Page 367 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
BAILEY
I woke up early on Saturday morning, coming out of a sweet dream of Adam and I curled together in bed. I sighed to find that I was alone. It was silly, really. Even though Adam and I had gotten closer and closer over the course of the month, I was still waking up on my own most mornings. I knew that he had his routine with Ethan, and he was trying to keep things as normal as possible for the young boy. I respected that.
Besides, I got to see Adam all the time, and it wasn’t like we hadn’t had sex or anything. No, things had been going really well for us. And if he hadn’t said that he loved me yet, well, it was going to take time. I knew that he still missed his former wife like a toothache that would never go away, and he was scared to fall in too deep again. I respected that as well.
But still, I couldn’t help wishing that we could take that next step in our relationship. To really commit to one another and start building a future together. I couldn’t help wishing that I could wake up next to him every single morning, curled together beneath the soft flannel sheets in his simple bedroom, listening to Ethan playing quietly downstairs.
Right now, I couldn’t have any of that. I was here in Nevada again. Just for a short trip this time, I had promised Adam as well as myself. I just had to tie up a couple of loose ends. Make sure that Ian was doing all right and that the board of directors’ confidence in him was fully restored.
For the past month, I had been doing double-duty between my work for the casino, which seemed to be never-ending, and the work for Brooks Mountain, which of course was nuts at the moment as we headed towards spring and the time for some of those planned renovations to the mountain. It had been an even more prosperous winter than we had anticipated early on, and even with the huge amount that we were saving ‘for a rainy day’, there was plenty leftover to make a lot of much-needed touch-ups to the place.
Ian had actually helped me brainstorm some ideas when he had come out to visit recently. We weren’t getting fancy coffee machines or anything like that, but he had had some great ideas for how I could enhance the place while keeping its current charm.
It was that visit, more than anything, that had shown me personally that Ian was reformed and that he would think twice before making any huge changes in the casino business. It was that visit that had spurred me to return here to tie up loose ends and quit the casino business once and for all.
But it was just a short visit. I was already eager to get back to Utah and the two boys, Adam and Ethan, that I had left behind. Plus the resort, which felt more like home, somehow, than Vegas ever had.
I sat up quickly, ready to get a start on my day. Then, I ran for the ensuite bathroom, my stomach churning. I hunched over the bowl, a cold sweat breaking out across my forehead as my gut heaved. I frowned, wondering what the hell that was about.
I thought back to the flight. There had been a couple people coughing around me, but this didn’t feel like your average cold. I was a little tired and definitely nauseous, but I didn’t feel achy or congested or any of that.
So maybe food poisoning? Thinking back over the previous day, though, I didn’t think that I had eaten anything too suspicious. And anyway, wouldn’t food poisoning have bothered me over the course of the night, rather than as soon as I sat up that morning? I at least should have felt some hint of discomfort as I lay there in bed that morning thinking about my day.
What finally helped me put two and two together was the slightly crampy feeling in my lower stomach. Almost as though…
It hit me like a bolt from the blue. I had missed my period that month. Could it be possible that this weariness and the accompanying nausea were the first signs of pregnancy?
I felt a slow grin break out across my face. Pregnant. It was Adam’s, of course. A younger brother or younger sister for Ethan. I could picture us already. The four of us. A real family.
But maybe I was getting ahead of myself. Adam hadn’t even told me that he loved me yet. Were we ready to have a kid together? Would this make him panic, freak him out to the point that he didn’t want anything to do with me anymore? Maybe it would make his memories of his first wife all the more poignant. All the more painful.
I didn’t think that was the case, though. I knew, even though he hadn’t said it, that Adam loved me. We had talked about a future together, albeit in broad sketches rather than specifics. We had talked about all the things that we were going to do together that summer and into the fall. I didn’t think the news that I was pregnant was going to shake that up.
Of course, I needed to confirm things before I talked to him about this. No use getting too ahead of myself.
I flushed the toilet and headed back into my room to get dressed for the morning, even more ready to get all of this casino business over with. Now I had twice as much reason to get back to Utah. But I made a little detour on the way to the casino that morning, stopping off at a pharmacy to buy a pregnancy test. I just couldn’t wait to confirm if my suspicions were true.
I headed into the bathroom on my way into the casino. Maybe I shouldn’t do this here. Maybe I should wait until after my meeting. This could be big news. Did I really want to confirm that I was pregnant here and now?
But I couldn’t wait any longer, and I knew that with the meeting I had scheduled that morning, I didn’t have time to go anywhere else. It was now or never.
Besides, I thought, grinning to myself, this was the same casino that Adam and I had had a great day in, together. I had been here plenty of times on my own before that, but now, this place was kind of special to me in a way. What more fitting place was there to realize this news?
I was getting ahead of myself again. For all I knew, it was just a fluke that my period was late this month. Adam and I had been careful. Maybe it was just a touch of strange twenty-four hour sickness and nothing more.
For a moment, I paused, staring in the mirror at myself. What did I hope to see when I turned that stick over? One line or two?
I grinned slowly. I wanted a family with Adam. And even though I already felt like Ethan and Adam were family enough for me, even though I knew that Adam and I probably should have had more serious talks about the future before skipping ahead to this step? Well, if that test was positive, I knew for a fact that I was going to be over the moon about it.
Even if it wasn’t positive, I knew, right then in that moment, that I wanted to talk to Adam about having kids together. Giving Ethan a younger brother or sister. Sharing the ins and outs of parenthood with one another.
I looked down at the test in my hand and then hurriedly consulted the box one more time, just to make sure that I was remembering it correctly. I couldn’t help but grin. Pregnant.
Adam and I were having a baby.
I fought the urge to whoop and holler right there in the bathroom. I also fought the urge to pull out my phone and call Adam right away. No, this was something that I needed to tell him in person. I could already picture the stunned look on his face. But in my minds eye, he would be just as excited as I was about this new chapter in our lives. He would pull me close, hold me tightly. But carefully, respectful of the baby growing in my uterus already.
I glanced at my watch and then took a deep breath before heading out into the casino. Time for all of that later. For now, I had a meeting to be done with.
