Page 80 of A Baby for the Firefighter
“Yeah? Me too.” Dean grinned. “But speaking of the play... your parents are going to show up for that, won't they?”
“Yeah... so?” I asked, wondering what exactly Dean was getting at. We hadn't seen much of my parents since they'd moved into my aunt's cottage, but Eli had invited them to come see the play, which I thought was a great idea. I liked the thought of attending it as a family.
“Shouldn't we maybe tell them about our situation before that time?” Dean asked.
“What situation?” I pretended like I had no idea what he was talking about, if only because I didn't want to talk about it.
“Uh...” He pointedly looked at my belly. My still flat belly.
“We can tell them after.” I waved him off, feeling my good mood evaporating. “Not like the baby is going to be born tomorrow.” And I didn’t want to have some sort of family fight before the play.
“There’s a chance that they’ll know what’s up just by looking at you.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, staring at him indignantly. “Are you saying that because you think I'm going to be fat or something?” Yeah, my good mood had vanished just as fast as it had come.
“I'm not saying you're going to be fat,” he said. “I'm saying you're going to have a cute little baby bump. I mean, it's already starting.” He reached out for my belly and I jumped from the stool to evade him.
“Don't touch me when you think I'm fat!”
One of Dean's eyebrows shot up. “That's not what I'm saying, sugar.”
“Ugh, don't talk about sugar.” I held a hand in front of my mouth.
“This pregnancy is going to last for another half year, isn't it?” Dean asked and I thought he suppressed a sigh.
“Yeah, why?”
“Oh, no reason.”
I glared at him, but he only smiled in response. I was lucky to be with the most patient alpha on the planet.
He tried to state his point again. “I was just thinking that maybe your parents might even be happy about this pregnancy. We'll never know unless we tell them.”
“Yeah, that's not going to happen, just believe me. They'll hear about the baby and then they'll start making all sorts of demands.” I'd seen it happen before. My parents seemed sorry for what had happened with Eli, yes, but only because they'd been given enough time to feel the consequences. If I sprung this pregnancy on them, there was no guarantee that they wouldn't flip again. My mother liked Dean, yeah, but she'd still want us to live a certain way. She and dad would both want us to get married right away. We didn't need that kind of pressure right now. I pouted.
“Okay, okay. I believe you.” Dean stood and embraced me from behind. This time, I let him. I even leaned in to him a little bit.
“I'm sorry for being so moody,” I said, suddenly feeling just incredibly sad about the state I was in.
“It's fine.” He kissed my neck. Then he laughed a little, bless him. “I know this isn't going to last forever, after all. We can talk about something else if you don't want to talk about your parents.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
“Like baby names?” Dean suggested. “Have you thought about any yet?”
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I think I’d like to wait until we find out the sex. That might make things easier.”
Dean nodded. “You know one of the old ladies I work with keeps insisting that we call our first child after her, since she brought us together.”
I had to laugh at that. “Is that Mrs. Rosewood? How does she think she brought us together?”
“Oh, she thinks it was all her positive influence and moral support. And she taste-tested all those cupcakes for me. You know, to make sure they were good enough for you.”
I shook my head, amusement taking the sadness away. “She's a sweet old lady, but she has some weird ideas.”
“She does.”
“Wait,” I said, turning my face to look at Dean. “Did you tell her about the pregnancy?”
