and spot her waiting for me near the downstairs bathroom of all places.
“Look, if this is about the other night, you should know we didn’t mean to fall asleep,” I tell her.
She appears briefly puzzled, but then it clicks. “You two need to stop stressing about that,” she says, waving me off. “We’ve talked enough that I know you and Laylen are just friends.” With a small smile on her face, she hands over the brown bag. “Even though you can’t admit it yet, I know your heart belongs to my brother.”
My heart misses a beat, and my chest swells with a feeling I don’t think I’ve ever experienced. How can she know that when I don’t even know for sure?
“What’s in here?” I change the subject, staring down at the bag in my hand.
“That’s going to help us solve the mystery of”—she gives a pressing glance at my stomach—“what the hell is going on inside your cute, little belly.”
I open the bag and peer inside. “What the . . . ?” My head whips up at her. “A pregnancy test?”
“What’d you think it was going to be?”
“I don’t know. Some kind of witchy thing, maybe.”
Her brows arch. “Like a witchy pregnancy device?”
I shrug, feeling stupid and naïve. “I have no idea . . .” I clutch the bag. “I’ve never had to deal with this before.”
“I know. And I know it’s scary.” She pats my shoulder, trying to be encouraging. “But no matter what, everything will be okay. You’re not in this alone.”
“Thanks.” Sucking in an extremely large amount of oxygen, I step into the bathroom and lock the door behind me.
Since I’ve never done a pregnancy test before, I have to read the instructions, which seem pretty simple, yet doing the test itself just about does a number on my nerves. I nearly start bawling as I wait to see if either one or two lines appear. It takes several minutes longer than the instructions say, and I grow worried that perhaps the energy of the star inside me is causing the test not to work properly. Then I begin to wonder if I’ve lost my damn mind thinking such ridiculous thoughts. I’m still human, at least mostly, so of course the test is going to work the same.
But in the end, I end up holding a test with an extremely faded pink blur as I walk out of the bathroom.
Aislin is leaning against the wall, waiting nervously for me. When she sees me, she stiffens. “So . . . ?” She glances down at the test in my hand. “What’d it say?”
I shrug then hand her the stick. “It might be a dud. Either that or it doesn’t work on me.”
“It could be faulty. That does happen sometimes,” she mumbles, studying the stick.
I wonder if she knows all about this stuff because she’s had to deal with it before.
“Well, I guess I’ll just have to get another one, and then we’ll find out.” She gives me back the stick then heads for the kitchen. “Come on. Let’s go tell Laylen. I know he’s probably stressing out.”
“Over this?” I ask. “Why?”
“Because it’s a lot to deal with.”
“It is,” I say, swallowing hard. “When I first heard the heartbeat, I thought . . . Well, it scared the shit out of me.”
“Oh, Gemma.” She turns around and hugs me, throwing me completely off guard. “You’re going to get through this, no matter what the next test says.”
“Thanks.” I awkwardly hug her back. “And I mean that. Thanks for everything.”
“You, too.” She pulls away, smiling. “Now, come on. Let’s get this figured out.” She grabs my hand and tows me into the kitchen, but then releases her hold on me. “Where’d he go?"
I look around the empty room. “Maybe upstairs?”
She backs for the doorway. “You sit down and rest, and I’ll go find him. When I get back, I’ll make another trip to the store.”
Before I can say anything else, she hurries out of the room, leaving me with nothing but the quiet. At first, I enjoy the silence until I detect the quietest beat of a heart.
The longer I listen to it, the more I just know the test had to be faulty. There’s definitely something inside me, and for some crazy, unexplainable reason, I have the strongest urge to protect it.
This isn’t just about Alex and me living anymore. It’s about Alex, me, and our unborn child. That’s what I want. If only I could figure out how