Chapter 1
Mia
“No. Oh hell no. This isn’t happening.” I stood at the bathroom sink and stared at the stick with the very bright plus sign glaring back at me. I closed my eyes as tightly as I could, then opened them and looked at it once more in case it might have changed in the last two seconds.
It hadn’t.
I stared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. I didn’t look pregnant. A little pale with a tinge of green, but that was just from shock, right?
I probably had looked at it wrong. I slowly lowered my gaze—sneaking up on it. Nope, there it was, practically glowing. Plus, plus PLUS sign! Like neon lights on Broadway.
Wait a minute. Did a plus sign even mean it was positive? Maybe I read the directions wrong. I dug the box out of the trash. Oh Lord, please, please, please don’t let me be pregnant.
As I read the words on the box, my heart began to sink. I picked up the stick again and looked at the sign. My legs grew weak. I held on to the edge of the sink and sat on the lid of the toilet with a hard plop.
“Go away,” I told the plus sign. I began to shake it like I used to shake my magic eight ball when I was a teenager. ‘Will Johnny ask me to the dance?’ I would turn over the magic black ball and see my answer. If I asked it enough times, it would respond, ‘it is certain.’
But after shaking the hell out of the stick, it still registered a plus sign. Stupid pregnancy test.
“Hi, Mia,” Chloe, my best friend and roomie, said. “What are you doing sitting in the bathroom?”
I slowly raised my head. My bottom lip quivered.
“What’s the matter, honey?” She stepped inside the bathroom, her gaze moving to what I was holding. She stumbled to a stop. “Oh my God. Tell me that’s not a pregnancy test.” Her gaze raised to my face.
“I could tell you it’s not a pregnancy test, but I would be lying.” I sucked in a sob. “It’s positive,” I wailed. I was not going to cry. I wasn’t the type of person who fell apart.
The first tears slid down my cheeks, quickly followed by a flood. And I didn’t have an Ark. I was quickly drowning in my sorrow.
She grabbed some toilet paper and shoved it into my hand before she helped me to my feet. I put the stick on the counter before blotting my eyes and blowing my nose.
Chloe led me out of the bathroom and to the living room sofa, then she ordered me to sit. Chester immediately jumped on the sofa with me. I pulled my little ragamuffin, mix-breed dog onto my lap and hugged him close.
“You’re always preaching to me about being careful,” Chloe began. “How the hell did this happen?”
I tilted my head and looked at her.
“Not that part. I know how that happened. What I want to know is how you could have unprotected sex.
Who’s the father?”
“I don’t know,” I mumbled.
“Huh?”
I cleared my throat. “I don’t exactly know,” I repeated.
“You had unprotected sex with more than one guy? Were you drunk?”
I frowned. “No I wasn’t drunk… Okay, maybe I was a little tipsy, but I wasn’t drunk, drunk. And it was only one guy. I don’t actually know him that well, except his name. It was his stupid cat’s fault.”
Chloe pinched her nose between her thumb and forefinger, closing her eyes. I had a feeling she was mentally counting to ten.
“Had you been smoking weed or something?” she finally asked.
“You know the only time I smoked weed it made me feel horrible. I haven’t done it since.”
She sat down beside me. “I think you’d better start from the beginning.”
“I don’t want to.”
She raised her eyebrows.
When Chloe raised both eyebrows, you knew you were in trouble. There would be no getting around not telling her.
I expelled a deep sigh of resignation. “Okay, I’ll tell you what happened.” I leaned back against the sofa cushions. I might as well get comfortable if I was going to have to relive that whole horrible night. “It was back in March. The night of Mr. Bridge’s birthday party.”
She nodded. “I remember. I loaned you my little black dress. It looked perfect with your black heels.
Okay, go on.”
I closed my eyes and thought back to that night…
Mia:
I will never forget the passionate night I spent with Sawyer Gabriel.
No, I really do mean never. That was the night I got pregnant, but it was his demon beast cat's fault. Then I discovered what Sawyer really was, so I fled his apartment and never looked back.
Almost nine months later, he's back in the country, except now he's my new boss. I don't want him in my life, so when he overhears me making a 'date' with the dogs I sometimes watch, and he thinks the worst, I let him.
Sawyer:
I still can't believe Mia isn't who I thought she was, but when I overhear her talking about how she enjoys Huck, Max, and Chester in her bed, what else am I to believe?
For the sake of the baby she's carrying, I have to show her the error of her ways. But dammit, I still have feelings for her.
You’ll fall in love with this feel good, sometimes steamy, new romantic comedy from USA Today Bestselling author Karen Kelley
