His eyes. The look in his eyes. They were so blue. And they were shining. She had never seen them look at her that way. There were tears in his eyes. Actual tears.
“Yes, and—”
The rest of her sentence never came out. Dane pulled her into his arms and hugged her so tightly she didn’t know where her body ended and his began. Then she was spinning and spinning. Her husband had lifted her up and had started spinning her around.
“You’re pregnant!” His strong arms were still holding her in a tight embrace.
For a second she felt nothing but euphoria. And then, as realization hit her, unease settled.
“Dane, wait.”
He stopped spinning her and she squirmed out of his grasp.
He cupped her face between his large hands. “What is it? Have I hurt you? You shouldn’t be standing up like this. Let’s get you into bed.”
She held up her hand. “Dane, I’m pregnant not sick.”
“What’s wrong?” He stared deeply into her eyes, probing down into the depths of her soul.
“I’m not completely sure that I’m pregnant,” she said softly. “That’s why I’ve been so distracted.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think I’m pregnant,” she said. “I took a pregnancy test weeks ago and it was positive. But I needed to be completely sure, so I went to the doctor to take a blood test. I was supposed to have gotten the results yesterday, but the snowstorm made that impossible.”
“That’s why you wanted to get back to New York so badly yesterday,” he said.
She nodded. “I missed my appointment because of the snowstorm. That’s why I took off without an explanation yesterday. I went into town to find a pharmacy. Then I came back here and took, like, five pregnancy tests. They were all positive. Five pregnancy tests can’t be wrong, can they?”
“I don’t see how they could be.” Dane released her face, then took her hand and led her to the bed. He motioned for her to sit and she sank down onto the soft mattress beside him.
“So, who is Phillip Beckford?” Dane asked.
“Dr. Phillip Beckford. My doctor,” she said. “He called?”
Her husband nodded. “Yes. He said you’ve been calling him a lot and he wanted you to call him back.”
“I’ve been calling him because I know he has my test results,” she said. “I want to know for sure, but he refuses to tell me over the phone. He can only tell me in person, and until I get back to New York I can’t know for sure. I’ve probably been driving him crazy with all my calls and texts.” She sighed in frustration. “I just wish he would tell me so that I can finally know for sure.”
He held her hand and squeezed it gently. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why keep it a secret?”
“Because I wanted it to be a surprise,” she said. “It was supposed to have been your Christmas present, but not knowing for sure has made things so much more complicated.”
“Allyson, this is the greatest gift I’ve ever gotten,” he said.
“And that’s what scares me.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “I wanted to know for sure, so I didn’t give you any false hope. I’ve already fallen in love with this baby. I want this baby so badly that I don’t know what I’ll do if it turns out I’m not pregnant. Or if it turns out that I was pregnant but ended up losing it since it’s in the early stages, and I’ve still been waiting for the test results. I’m afraid of getting my heart broken. That’s why I didn’t want to tell you until I got my results back from the doctor. I didn’t want you to be heartbroken if something bad happened.”
His hand skimmed up her arm, caressing it as if he was touching her skin for the first time. Then he brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. Then he kissed it again. And again. “I love you, Allyson,” he said. “I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.”
When he looked up at her once more, his eyes were shining with tears again. He cleared his throat. “You are the bravest person I’ve ever met. You’ve been carrying all this turmoil inside for so long all by yourself. Unless...” He paused, as if realization had just dawned on him. “Cameron knows, doesn’t he?”