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But something had woken her, she wasn’t sure what and she had no idea what time it was but there was some light just starting to filter through her curtains so it must be close to dawn.

And then a scalding hot wave of nausea rose up from her stomach and she knew exactly what had yanked her from her sleep. Leaping from her bed, her pulse racing, she made a mad dash to her ensuite, getting there just in time to throw up.

Not that there was anything much in her stomach to offer.

She retched. And then she retched some more. She retched until her stomach hurt and it felt like her eyeballs were going to pop out of her head.

‘Callie?’

Startled, Callie looked over her shoulder to find Sebastian standing in the ensuite doorway. Even all bleary-eyed and disorientated, he looked so damn good she wanted to crawl over to him and hug his legs.

But she wasn’t done with the toilet yet.

‘I thought you’d gone,’ she just managed to say before another violent wave took hold and she turned back to retch some more.

Before she knew it, he was crouching beside her, his hand sliding to the small of her back and rubbing. It felt so good Callie wanted to cry. But damn it, she was feeling awful enough without Sebastian witnessing her on her knees hunched over the toilet bowl.

‘Go away,’ she said, her eyes shut tight as she tried to mentally will the nausea away. Hot tears scalded her eyes and slipped out from behind her lids to trek down her face.

But he just kept rubbing her back. ‘No way. I’m not going anywhere.’

‘God… please, Sebastian,’ she sobbed. ‘Please, just go. I don’t want you to see me like this.’

Then another bout of retching took over and she couldn’t talk any more. Not that it seemed to matter as Sebastian ignored her anyway to keep up the back rubbing. If she’d had the energy she’d have pushed him away but she didn’t so he kept rubbing and muttering soothing things as she heaved and cried until the nausea finally settled.

When she was done, she slumped her sweaty forehead against his shoulder.

‘Would you like a cool cloth?’

More tears filled Callie’s eyes. She was being cranky and weepy and difficult and he was being nothing but attentive. ‘Yes please,’ she whispered, her voice cracking.

He eased her back against the wall then stood. Putting the toilet lid down, he flushed before he fussed around the sink. Callie shut her eyes hoping that would stop the tears but alas, it did not. They just kept coming.

‘Here,’ he said gently.

She opened her eyes, taking the wet cloth gratefully, pressing the coolness to her face dabbing at her eyes and nose and her mouth, although she doubted anything would really help given how much of a mess she must have looked.

And that made her cry too… ‘I’m s-so s-sorry,’ she said in hiccoughy sobs, fresh tears taking the places of the ones she’d wiped away. ‘I can’t s-seem to s-stop crying.’

Apart from her howling episode with Geri, she hadn’t all day yesterday. She’d just stared at the television feeling numb inside. But this, throwing up first thing in the morning, made the whole thing seem very real – more so than the pregnancy test – and the enormity had hit her all over again.

‘Hey,’ Sebastian murmured, sliding down the wall as she dissolved into a flood of tears. He hauled her into his lap and Callie went gratefully, her cheek against his chest as she wept.

‘It’s such a b-big m-mess,’ she bawled.

‘Shh,’ he murmured. ‘It’ll be okay. You’ll see. We’ll work it out. Shh.’

Callie wasn’t sure how long she clung to him. All she knew was that his voice was soothing, saying all the right things, and the scratch of his red-gold whiskers against her hair was a strange sort of bliss.

She never wanted to leave the shelter of his arms. Here it was just her and him and the rest of the world faded away.

Except it was never going to be just her and him ever again. And therein lay the problem…

9

Callie was still feeling numb when she drove to Jambalyn on Monday morning. She was tired of the same thoughts turning over and over in her head and was looking forward to the distraction of work. Eight hours of something else to concentrate on other than the fact that she and Sebastian were having a baby.

Her stomach was still delicate and she’d spent half an hour that morning in and out of the toilet. Of course, it didn’t help that it was also churned up at the thought of seeing Sebastian again.