“But—”
“No buts. Whatever it is, I’ve already been exposed, so no reason to quarantine on my account.”
She stopped arguing. Mitch carried her upstairs and helped her out of her business attire, into one of his old T-shirts and a pair of her yoga pants. She looked a little better after she’d had the chance to brush her teeth and rinse out her mouth.
“You want to curl up in bed or come downstairs?”
“I’m not a total invalid. Downstairs.” She started to go herself, but Mitch just picked her up again.
“I like carrying you.”
Tess blew out an irritated breath. He ignored the scowl she shot him as he settled her on the sofa and found a throw. She was an independent woman, used to being in control, so he didn’t hold her grumpy patient behavior against her. A stomach bug was about as far from controlled as you could get.
He managed to unearth some crackers and ginger ale. That had always been his mom’s go to when he or Miranda had a stomach thing. He poured the ginger ale over ice in one of his sports bottles so she’d have a straw and carried that and the box of crackers back into the living room.
“We’ll see how this sits before we try anything more serious. I’m about ninety-five percent sure there’s some of Grammy’s chicken ’n dumplin’s in the freezer. If you can hold this down, I’ll heat that up.”
Tess accepted the crackers, her eyes lost and a little bit miserable. “I don’t—you shouldn’t have to do this.”
“I don’t have to do it. I want to do it. I don’t just want you in bed or for the fun stuff. When I said I wanted a chance at seeing if we can make this work for real, I meant it.” And this seemed like damned good practice for the in sickness and in health part of that reality. That should probably freak him the hell out.
After a long moment, she clutched the crackers to her chest. “You’re really one in a million, aren’t you?”
“Mama said God broke the mold the day He made me.”
That coaxed a little smile out of her. When he settled on the sofa and she shifted to snuggle up next to him, a bone-deep contentment slid through him. They totally had this real world relationship thing.
Mitch flipped on the TV and navigated over to Netflix to queue up a movie.
“How did you know Mamma Mia! is my favorite movie?”
“Because you’re too young to have fallen in love with ABBA any other way.” As the heroine began to sing the opening number, Mitch started humming along.
Tess cranked her head around to look at him. “You know the music.”
“I might have watched it once or twice while I was thinking of you.” The mortification of admitting it was worth the total Aaaaaawww of her response. “And if you tell my buddies about that, I’ll totally lose my man card.”
Settling her head against his shoulder, she cuddled in. “Your secret is safe with me.”
Chapter 9
“Feeling better, Peanut?”
Not even a little bit.
But Tess wasn’t about to tell her father the reason for that. She’d managed to avoid him for two days on the excuse of a stomach bug, skipping the office and sticking to home. But she couldn’t cancel the intimate family dinner with him and Sandy without bringing a horde of well-meaning Campbells armed with soups and casseroles to the house. Right now the house she shared with Mitch felt like a refuge. She didn’t think it would stay that way with all of them in it. So here she was, hoping like hell her stomach didn’t betray her secret. Even without the morning sickness, she was terrified she had a neon sign hanging over her head. If she got through tonight, it would be a miracle.
How? How was she going to tell him about this? How was she going to tell any of them? She didn’t even know how to tell Mitch. She’d tried a couple of times the past couple of days and hadn’t been able to force the words past her lips. He was so happy with how things were going, just the two of them. She didn’t want to destroy that any sooner than she had to.
Tess blinked as she realized Sandy had asked her a question. “Sorry?”
Sandy smiled. “I was just saying we thought you might like a chance to visit without everybody. I tend to forget not everyone’s family is a zoo.”
“It’s a great zoo.” Tess was surprised to find she meant it. As overwhelming as the full Campbell clan was, they were all good people. And no matter what happened in the future, they were a part of her life now. They’d be a part of this baby’s life.
Her father frowned. “You okay?”
Tess smoothed out her expression, wondering what he’d seen. “Lot on my mind.” Which was the absolute truth, but not one she wanted to share.