Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 22788 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 114(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22788 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 114(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
“Why would he tell me?”
Caleb rolled his eyes. “You guys don’t need to pretend with me. I get it. You tell each other everything and that is the way it has always been. I know he’s told you how I feel about Mae. Just as you know, he has told me what you’ve told him about Mae.”
Emily sighed. “That’s fair. We don’t have any secrets.”
“And when it comes to Mae, I want it all.”
“Then tell me why you didn’t just admit that when she asked you.”
Caleb was starting to slowly lose his patience. “First of all, I panicked. I asked her and she sent the question right my way, so I thought I might have misread the signals that Mae doesn’t want to have kids. I was feeling the water, because if you want me to be blunt, we’ve not exactly been careful.”
He had not intended to tell their friends they were having unprotected sex, but he didn’t see the point in hiding it from them anymore.
Emily gasped. “What?”
Pete let out a cough, then glanced off to the side.
“Are you telling me that Mae and I could potentially be ... pregnant together?” Emily asked.
Caleb didn’t know if he should protect his private areas. He looked from Emily to Pete, and he couldn’t exactly read the situation. It didn’t look good. At least, he didn’t think it looked good, and then Emily stepped toward him. With each step she took, he had a fleeting moment of wondering if he was ever going to be able to father children.
He didn’t even know if Mae was pregnant. She wasn’t showing signs, but all the times they were having sex, he’d not once worn a condom. There had to be a chance she was pregnant.
Emily threw her arms around him and pulled him in for a hug. He wasn’t quite sure why she hugged him. Maybe it was her pregnancy hormones. They had come home on Sunday night and declared they were pregnant. He didn’t think it happened that fast, said so, and Emily told him she was already pregnant before they left. Of course, he was delighted for them.
“Why am I getting a hug right now? Is this a pregnancy thing, where you lure me into a sense of false hope and kick me in the balls?”
Emily stepped back, and he was a little startled to see tears falling down her eyes.
He turned to look at Pete. “I didn’t do anything.”
“It’s fine. It’s just that when Mae and I were little girls, we always said we wanted to be pregnant together, and now you’re saying there’s a chance we might get to feel that, and it is just ... we have wanted this for a long time. I also know Mae is crazy about you. She loves you so much and I know this could be one of the most amazing proposals of all times, and that is so emotional.”
Caleb didn’t know if he should be afraid or happy. They did look like good tears. Happy tears. Maybe he was reading into it wrong. Either way, he loved Mae, and he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.
“So, what is the plan?” Emily asked. Pete had gone behind her, put his hands on her shoulders, and started to massage them.
“Uh ... dress up, go into town, and have everyone there witness that I am in love with Mae, and want to spend the rest of my life with her.”
“So, what you’re saying is you don’t have a plan at all?” Emily asked.
He looked to Pete who was no help at all. “No?”
Emily sighed. “There’s going to be a band, and Mae is going to open the shop till late, so we’re going to have to wait until the perfect time. Do you have a ring?”
Caleb reached into his jacket and pulled out the ring his father had given to him a long time ago. It was one his mother had worn, and his grandmother before her.
“Excellent.”
****
Emily had insisted this year she go as a sexy witch. No warts and no long nose, just as herself, but in a costume her friend had chosen. Mae looked down at herself, and it was a little too revealing for her taste. Her friend seemed to love it, so she couldn’t exactly argue about it. Also, Emily had bought it for her, she was very heavily pregnant, and there was no way she was going to argue with her friend.
“Are you okay?” Emily asked.
Mae smiled as Emily had been pretty insistent on staying close, even though Kasey and Leah had already gone trick-or-treating, and were currently at their grandparents’. She doubted they had been given any candy that would make their grandparents extra work.
“Yeah, I’m okay. It has been a full night. I am so tired.” Her feet ached from being in these heeled shoes, but they were pretty, and she did enjoy them.