A wave of nausea moved through her body. She stood and ran to the bathroom up the stairs in her bedroom. Quickly she turned on the sink, noticing that the handle was leaking a bit, but that was a problem for another day.

Her face was perspiring, her stomach lurched, and her brain was fully engaged in a conversation she’d blown off from earlier in the day. You act like I did when I was pregnant with the kids.

No. No. No.

She did more calculations in her head as her body temperature cooled as she pressed water to her face from her fingertips.

It had been three weeks since Ed and Darcy’s wedding. Three weeks since…

Now her stomach moved and she lifted the toilet lid and let go of all the dinner she’d just eaten.

“Victoria, are you okay?”

She could hear Scott call to her, but couldn’t call back as another wave took over.

When she looked up he was standing in the doorway. Quickly he grabbed for the towel on the rod and wet it under the running water.

He handed it to her and then took her hair and held it back for her.

“Oh, Scott. Go. You don’t want to see me like this.”

“Honey, this is fine. You’re sick. You need some help.”

Why couldn’t she just fall head over heels in love with this man? He was so perfect in every way.

When she felt her stomach settle she reached up and flushed the toilet and with Scott’s help got to her feet.

“C’mon. Let’s get you into bed.”

She shook her head. “The kids.”

“I’ll get them put to bed. I’ll get dinner cleaned up too. Then,” he brushed a strand of hair from her face, “I’ll make myself a bed on the couch. I’ll only be a few feet away if you need me.”

There was a protest on her tongue, but she couldn’t manage it. Every time she’d had surgery, Sonia had stayed at the house. This was the first time she was really sick and she needed help.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Quickly, exhaustion took over her body. At some point she knew she’d heard the kids in the hallway with Scott on their way to bed, but she slept through the night.

She’d nearly forgotten he was there until the next morning when she walked downstairs to make her coffee. The deep breathing from the living room startled her a moment. Then she saw him splayed out under a Mickey Mouse blanket. Her breath hitched in her throat at the sight of his bare chest.

Steadying herself with a cleansing breath she walked toward the kitchen.

She was more than grateful that she’d brushed her teeth before coming down, because when Scott walked into the kitchen and pressed himself up behind her she’d let out a sigh. His hard body was close against her and his lips were on her neck.

“Are you feeling better?”

“Uh-huh,” was all she could manage.

“I can call in sick and take care of you.” His voice had dipped sensually and she swallowed hard.

“I have to work.”

He let out a groan and then gave her a peck on the cheek. “Maybe tonight and the rest of the weekend.”

He moved away from her and headed down the hall to the bathroom and Victoria let out the breath she’d been holding. Right. It was Friday. He could come back and spend all weekend.

Scott would be spending the night.

Dear Lord, was she ready for this. She looked down at her shaky hand. Yes. She was ready.

Chapter Twelve

There was a lot to be done before she picked up the kids from daycare. If Scott was spending the night, it was one more mouth to feed. She needed to make a plan and squeeze in a trip to the grocery store.

As she walked into the store, the scents accosted her nose and made her stomach roll. Oh, this wasn’t going to be a good thing. She needed some anti-nausea medicine.

When she made it to the aisle with the medicine, it wasn’t hard to realize there were many reasons for such medicine. Looking down, she saw the pregnancy tests all lined up. There was every kind of test. Easy to read. Spell it out for you. Boxes with multiple sticks.

Her stomach rolled again.

No. She wasn’t pregnant. She had the flu. She was the guardian of two young children. She just had the flu.

As she moved past them something made her stop. Well, what would it hurt to at least know for sure—even though she was sure.

An hour later she was home and the kids were getting settled. She’d hung up Ali’s new art work on the refrigerator and given Sam a few Cheerios to hold him until dinner.

She took the bag of groceries and began to unpack them, putting away each piece. When she got to the pregnancy test, she just stared at it as if she’d forgotten she’d bought it.

Her nerves twisted inside of her. She looked up and the kids were building something with the old toilet paper tubes they’d decorated one day. It would only take three minutes. She had three minutes.

Quickly, she took the box up to her bathroom and shut the door.

It would be quick and painless and it would be over. Then she could go on with her life.

She read the instructions, more than once, and then took the test.

As soon as she was done she set the test on the top of the toilet and went to wash her hands. But the faucet this time nearly came off in her hand. With water spewing all over she reached under the sink and turned off the water source.

She let out a sigh and grabbed towels to sop up the mess just as she heard a crash and a cry from down the stairs.

Without hesitation she ran down the stairs.

“What was that?” She turned the corner to see that Sam was holding his hand over his forehead and all around him were scattered cars.

She scooped him up. “Are you okay?”

He nodded with a tear dangling from his long, dark lashes.

She looked at Ali. “What happened?”

“He was stacking cars up high and he stood on the Lego bucket to get higher on the shelf and it fell over.”

Assessing the room she could now see the big pre-school Lego set all over the floor with all his cars. But he seemed fine.

In the midst of the commotion the doorbell rang and she set Sam on the floor and ran for the door. There stood Scott in his lawyer-man suit looking very handsome and in his hand he carried a bag. She tried to steady herself when she realized it was the bag he’d have packed all his things in to stay the night.

He stepped into the house and pressed a kiss to her lips. “This was one of the longest days of my life.”