Page 45 of Falling for Mr. Bossy Pants

I push my head forward with my mouth open. “Why do you have a pregnancy test?”

Beth snickers. “I had a false alarm a few months ago. But enough about me, will you please do it? It can be our one last final memory in this apartment.”

I close my eyes. It feels unnecessary, but I want to make Beth happy, so I agree. “Fine.”

I head to the bathroom and when I’m done, I leave it sitting on the bathroom counter. I return to Beth at the table.

“Do you want to talk about it. You know, if you are?”

I shake my head. “Beth, I’m not. I just need to drink some water and get more sleep. Or I might have the flu, who knows.”

We continue arguing about if I am or if I’m not when the timer goes off. I look at her from across the table. Neither of us move. Finally, Beth says, “Do you want me to look?”

For some reason I don’t want to look. I’m not allowing myself to even consider the possibility, but something is making me feel uncertain all of a sudden. I clear my throat. “Yes, you look.”

Beth pushes back her chair and runs down the hall. I don’t hear anything for what seems like eternity, so I get up and make my way down the hall. I step into the bathroom and see Beth holding the test with tears in her eyes. I grab the test from her. My eyes look down then at Beth then back down. “How is this possible?” I ask, tears starting to fill my eyes.

Beth hugs me tightly. “Lace, you’re going to be the best mom!”

I wrap my arms around her and squeeze her. “I am. I will. I can do this right?”

Beth pulls away and laughs. “Of course you can! And I’m going to be right here with you the whole time. And you’ll have Jared right there too. He’s going to be a great dad.”

My stomach lurches. Jared. Oh my God. How am I even going to tell him. We had only talked briefly about having kids. Both of us being in our late thirties, and Jared hitting forty in a few months we never shut out the idea, but we also weren’t trying. I don’t think I ever spent a lot of time thinking about being a mom, but when Beth just said the word to me my heart skipped.

“I know. I know you’re right. I don’t know what to do? What should I be doing? Beth, tell me!”

Beth grabs my hands. “First you need to calm down. I think you should sit for a second and let’s think about how you want to give the news to Jared.”

After a few minutes with Beth my heart settles. She brings me ice which for some reason goes down better than water, and I start to let myself think about all the things. A nursery, a baby shower, all the toys, diapers, strollers. Then an image of Jared holding our baby crosses my mind and my heart swells.

“Beth. I love you. Thank you. I need to go. I have to get home; Jared will be home soon.”

Beth gives me another hug. “Sure. Of course. Here.” She hands me the test. “Take this. Go tell your man!”

When I burst through the front door, I hear nothing but silence. How soon this is all going to change. I go upstairs and take a cool shower and throw on a yellow sundress with some flip flops. The shower has made me feel somewhat better, so I sit on the edge of the bed with the test in my hand. I glance at the clock as it shines four-forty-five p.m. Ever since Jared and I officially became a couple, he promised to be home by five p.m. unless of course there was something important, which he always told me about beforehand. I get up and go downstairs, grab the wireless speaker and head out back to the gardens.

When I moved in with Jared, he already had some great greenery but no real flowers, so I took it upon myself to plant an array of colorful flowers along the back edge of the property. He loves that I like to garden, and every now and then I find him out here walking along the edge of where the flowers meet the tall shrubs. I set the speaker down and connect my phone. I hit play and let my classical music playlist fill the air.

I walk down the row of cardinal flowers when I spot movement to my right. I look to see Jared heading my way. My stomach flips as I see his smile. This man is already a wonderful husband and I know he’s going to make an amazing dad.

As he nears me, he grabs my hand and makes me twirl. “I love this dress on you. You look like a garden goddess,” he says. Nothing this man says to me can ever grow old.

“Thank you,” I say, my face feeling flushed. I kiss him on the lips then grab his hand and continue to walk with him for a minute. He stops looking perplexed. “Wait, are you playing classical music to the plants? Because it looks like you put this speaker pointing in their direction deliberately.”

I laugh. “You’re very observant. Did you know they did a study where when they played classical music to plants, they grew twenty percent faster?”

Jared raises his eyebrows. “Huh. That’s interesting, so I take it you’re wanting to add some growth to this flower bed?”

I pause then I reach in the pocket of my dress and pull out the test. “You could say that. And it looks like our family is about to grow too.”

I stand with the test in my hand, carefully watching his reaction. He looks down at the test. Then takes it from me and examines it. He looks up at me searching my face for confirmation. I nod. “Yes, it’s positive. We are going to have a baby.”

He drops the test to the ground and pulls me to him planting a fervent kiss on my lips. “Lacey, I can’t even…I can’t believe it.”

I smile. “Are you happy?”

He grabs my hand and kisses my knuckles. “I can’t even tell you how excited I am. I’m scared too, don’t get me wrong, but you’re going to be such a good mom. And I know with my sister and parents and Shane and Beth this baby is going to be loved so much.”

“Jared, you’re going to be a great dad.”

I see his eyes begin to fill. He puts his hand on my stomach then turns me to face the house. We start walking a few steps when he stops.

“Let’s go pick out which room will be the nursery. Do you want to find out the sex of the baby? What about colors? Is pink still in for girls? We could paint the room pink? If it’s a boy we could do blue, or what about green?....”

His excitement warms my entire body. I can’t wait to take this journey with the best man I know.