Page 39 of Pregnancy Scandal
To be fair, he’d been very lenient with me for the last six weeks. I’d literally been a no-show most of the time, and there was hardly a week that went by when I’d worked all five days. In fact, I had to be honest there and admit that I’d probably done two days across the work week. That was me going in for a few hours here and there, or not at all.
It was Mia who first gave me a heads-up that Dad was pissed, so I figured I’d come in today after he called and would make myself stay for the whole day.
Maybe…
Mom was in today. She dealt with all the charities our family sponsored. Mia, Vanessa, and I sat in the large meeting room with her discussing a project she wanted to put together for the old children’s hospital in downtown L.A.
We were donating a million dollars to renovate the neonatal unit, but she wanted to do something to get the community involved at large. Her idea was to set up a big campaign for the fundraiser. That was where we as a team came in. Me in particular because I dealt with the online campaigns. Vanessa was more of the person who’d meet and greet and set up appointments for potential clients. Mia was the planner. No one wanted to admit this, but Dad had made up the role for her after Mia dropped out of college. Mia was the sister who just didn’t know what she wanted to do. She went to college for a year and decided it wasn’t for her. She’d hated it. She didn’t even like the aspect of freedom and a social experience you wouldn’t get at any other time in your life.
That was why I went.
At least we all seemed to be able to work together. Fundraisers were always great. My parents had done many and made it their duty to support a couple of different charities every year. Crusaders, that was what they were.
It was all so great, but not that great when I couldn’t concentrate.
I’d left Gilly in bed this morning. The poor guy had been so tired he was barely able to wake up and kiss me goodbye. He had to train today too, but it wasn’t for the whole day. Just until lunchtime.
I, on the other hand, was here until five. It was only eleven now. Only eleven and I was ready to fade away into the ether of despair because I just wanted to be with my man.
That was all I wanted.
My man…
I still couldn’t believe Gilly and I were a couple, and the excitement of being with him was such that I wished people around me could enjoy it too. And I knew that was incredibly ridiculous because it was nothing to them. We’d created our own bubble of bliss, and we both wanted this baby.
It felt even more perfect than it had originally. Before, the idea of a baby had been nice and new. The way the situation had flipped around encompassed what I’d wished for but was afraid to try.
My phone buzzed in my back pocket as Mom started talking about the budget for the campaign.
I pulled the phone out and stole a glance at it when she turned her back to switch the slides on the overhead projector.
The text was from Gilly. It said:
Miss you baby…
He missed me. I wanted to type back, but if Mom caught me, she would give me that disapproving glare she always gave whenever she thought I didn’t take something serious.
So, I thought of the next best thing and started coughing.
Mia immediately saw straight through my bullshit of a ruse and made a face. Vanessa, on the other hand, got up to grab me a glass of water.
I took it but started coughing again.
“You guys continue without me. I’ll be back as quickly as I can,” I told them, trying to hold the rasp in my voice.
It was possible Mom saw through my bullshit too because the girls would have told her something was going on between me and Gilly. I hadn’t said anything to either of my parents, and anything I could say now had to wait because I had to see him.
I got up and dashed out while keeping up the cough.
I stopped when I turned down the corridor and practically ran to my car.
I headed straight to the stadium and made my way to the bleachers just in time to see Gilly running across the field.
He was fierce even in training. He was trying to get the ball from Tim Baker.
Watching the guys play out on the field was a thing I’d grown used to over the years. It became second nature to me to watch them fight for the ball and fight each other.
I was moving down to the last row of benches at the front when Gilly spotted me.
