didn’t sleep well without him.
We stayed together nearly every night, but there were times like this when it wasn’t practical.
He had a big meeting early this morning, and I had to bake.
It made more sense for each of us to sleep at our normal places. That didn’t mean I liked it.
After a few failed attempts, I dragged my sorry self out of bed and got ready for the day.
As a rule, I didn’t do well without my sleep, but today was worse than normal.
The mixer was too loud, the flour too heavy, and the butter too hard.
Nothing was good enough. And then I put on a pot of coffee and had to pour it right down the drain, the aroma making me nauseous.
I needed to figure out a way to get enough sleep and get my mate-together time in. I knew it was going to be an adjustment from the beginning. Being mated to someone who held typical work hours when mine weren’t even a standard shift was going to be hard. There was no getting around that.
At least, that was what I was blaming my current state on.
It really boiled down to my no problem. I couldn’t turn down spending time with my mate, no matter how much I needed to be catching up on sleep or paperwork.
We really needed to discuss moving in together full time instead of this back-and-forth garbage we were doing.
It wasn’t like I was avoiding the subject, either.
It just hadn’t come up because this was working. Except it wasn’t. Not really.
I went about my normal routine as best I could, but every step of it made me want to put a “closed for the day” sign on the door and go back to bed. Maybe I was coming down with something. Please don’t let that be the case. I did not have the time for that.
By five o’clock, I realized I wasn’t going to be ready for the day, and I shot Sierra a text asking her if she could come in early. Her mate was a nurse, so, like me, she was used to unusual hours and, thankfully, was awake.
On my way, boss, she sent back almost immediately.
When she walked in, she went straight to the handwashing sink. “Got a big order today?”
“No, I just can’t get out of my own way today.” And I was hating it.
“You sick?”
I shook my head.
“Were you up too late with your mate?” She winked. Jerk.
“No. I just… I can’t sleep when he’s not there.”
“That’s pretty normal. Tell me what needs doing.”
It was a miracle we were ready to open on time. It was pretty crowded from open to close ever since the party at Animals. People had taken pictures of their food and tagged the bakery in it. They came in wanting the cuteness.
I started trying to make at least one of the adorable little animals every day.
I couldn’t do the full spread and maintain my normal inventory, but I could add cream puffs here or macarons there easily enough, and people were loving it.
Today, the two of us were running back and forth, filling orders and barely keeping up during the hour I’d been running the counter alone before the event. What a difference Animals made.
When I saw Marty at the crosswalk through the front window, it wasn’t just him. His wife was beside him, pushing her hot-pink walker complete with bicycle bell and streamers. She was a hot ticket.
He’d said he was bringing her over, but I hadn’t expected him to be able to. I was thrilled she was feeling up to it. I got his muffins ready and put a couple of the little hedgehog cream puffs into a box for them as a special treat.
“I got you all set, Marty,” I said, setting his order on the counter.
“That doesn’t look like two morning glory muffins to me.”
“That’s because I decided that today was a day for adventures.” I tapped the box. “In celebration of your beautiful wife wheeling her badass walker over here, may I present—hedgehog cream puffs.”
“I saw those on the internet!” she exclaimed. Marty put on them on the seat of her walker. “I didn’t know you had them in stock. Someone didn’t tell me.” She side-eyed her husband.
“That’s because somebody has diabetes.” He side-eyed her back.
I wasn’t sure cream puffs were any worse for them than the number of carbs he usually bought, but that wasn’t my business. They’d both reached ages most humans dreamed of and were happy. They must be doing something right.
“I’m glad you came in, Evelyn.”
“Well, I’ve been promised some eye candy.” She was on a roll.
“He’s not here today. He had a big meeting this morning.”
“Guess I’m going to have to come back again.”
She cracked me up.
“I hope you do. If you need incentive, in two days, we will be having chocolate mousse puppies.” I hadn’t figured out a good name for them but knew full well the current one had a slight eww factor to it. I needed to work on that.
“Well, will your eye candy be there?”
“I could ask.” We hadn’t discussed his schedule, but most days, he didn’t leave here for another half hour.
“Now, come around here and give me a hug.”
I walked around, and she let go of her walker with one hand and gave me as big a hug as she could without letting go completely. Marty was right. Her mobility wasn’t doing well, but it hadn’t altered her mood or humor at all.
“Wait a minute, Marty. You didn’t tell me,” she said.
I stepped back, not wanting to get between them.
“Didn’t tell you what?” He was just as confused as I was.
“About the baby.”
He looked to me and I looked to him and we both shrugged.
“You don’t know?” She grabbed my arm. “I should have said you’re pregnant first, I suppose.”
“How did you come to that conclusion?” She didn’t sound like it was one of her bad jokes, but maybe I was missing something.
“Because I could feel the baby when I hugged you.”
“You could feel the baby?”
“No one ever believes me.” She let out a sigh. “Just go take a test, and when you do, and it’s positive, I want you to thank me with chocolate mousse puppies.”
“And what if it’s negative?” I asked.
“You should thank me with chocolate mousse puppies.”
“Okay,” I chuckled. “I’ll remember that.” She was getting puppies either way.
We chatted for a few more minutes, and they left. The entire time, my mind was reeling with what she’d said. I wanted to immediately dismiss it as an old woman who wasn’t fully there anymore. Only, she was fully there, and her comment wasn’t the only thing that signaled I could be pregnant.
I was exhausted. Smells bothered me. Sounds were having me want to curl in a ball and cry.
And food didn’t taste right. By themselves, that could mean being sick, but pairing that with being knotted by my mate every chance I got without even a second’s thought about prevention… there was a good shot she was right.
Sierra came over and grabbed my shoulder.
“Sal just came in the back. You should go to the pharmacy because if you don’t, your brain’s going to be focusing on her words all day long, and you’re going to give customers the wrong thing, forget the yeast in the bread, or knock over the bucket.
And don’t say you won’t, because I know you. ”
“Fine. I’ll do as you say, boss.” She was smart. “I’m going to stop by and try to find Dante, too.”
“You do that. We’ve got you covered.”
I went to the closest pharmacy and texted Dante, asking when he would be done with his meeting, before going inside.
He gave me a time, and I said I’d meet him at his place because I had a surprise for him.
Thankfully, he didn’t ask what the surprise was, because I wasn’t sure what excuse to give him.
I didn’t want to tell him I was possibly pregnant via text.
Some things needed to be done in person.
His meeting ended quicker than he’d expected, and we both arrived at his place at the same time.
“Hey, sexy mate, what’s the surprise?”
I handed him the bag, and he looked inside. “You’re pregnant?”
“I don’t know. Marty’s wife, Evelyn, seems to think so. She said she could ‘feel’ the baby.”
“Even if you were pregnant, it’s microscopic. How could that be?”
“I think she meant, like, sense them? But anyway, I’m exhausted and grumpy and don’t like to be around myself. So, she may have a point.”
“Only one way to find out.”
We went inside, and I took the test, both of us staring at it, waiting as it went from no lines to one line to two.
“We’re going to be dads.” He pulled me in for a hug.
“We’re going to be dads,” I echoed. “Is that okay?”
We hadn’t discussed being parents, both of us focusing on our careers.
“No, mate, it’s not okay. It’s amazing. I couldn’t be happier.”
And I couldn’t either.