Our Favorite Days (My Favorite Mistake #3) (16 page)

“You could say that,” he said, finally looking at my face. Mmmm, that look in his eyes was predatory and possessive and I was still weak from the night before. It was nice to know that we could still go multiple rounds and be left wanting more.

“It’s missing something,” he said, stroking his chin where his stubble was coming in. I shivered, remembering how it felt on the insides of my thighs.

Hunter walked toward me and plunked a cowboy hat on my head.

“There. Now you’re perfect.” I tipped the hat back so he could kiss me.

“Aren’t you going to get some?” I asked and then pestered him until he found a black on black pair that he liked and fit well.

“Next time we come, I think we should hit Austin. It’s a super cool city and I think you’d really like it,” he said as we sat down to lunch at a small café that catered to vegans and vegetarians. Another thing I loved was that Hunter never made me feel guilty for being a vegetarian. He never rolled his eyes when I asked for a substitution, and he always made sure that the place we ended up going would have something for me to eat.

“Next time?” I asked, picking up my veggie sandwich.

“Next time,” he said with a smile as he cut a piece of chicken.

T
he next few days were spent shopping and eating and taking pictures and having sex. A lot of sex. We were both horny as hell for some reason, so we took every chance we got to get naked.

It was almost ridiculous.

“Are you happy?” Hunter asked after our plane had taken off for our trip home.

“Yes. Are you?” He was a little more tan from our hours walking around in the Texas sun, but I’d been sure to slather on the sunblock so my skin hadn’t changed at all.

“I am. And I feel…” he trailed off, looking for the right word. “I feel calmer? More at peace.” That made me so happy I wanted to cry. This trip had definitely been a good idea.

“No regrets?” I said.

“No regrets.”

W
e didn’t roll in to Yellowfield House until two in the morning and I was so tired I could barely get out of the car. But all the lights were on in the house and when we walked in it was like it was early evening instead of the middle of the night. Everyone was up and chatting while playing Cards Against Humanity at the dining table.

“Welcome home!” Renee cheered, getting up to hug us both.

“We were only gone for a few days,” I said as she clutched me tight.

“Doesn’t matter. We still missed you.” Everyone lined up to hug us and then we were shoved into chairs and handed cups of tea and snacks.

“How was it?” Mase asked.

I was beyond tired, but they had all stayed up and waited for us, so we could stick it out a little bit longer.

“You want to go first?” I said, looking at Hunter.

“Sure, Missy.”

I ended up falling asleep at the table while Hunter gave the summary of the trip. Next thing I knew, I was waking up and the sun was out.

“Oh God,” I said, rolling over. My back hurt from being crunched in a terrible airplane seat for hours.

“Everything okay?” Hunter said from his position next to me in bed. He had my e-reader out and looked fresh as a daisy. Bastard.

“I feel like I’ve been hit by a plane instead of riding in one,” I said and my voice came out as a croak.

“Aw, poor Missy. Do you want me to get you something?” He set the e-reader aside and looked down at me with concern.

“Maybe some tea with honey? And probably some aspirin. Shit.” I rested back against the pillows and sort of fell asleep again until Hunter brought me the tea, along with a croissant and some fruit.

“You take such good care of me,” I said, taking the tea and sipping it. The hot liquid was heaven on my dry throat.

“I like taking care of you. I never thought I would want to do something like that. Thought it would tie me down,” he said, shaking his head. “Clearly, I was an idiot as well as an asshole.”

I snorted.

“Yeah, you were both, but then, I punched you when we first met, so we were both not on our best behavior.” He laughed and got back into bed with me.

“You ready to go back to class?” I made a face.

“No. I was hoping I could go a few more hours without thinking about it, but I guess not.” Hunter didn’t look sorry for bringing it up.

I spent most of the day loafing on the living room couch reading as everyone else got stuff done. Hunter had more energy than I did, so he was on laundry duty, bless him.

“Was he really okay?” Mase came to ask while Hunter was upstairs folding.

“Yeah, he really was.” Mase sat down next to me with a sigh of relief. He’d called during the trip and I’d told him about the visit to Hunter’s mother’s grave.

“I think it was good for him. Not closure, exactly, but it gave him some peace.” Mase nodded.

“That’s really good. Mom and Dad were really concerned when he said he was going back, but they were relieved when he said he was taking you. I never thought I would see him be able to go back there. Really, Taylor. It’s amazing.” He was acting like I had done all the work when really it was all Hunter.

“He’s stronger than he knows,” I said, and then we had to shut up because Hunter came back downstairs.

“You were talking about me, weren’t you?” he said with a smirk.

“Not everything is about you, asshole,” I said, winking at Mase so Hunter couldn’t see.

“Oh, I think everything is about me for you, Missy,” he said, hopping over the back of the couch and planting himself next to me.

“You should be careful. If your head gets any bigger you might not be able to walk.” I rubbed the top of his head, which was prickly because he’d cut his hair this morning. Sometimes I wondered what he’d look like if he let it grow longer, but I’d never ask him to grow it for me if he didn’t want to.

“You love my big head.” I narrowed my eyes. “You love it so much you’re gonna marry it.”

There it was again. I’d been thinking about marriage a lot, especially since we’d visited his mother’s grave. I’d almost felt guilty that he was opening himself up to me while I was being so reluctant about getting married.

I just couldn’t get over my hang-ups. Maybe I should make an appointment with a counselor and talk things out. I just couldn’t tell if what I was feeling was normal, or if I was being crazy.

“Yeah, I am,” I said and hoped he would change the subject. I didn’t want to fight about it. We’d had such a good trip and I wanted to ride that goodness for a while.

Of course, life had a way of slapping you in the face and I got slapped. Big time.

S
omething was up with Taylor. We’d been back from our trip for three weeks and she was… different. There wasn’t any other way to describe it. She was tired all the time. I’d never known her to be a big nap taker and she was crashing whenever she came back from classes. It was a struggle to get her up in the morning.

I’d also never known her to be so scatterbrained. She lost her car keys, her notes, her phone, her e-reader.

“Are you sure you’re not sick?” I asked.

“With what? Forgetful brain disease?” She didn’t like me talking about it and I wasn’t sure if I should mention it to anyone. I didn’t know what to do, so finally one night when Taylor had gone up to bed early, I cornered Renee. There was definitely something to be said about having a nurse in the house.

“Hey, so something is up with Taylor and I wanted to get your professional opinion.” She didn’t have that dazed look she got when she was studying and she wasn’t fighting with Paul currently so I figured I was safe asking.

Her bright blue eyes narrowed a little.

“I’m not sure I should be talking to you about her without her knowing, Hunter.” Uh oh. I’d crossed one of those lines I hadn’t known I was crossing until I was over it. Shit.

“It’s nothing, forget it,” I said, putting my hands up and backing away. Renee could be intense and I didn’t want to be the target of her wrath.

“Uh huh,” she said, crossing her arms, her eyes still narrowed. I got away as quick as I could and made a note never to do that again.

I
was woken early the next morning by Taylor wrenching herself out of my arms and running to the bathroom where she hurled in the toilet. It took me a second to figure out what was happening and to run to her side to hold back her hair. As soon as she was done, I handed her a glass of water and then her toothbrush.

“Are you okay?” I asked as she swished the water around her mouth and spat in the sink.

“It just came on so sudden. Woke me up. I must have eaten something bad.” She grabbed the toothpaste and vigorously brushed her teeth, but she wouldn’t look me in the eye. Something was going on and we needed to sit down and talk about it. As soon as she was done with her teeth, she pushed me aside and got back into bed.

“Are you sure? Because you’ve been a little off since we got back and it’s starting to freak me out, Taylor.” She opened her eyes as I sat in bed, propped up by the headboard.

“Just tired. Maybe I picked something up there. I don’t know. I just want to go back to sleep, okay?” She closed her eyes again, effectively ending the conversation. I knew I shouldn’t take that for an answer, but she did look tired and I didn’t want to be an asshole. So I let her go back to sleep and vowed that if anything else weird happened, I’d confront her about it.

But then something happened and I didn’t have to.

“H
ow you doing?” Renee asked me over and over. It was driving me crazy. She’d never been this concerned about my health before. I mean, she’d been the one who had saved my ass when I had that UTI not long ago, but this was excessive.

“I’m fine,” I said each and every time because she was getting a little creepy about the whole thing. Why was everyone so concerned about me all of a sudden? Sure, I was really tired and didn’t feel good a lot, but I figured it was just a bug I’d picked up in Texas. Probably something from the stupid airplane. Those things were flying germ incubators.

I thought things were getting better until I woke up early in the morning and started puking. The second morning in a row that I got sick, Hunter put his foot down and told me that I needed to go to the doctor. He was completely oblivious about what could be wrong with me and I wanted to keep him that way as long as possible.

I promised him that I would head to the clinic that afternoon, but I called Renee in a panic instead.

“I need you,” I said and she dropped everything to meet me in the parking lot.

“You wanna tell me what’s going on?” she asked, but I was pretty sure she knew exactly what was happening. Renee wasn’t stupid and neither was I.

“I think…” I couldn’t say the words out loud. Renee gave me a sad smile and pulled me into a hug. I didn’t know I was crying until she pulled back and started wiping the tears from my face.

“Hey, it’s okay. We’re gonna get you a few tests and we’ll go from there, okay? Take a deep breath for me, sweetheart.” Renee had her calming nurse’s voice on and it did help a little. I was shaking a little, so she shoved me into her car and drove me to a nearby pharmacy. She didn’t even ask me before she stopped the car, told me she would be right back and to sit tight.

While she was gone, I stared out of the windshield and tried not to let my thoughts gallop ahead of the situation. I failed.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

How could I be pregnant? I was on the pill and I was religious about taking them. This had to be some sort of weird anomaly. It wasn’t even time for my period yet. I was due to start in a few days, but my usual PMS was absent.

My breaths stuttered in my lungs, as if they wouldn’t fully expand and I put my head down on my knees.

Renee came back with a bag full of tests.

“Oh my God, you should have seen the face of the guy who bagged these up. I thought he was going to die from embarrassment. I mean, it was hilarious.” I gave her a look that told her I wasn’t finding much humor in the current situation.

“Yeah, sorry. Okay, do you want to go back to the house? No one should be home, but you never know.” Fuck. I didn’t want to deal with seeing anyone.

“I can take you to the hospital and we can do it in one of the bathrooms if you want,” she said when I didn’t immediately jump on that first plan.

The second plan wasn’t ideal either, but I didn’t have anywhere else to go unless I wanted to walk down the street and ring Stephen King’s doorbell.

“Hospital,” I said, my voice rough.

I
’d watched this scene many times in movies and read it in books, but nothing prepared me for the absolute terror of sitting in a bathroom and waiting for those stupid lines to appear or not appear.

Renee held my hand and told me soothing things, but I was so out of it I didn’t even know what she was talking about.

“It’s okay,” she said and then the timer on my phone dinged.

“Do you want me to look?” she asked as we both stared at the little white stick sitting on the edge of the sink.

“No,” I said, pushing off from the wall. This was my mess and I was going to deal with it. I rolled my shoulders and took the three steps to get to the sink.

I picked up the stick with trembling hands and saw the word PREGNANT on the digital test.

Eight letters. Rearranged they would spell something completely different, but in this particular order they meant that I currently had a baby inside me.

“Fuck,” I said, dropping the test.

Renee rushed over and picked it up.

“We can do another one, but false positives are extremely rare,” she said and for a second I wished she didn’t know so much about this.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. I didn’t need another test to tell me what I already knew.

I was knocked up. Had a bun in the oven. Was with child. All those incredibly stupid euphemisms that meant that I had a passenger aboard my uterus.

“Taylor,” Renee said, grabbing my hands and forcing me to look at her. “I’m going to take you home, okay? We’ll sit down and figure this out. You don’t need to make any decisions right now. We’re going to figure this out. Okay, sweetheart?” I wanted to snap at her for calling me that, but I didn’t have the brainpower to do so. She shuffled me out of the bathroom and back out to her car. She even buckled my seatbelt for me because I just couldn’t.

On the drive back to the house she left the radio off and kept talking to me. She wasn’t talking about anything in particular, just her classes and her homework and other random things.

The chatter helped me keep my grip on sanity so I didn’t fly off in a thousand different directions.

Renee hurried me into the house and sat me on the living room couch before brewing me some lemon ginger tea and bringing it to me. I was grateful to have something solid to hold onto because the world was starting to feel like it was going to float away from me. Or I was going to float away from it.

“How are you feeling?” Renee asked. She’d been staring at me, as if waiting for me to talk or cry or do something.