Page 120 of Bearly Hanging On

Chapter 50

Harper

A couple of months later

“Heyyy…” I got up from the bar and wrapped my arms around Daria. “How’s things? Are you still going to therapy? Found any hot bear boys to waste some time with?”

“Good,” she said, flicking a finger up. “Yes, because who knew having someone listen to all your deepest, darkest fears would make me feel so good and nope.” The shake of her head was very definite. “No dudes, furry or otherwise in my life. Meryl is helping me to see I need to focus on myself right now, before I decide to take on anyone else’s bullshit. Speaking of me time…” She gestured to the server behind the bar. “Can we get two tequila shots please?”

“Make that one.” I tried to say that casually, but that was never going to play with Daria. My girl’s gaze sharpened exponentially as she stared me down. “I’ll just have another orange juice, please.”

“OJ?” She picked up my glass then sniffed it. “Why the hell are you drinking OJ for? Are you pregnant or something?”

I went perfectly still, which was exactly the wrong thing to do. Before I met her at the bar, I’d gone to the doctors to get the news. The guys hadn’t come, because they didn’t know yet.

I was having a baby.

“No, of course not.”

I was trying to hard, waving her away and then slurping my juice, but she paid for and drank down her shots without looking away for a second.

“You can’t bullshit a bullshitter. What the fuck, Harps? Are you…?”

She couldn’t bring herself to say the words, which was fine, because I couldn’t either. Wait twelve weeks, that’s the advice everyone seemed to follow. Miscarriage was pretty common in the first trimester. For some random reason, my body could decide nope, now was not the time to get pregnant and that freaking killed me. My hand slid to my stomach, as if I could make this little cluster of cells sticky through will alone.

“Oh my god, you are!”

“Shut. Up,” I hissed, looking around warily. “I’m only a few weeks along.”

“You are!” Her voice was so high only dogs could hear it, then she frantically waved the server back to our end of the bar. “Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod! You’re gonna be a mummy.” Her eyelids started to flutter alarmingly. “I’m gonna be an aunty.”

“You’re gonna be an aunty,” I confirmed and damn me if my eyes didn’t fill with tears right then. Bloody hell, if this was what pregnancy was like, I was going to be a sobbing mess by the end. My bestie flung herself at me, holding me so tight I could barely breathe. “Ahh… Dar? Dar…!”

“You’re gonna be amazing.” Daria could be so damn fierce when she wanted. “Amazing, you hear me? You’ll be the best damn mother ever. This kid…” Her brows creased. “Is it onebaby, or are you having a litter like a cat? Shit, is one gonna be a tiger, another a wolf? Will you have a bear cub rather than a baby?”

All good questions. It wasn’t until late afternoon that I discovered the answers.

The house was curiously quiet when I got in the door, but the sound of running water made clear where the guys were. I tracked down the carpeted hallway, opening my room to find them all in the shower. All that well muscled flesh being scrubbed clean in the same shower, that deserved a moment with me standing in the doorway, just soaking them in. Mack noticed me first, that hypervigilance coming in use for once. He blinked, then dashed away the shampoo, whacking the others in the chest before rinsing his hair clean.

“Hey, baby…”

Tor sauntered up to the entrance to the expansive shower with all the grace of his furry self. “Feel like joining us.” He flicked water at me. “It’s nice and warm and we will get you all clean.” He shot me a wink. “After we get you all dirty.”

“Umm… afterwards?”

That squeaky tone got all of their attention. Mack was out of the shower, slapping water all over the floor as he took my face in his hands.

“What’s up? Did something happen? Is Daria OK? I thought she was doing better, with the therapy and everything.”

“I’m fine.” My hands went around his wrists as the others approached, slinging towels around their waists. “Better than fine.”

“Ohh-kay.”

Kieran watched me closely.

“Um, so you know how I had a doctor’s appointment today?” Each one of them went perfectly still, and it was then I realised what they were thinking. “Because of the nausea.”

“That was just Kieran’s shitty cooking, wasn’t it?” Tor asked, suddenly serious.

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