shopping bag is heavy not even that." Blake wasn't talking to her, but over her to the staff.
"Now you wait just a minute - "
Mary backed up and motioned to Louise "I think we need to leave."
"Blake is right," Neil voiced his opinion. "Let me help with this stuff. No need for you to hurt yourself or the baby."
Samantha shot out an arm when Neil moved around them to pick up the table she'd been struggling with. "Hold on. I'm pregnant, not an invalid. The doctor didn't say anything about restrictions."
"Neil," Mary barked. "I think we should leave Samantha and Blake to work this out without our help."
The three of them quietly slipped away, leaving Samantha holding her lips with tightly controlled anger and Blake squaring his jaw with determination.
"I thought we agreed to hold off telling anyone about the baby."
He glanced around the room. "I think we missed the mark on that one. Damn, Samantha, you could have gotten hurt up here moving this stuff around."
"It's just stuff."
"Heavy stuff that you shouldn't be lifting."
"Oh, please - "
Blake lifted his hand, silencing her protest. "What if you lifted this table," Blake kicked the wood at his feet. "And started to have stomach pains?"
A shiver of worry caught her unaware. "That probably wouldn't happen."
"But what if it did?"
Samantha shifted her eyes around the room, noticed the size of the queen bed for the first time, the bulky weight of the dresser she was determined to scoot out of the room before Blake had interrupted her.
Maybe... maybe Blake had a point. "I can lift shopping bags," she said under her breath.
Blake stepped into her personal space and pulled her into his arms. His hands felt cold as they rubbed up and down her back, and she could hear the rapid thump of his heart in his chest. He'd been worried, really taken back by her actions. The emotional woman in her sighed in contentment that he cared. The independent woman in her shook a tiny fist in the air.
"Please promise me you'll ask for help in the future."
Promises weren't something she offered unless she could deliver, so she didn't rush the words he wanted to hear from her lips.
Blake eased back and took her head in his hands. "Promise me."
"I was feeling so good today. I think the morning sickness is behind me."
"Promise me." Blake didn't let up his plea.
"Okay, fine. I won't lift anything heavy. Satisfied?" Her clipped words came out a bit harsher than she wanted, but Blake didn't seem to mind. His smile reached his eyes.
"You promise?"
"I promise!" She pushed against his chest. "Geeze, do you always get your way?"
Nodding, Blake offered, "I promise to jump on anything you need lifted. You won't have to nag me to get stuff done."
"Okay, buster, put your muscles where your mouth is. I want this room clear so I can prep the walls... paint..."
Blake's eyes shot up and a frown fell on his lips.
"Paint fumes?" he questioned.
Already she knew there would be more promises made before night fell.
In the end, she promised to leave the heavy work to Blake and anyone he hired to make it happen, and Samantha had rein to point, spend, and dictate as many changes as she deemed necessary.
****
Instead of announcing the coming heir to his father's lawyers with written correspondence, Blake opted for a much grander delivery. As soon as Samantha felt well enough to travel, they planned their trip to his ancestral home to tell the rest of the family.
The small dinner party rumbled with excitement until Blake finally hushed the family and took Samantha by the hand. "I think by now most of you have guessed why we asked you here tonight," he began.
"You know how much I adore assumptions," his mother called from the far end of the table.
Those around laughed and waited for his next words.
"Samantha and I are expecting a child in late January."
"I knew it." Gwen hopped to her feet and circled the table to hug Samantha and then him.
Congratulations and a chorus of well wishes rose. If anyone in the room questioned when Samantha had become pregnant, none said a word.
Howard caught his eyes from the far end of the table, his lips fell into a straight line. Blake blamed his father for the strain on his relationship with his cousin. If the man hadn't named him as the second in the will, perhaps Blake and Howard could have been closer. Sadly, that wasn't the case. Paul leaned forward and