Chapter 37
“Make. It. Stop,” Kristen managed to get out as she rolled over onto her stomach and-
Nope.
Not a good idea.
With that, she happily rolled back onto her side, assumed the fetal position and closed her eyes while she willed her stomach to stop doing that thing that had forced her to spend the past two days becoming better acquainted with Garrett’s bathroom.
She still couldn’t figure out what happened the other night.
One minute, she was mumbling sadly at the loss of her delicious Rice Krispies treats and then, the next, she was helping herself to a celery stick that she swiped off Matt’s plate when everything suddenly went to hell.
She barely had a chance to slap her hand over her mouth and mutter the magical words when Garrett shoved his cousins out of the way so that he could sweep her off her feet and race towards the nearest bathroom, only to accept the fact that she wasn’t going to make it in time and brought her to the edge of the large backyard, where she was able to make a lasting impression on his family.
From there, his father and brother took over, searching her for hives, asking her if she was allergic to a variety of items that didn’t make sense, and inquiring about her last tetanus shot before they took pity on her and subscribed her anti-nausea medication to get her through the next forty-eight hours.
She ran out of them last night, and unfortunately for her, her nausea was only getting worse.
She had no idea what was going on, but she’d really like it to stop now. She’d also really like to be able to write to get her mind off the fact that she couldn’t seem to hold anything down, Kristen thought as her gaze once again found her laptop sitting on the nightstand and-
There really was no point in torturing herself, Kristen decided as she turned over onto her other side, rethought that decision and quickly rolled back over so that she could stare at Garrett’s bedroom wall only to end up squeezing her eyes tightly shut and praying for a quick death when the move made everything worse.
This was not the best time ever.
Not even close, Kristen decided, grabbing hold of Garrett’s comforter when the nausea started getting worse only to end up turning her head and burying her face against his pillow, willing the nausea threatening to break her to take pity on her and-
“Got ‘em,” came the magical words that she’d been waiting all morning to hear that had her holding her hand out. When she felt two pills drop in her hand, she immediately shoved them in her mouth and waited for them to dissolve.
Once they did, Kristen released a shaky breath, mumbled, “You’re my everything,” and waited for them to kick in while she risked opening her eyes and watched Amber unload a grocery bag full of drinks and snacks that had her stomach turning, and a-
“Why are you holding a pregnancy test?” Kristen found herself asking only to have Amber shrug it off as she made her way to the bathroom and placed it on the counter, from the sounds of it.
“You never know,” Amber said, shrugging it off as she dug through the plastic grocery bag in her hand and pulled out a small bottle of chocolate milk only to rethink that decision when Kristen released a whimper and replaced it with a bottle of ginger ale instead.
“But I do because I’m a good girl that takes my birth control religiously,” Kristen said, nodding solemnly.
“Then, it wouldn’t hurt to take it and make sure,” Amber said, shrugging it off as she pulled her cellphone out of her bag and-
“You’re not getting out of the signing this weekend,” Amber said with a pointed look in her direction.
“I know,” Kristen mumbled sadly, knowing that wasn’t an option, not after waiting five years to be invited to this signing.
The Vault Romance Signing was one of the top romance signings in the world and only the top-selling authors were ever invited.
She’d waited five years for her invitation, which meant that canceling wasn’t an option.
Not unless she wanted to get banned for life.
“I’m going to stop by the post office and pick up the mail and run a few errands for the signing, but I should be back in a few hours,” Amber said, dropping her cellphone back in her bag with a heavy sigh as she made her way to the door. “Text me if you need anything.”
“Thank you,” Kristen mumbled as she watched Amber leave before she shifted her attention back to the flatscreen television that Garrett carried up here for her the other day so that she would have something to do, besides getting better acquainted with his bathroom, that is.
She would have preferred dying in the comfort of her own bed, but that apparently wasn’t an option since Garrett felt the need to keep an eye on her. After a few minutes, she found herself staring at the bathroom door and-
“This is stupid,” Kristen said even as she shoved the covers off and sat up.
When her stomach didn’t punish her for the move, she climbed off the bed and made her way to the bathroom, telling herself that this was a waste of time as she grabbed the pregnancy test off the counter and made her way to the toilet.
Then again, since she had nothing better to do at the moment...
A few minutes later, she was placing the test on the counter to finish doing its thing and making her way back into Garrett’s bedroom as she once again found herself staring wistfully at her laptop before deciding that this would be a good time to help herself to another blanket.
For a moment, she considered texting Garrett to see if he could run across the street and grab one, but since her phone was constantly on the verge of dying these days, she settled for raiding his closet instead.
She opened his closet door and-
“Of course it would be on the top shelf,” Kristen said, looking for something to step on so that she could reach the blanket only to frown when she spotted an old shoebox with her name on it.
Curious, she glanced over her shoulder as she worried her bottom lip between her teeth before she found herself reaching for the shoebox and-
“Rocks,” Kristen said slowly as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. Wondering why he had an old shoebox full of rocks with her name on it, she picked up a white rock and-
“That was taken from your front yard after our first real kiss,” came the softly murmured words as she watched Garrett reach past her and pick up a gray rock.
“This is from our first night camping,” he said, before dropping the rock back in the box and moved the rocks around a bit until he found a smooth gray rock at the bottom.
“And this is from the playground where we first met.”
“And this one?” Kristen asked, picking up a gray and white rock as she glanced back at him.
“I took it from your aunt’s yard after I taught you how to climb a tree,” Garrett said with a fond smile as he took the rock from her and placed it back in the box with the others.
“What exactly does this mean?” Kristen asked as she watched him place the cover back on the box and carefully place it back in its spot.
“That I’ve been in love with you my whole life,” Garrett said, only to send a questioning look at the blanket on the top shelf.
When she nodded, he grabbed the blanket and closed the door before taking her hand in his and led her back to the bed.
He waited for her to climb back into bed before he shook the blanket out and placed it over her.
“That doesn’t really explain the stones,” Kristen pointed out.
“Doesn’t it?” Garrett asked, shifting his focus to the small bottle of pills on the nightstand. “Are they working?”
“Starting to,” Kristen said, waving it off. “Don’t try to change the subject. What do the stones mean?”
“That you screwed over my cousin for nothing,” Garrett said, shooting her a wink as he opened the bottle of ginger ale and handed it to her.
“It wasn’t for nothing if it entertained me,” Kristen said, making him chuckle as she reluctantly accepted the bottle and took a tentative sip even as she mentally prepared herself to make another mad dash for the bathroom.
When nothing happened, she took another sip, handed it back to him, and gestured for him to get on with it.
“I’m not allowed to tell you that story,” Garrett said as he leaned down and kissed her forehead. “At least not for five more years.”
Slowly nodding, Kristen said, “You’re evil.”
“You never left your readers wanting more, dangling a juicy secret in front of them only to keep them coming back for more while you built up the story instead of putting them out of their misery?” Garrett asked while Kristen sat there, reaching up to rub the bridge of her nose in a sad attempt to hide her wince.
“I would never do that to them,” Kristen said, even as she couldn’t help but wonder if she was going to hell for lying her ass off.
“Liar,” he said, chuckling as he pressed one last kiss against her forehead.
“You’re really not going to tell me?” Kristen asked, dropping her hand away so that she could pout, hoping that it would be enough to break him.
“Not a chance in hell,” Garrett said, making his way to the door. “I will, however, randomly tease you throughout the years.”
Nodding slowly, Kristen said, “I hate you.”
“Which is why I’m going to run out and grab you something to eat before you get hangry,” Garrett said, grabbing his wallet off the bureau.
“That would probably be in your best interest,” Kristen said as she realized that she was actually pretty hungry, letting her know that the pills had kicked in.
“I’ll be quick,” Garrett said, shooting her a wink as he headed out the door, leaving her once again sitting there, bored out of her mind as her gaze once again landed on her laptop and-
What did she have to lose? Kristen decided as she sat up and shoved the pillows behind her back before she grabbed her laptop, slowly exhaled and opened it, typed in her password, found where she left off and-
Swallowed hard when the words began racing through her mind as her fingers began to move as the rest of the story began playing in her head.
Her lips pulled up into a smile at the realization that she could finally write on her own again.
Sighing with satisfaction, Kristen grabbed the bottle of ginger ale off the nightstand, opened it, and-
“Damn it!”
-mumbled sadly to herself as she was forced to put the cap back on the bottle and place it on the nightstand along with her computer.
That was followed by sadly muttering to herself as she made her way into the bathroom to grab a towel off the bathroom counter to clean the soda off her shirt only to forget how to breathe when she saw the results flashing on the pregnancy test that she’d forgotten about and found herself wondering how a baby was going to fit into her story.