Page 60 of Deadly North

“Full of the Christmas spirit,” she says, raising her mug. “Managed to get the old man to dress up for the occasion, as you can see.”

Choppa is wearing a red T-shirt that reads “Ho Ho F***ing Ho.” When he sees me looking at it, he gives me a wry smirk. “Reens wouldn’t let me have one that spells out the word, ‘cause of Julia.”

“I mean, Julia is pretty smart,” I say, “but I’m not sure she can read quite yet.”

“It’s the principle of the thing,” Reenie argues. “When she’s older looking at pictures, I don’t want her to see this stupid old man with the F word across his chest.”

“Speaking of Julia, check that out,” Kat says, pointing. I follow her eyes across the room, to where Reed is sitting in an overstuffed chair, with little Julia on his lap. She’s got one of her books out. She turns the pages one by one, and Reed seems to be reading the book to her, their heads bent close together.

“Holy crap,” I marvel. “Who would ever believe that grump would tolerate reading a picture book to a kid?”

“Right?” Kat shakes her head, smiling. “Reed was here a couple of weeks ago, helping Con out with something, and Julia spent the whole time following him around like a puppy dog. She’s definitely a daddy’s girl, and she loves Mack, but Reed? And the weird part is, he doesn’t even seem to mind spending time with her.”

“Maybe he needs a kid of his own,” I remark.

“Psh. He’d have to have a girlfriend or an old lady for that.” Kat rolls her eyes. “That guy is as confirmed a bachelor as I’ve ever seen.”

We stay at the party for several hours. We sing happy birthday to Julia, eat slices of birthday cake, and watch her open presents. The men go downstairs and play pool for a while. My former neighbors Carrie Ann, her daughter London, and Carrie Ann’s mom Janice stop by. I made sure that when I moved away from my old house, Carrie Ann and I stayed in touch. Through me, Kat and Carrie Ann have become good friends too. Little London loves playing with Julia, despite the four-year age difference.

Eventually, I start to get tired. It’s been a long day, and for the last week or so I’ve been more tired than usual. I tell Mack I’m ready to leave. We say our goodbyes, and head out to his truck. On the way home, we exchange stories from the different people we talked to at the party. I can’t help but keep stealing glances at my handsome husband. He looks relaxed and happy. And I hope I’m about to make him even happier.

Back at our place, I go to the bedroom on the pretense of wanting to change into something more comfortable. But really, I’m there to find Tedward. As I expected, he’s sprawled out on our bed, sleeping. It takes a little wrangling, but I manage to get him into the special cat shirt that I found at the specialty pet store down the street from Roos’s tattoo shop earlier today. “Okay, Ted,” I whisper into his fur. “Let’s go do this.”

Mack’s footsteps sound in the hallway. “You want a nightcap, darlin’?” he asks, poking his head into the bedroom. Thankfully, Mack hadn’t noticed that I wasn’t drinking tonight.

“No, I’m good. But Ted here wants to tell you something.”

“What?” Mack snorts as he comes in. He sits down next to me. “Ted, you didn’t pee on the bed or something, did you?” I set Ted down, and he ambles over to Mack to be petted. “Shit, what’s that you’re wearing?” He looks closer, peering at the lettering on the back of Ted’s shirt, which says:

Soon to be

BIG BROTHER

Mack’s brow furrows.He looks up at me, puzzled. “We’re getting another cat?”

I snort. “No, you idiot. I took a pregnancy test today.”

“What? Whoa… Are you serious?”

I stare him in the eye, hands on my hips. “Mack, you have known me for longer than anyone except my brother. Do you really think I would joke about something like this?”

He blows out a breath. “Yeah, good point.”

Mack’s lack of reaction is starting to freak me out. “Um…" I stammer. "Are you… like, do you have any thoughts about this situation?” God, maybe I should have actually talked to him about whether he wanted this before I sprang the whole Big Brother shirt thing on him.

“Thoughts?” he repeats dazedly. “Yeah. I have some thoughts.”

“So, do you want to maybe share some of them?” I ask, my voice starting to wobble.

Mack swallows hard. He opens his mouth, but no words come for a moment. “This is…” His voice is raspy. He meets my eyes, and damned if his aren’t rimmed with red. “This is good. Yeah, I think this is good.”

“I think so too,” I say in a broken whisper.

“Fuck, Gigi,” he croaks. “I love you so damn much. I can’t believe this is happening. You’re gonna be a mama.”

“And you’re gonna be a dad.”

“You’re gonna be such a good mom.” He reaches for me, hauling me into his chest. “This is gonna be the best fucking family.”

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