Kayden picked me up.

Making sure I didn't slip in the slush and snow, I hurried to the car, ready to be out of the weather.

Once inside, my lips met Kayden's in a brief kiss hello, and I started in on how my uncle wouldn’t let me have a new charge, yet again. If he wasn't my uncle, I would have notified the higher ups about him preventing me from working.

"All I did today was shadow Perry and clean up messes. I guess that's okay because it needs to be done, but I miss doing my own para-parenting," I growled, letting him know how much it upset me.

Kayden put the car in drive and headed back onto the road. “Maybe he's worried about putting too much pressure on you with us being newly married and you being pregnant and all.”

My mouth snapped shut and Kayden noticed.

He gave me a quick glance, his deep blue eyes full of concern. “You did tell him, right? He knows about the baby?”

I grimaced, shaking my head no. “I didn't want to tell him yet. I haven't even seen the doctor. That's next week. And I don't even get to see the doctor; I have to see a nurse. Supposedly there's a lot of pregnancies this December and they could only fit me in that way.”

“Wait, when were you going to tell us about the doctor's appointment? I didn't know.”

My eyes went wide at his sharp tone, and I felt like panicking. I forgot to tell him?

My hand went to his thigh as my lips tilted up in what I hoped was a ‘forgive me’ smile. “Kayden, I made the appointment yesterday.”

His lips pressed downward, and I could see his hands tighten on the steering wheel. “Who's taking you?”

My hand rubbed his thigh in a reassuring motion, and I softly answered, “I don't know. Tyler knows, so does Lincoln. But only because they were there when I phoned the doctor's office yesterday afternoon during lunch. You were out on that realtor call and didn't come back until late. By then, I had already gone to bed.”

He relaxed a little and so did my anxiety.

Was he really that upset? I'd have to keep a mental note to tell all of them any news about the baby as soon as I heard it. I felt bad. I didn't want him to feel left out either. “I promise,” I told him, giving his thigh a quick, loving squeeze as his gaze caught mine for a brief moment. “If I can't reach you or you're not there, I'll leave a message and let you know what's going on with me and the baby, okay?”

“I'm sorry,” he sighed, taking a hand off the steering wheel to grab mine. “I'm excited about the baby and I don't want to miss out on anything.”

“Well...” I suggested with a shrug. “Do you want to take me then? Will you have time to do it next Wednesday?”

A grin spread across his face, and I knew I made the right decision. “Hell yes.”

“Good.” I relaxed back into my seat. “I'll tell Tyler and Lincoln” – or whichever one was in charge of the schedule, which we hadn't gone over yet – “that you will be the first one to take me to my doctor's appointment. From there we'll just have a rotating schedule.” He gave my hand a squeeze. “Sounds like a plan,” he agreed lightheartedly then brought my hand up to his lips and kissed the back of it. “Nothing but the best for my queen.”

I snickered. “You're still gonna call me that?”

He looked quite offended as he tossed me another glance. “Of course I am.”

He set our hands on his thigh and continued to drive one handed.

“So how was your day?” I asked, settling in watching the snow drift downward. I tried to relax as he drove through it, not wanting my fears of what could happen on icy roads get to me.

“It is what it is. Not a whole lot for sale right now due to the snow, but we have a few houses that were put up on a listing in more prominent areas. That's where I was Sunday. But sometimes the prices they’re asking for their homes are outrageous, even for the property they have. Most home owners always believe their homes are worth more than they actually are. It’s those websites out there that give them false estimates which sometimes are nowhere near the actual value. Lots of times it’s due to wrong information being input by past owners, or the square footage is off, or something or other,” he said, dismissing it. “But the point is that owners look at those numbers and not the comps in the area. If there’s a decline or if the area is still growing, there's gonna be some adjustments. We all want to believe that our houses are worth more than they really are, but sometimes it's hard to hear when they aren't. Especially when they’re these fixer-upper families that go in for a quick fix to sell.”

I'd been listening to him so far, but when he had said fixer-upper families I thought about us. I gave his thigh a little nudge. “Hey, our house is a fixer upper.”

He shot me a crooked grin. “You bet it is, but we’re not selling anytime soon.”

I laughed and agreed. “We're going to get that new fridge and the stove this weekend, right? Because, I hate to tell you this, but that grill isn’t big enough to cook on for all of us. We need something better. And the fridge. We need a working fridge.”

He laughed. “All we need to do is dig some pockets into the snow and we’ll be good on the fridge.”

I huffed at his joking. “Kayden. This is my home. I want to be able to reach into a fridge and grab fresh food. I want to have a stove I can cook on and an oven that doesn't look like a million turkeys have caught fire in it. A dishwasher to make things run smoother. And I want a laundry shoot.”

His hand tightened on mine. “This weekend we'll go do all of that. Except for the laundry shoot. You’ll have to talk with Lincoln on that one. Were you able to get those funds from your parents’ house?

“Yes. I was thinking we could use some of that to get appliances.”

He shook his head. “Nuh-uh. We have the appliances in the budget. If you find something more expensive than what the budget calls for, we’ll talk to Tyler about you putting down the difference.”

“Okay,” I agreed, liking that plan. I wanted to make our house a home. My home. My hand went to my stomach where the life was growing inside and silently vowed to make it a good home for all of us.

“Like you said.” Kayden gave me a quick smile before returning his attention to the road. “We'll have to wait on cabinets and countertops, but we'll have shiny new appliances.”

I chuckled as some of the tension I’d been harboring left. 

“Does it feel weird?” he asked out of the blue.

Not understanding what he was talking about, I asked him, “Does what feel weird?”

“Being called Mrs. McGuire,” he said, giving me a wink. “Has anyone done that to you today? Because I have to tell you, I love saying it.”

I smirked and glanced down to admire my ring. “No, but Perry teased me about it, and Jenna said something about me having a marital glow.”

“Well, we know it's not marital glow,” he drawled, letting go of my hand and reaching over to put it on my flat belly. “That's all McGuire Junior right there, nestled on the inside. I’d say my swimmers were pretty dang good since they got past your birth control.”

I rolled my eyes. “Kay-den,” I reprimanded, trying to draw his hand away and have him concentrate on driving.

“No-no, just listen,” he tried to reason. “The way I see it, I'm due to have this child be mine.” He grimaced. “Well, ours. But the reason I think it's my baby and not my brothers’ is because I pack a load, and there’s that one time I didn’t pull–”

I plugged my ears and told him, “I don't want to hear it anymore, Kayden Oliver!”

He tugged the hand closest to him down from my ear. “All right, I'll leave it alone.”

I smacked his shoulder. “You're such a guy.”

He laughed, his deep blue eyes twinkling. “Yeah, but I'm your guy,” he shot back.

I grinned and pointed to the road. “Yeah, you are, but don’t kill us.”

He returned his gaze to the icy road and his hands to the wheel. “I’m driving, with both hands on the wheel.”

Leaning over, I kissed his cheek. “Keep them that way.”

As we turned down our short street, I took in the two houses before ours.

The first house on the right was an older, two-story farm house set further back and had three trees that lined the driveway. At the moment those trees were bare and their branches shelved with fallen snow. The driveway led up to a two-car garage like ours did, and the front porch and shutters were painted an updated red, quite a contrast to the soft gray siding.

I sighed and turned away, thinking gray on our house would be nice, but I wanted my shutters green as well as my front door.

Kayden shot me a questioning glance. “That was a big sigh,” he noted. “You okay?”

Giving him a smile, I laid my hand on his forearm. “Nothing to worry about. Just thinking.”

We passed the second house on the left, which had no trees but still had the curved driveway that led up to a three-car garage. That house was much larger than the others on the street, and it had been updated this past summer—at least, that’s what Kayden had told me.

“Faith?” Kayden prompted.

My gaze moved from the bigger house to him. He slowed down and nodded out his window to it. “Having fixer-upper envy, Faith?” he teased me.

I let out a noise of denial and sat back. “Of course not. I know we’ll get there... someday.”

Kayden picked up his speed back to the normal pace and replied, “Good. Because it’s not the house that makes a home. It’s the people inside it.”

At home, I dropped my purse by the door and tore off my boots then threw my coat over the single couch we had, just past the foyer in the living room.

I groaned, pressing my hands against my back as Kayden came up behind me. His hands went for my shoulders and started to massage them.

“The others aren't home yet,” he hinted. “How about we throw two of those frozen pizzas in the old oven that still seems to work and both of us head upstairs to take a warm shower together?”

“But we have boxes to unpack...” I weakly protested.

He drew my hair away from my shoulder and dipped down to caress my neck in a sensual kiss.

“Maybe...” I started to cave, letting his arms wrap around my hips.

He rested his hands on my middle, drawing me back into his embrace as his lips made their way up to my ear. “I promise to make it worth your while,” he teased me. “I won't just take you to the festival, but I’ll take you all the way up to the Queen’s Court.”

I laughed at his corny innuendos and drew out of his embrace to poke him in the stomach. 

Slipping my fingers into the band of his work pants, I told him, “You're on,” before bringing him to me for a kiss.

His hands met my hips at the same time he growled against my lips. “I guess my corny come-ons worked.”

I pushed him away, light-hearted with all our banter. “You wish.” I pointed to the kitchen. “Go put the pizza in the oven. I'm going to head upstairs and start the shower. And yes” – I smirked, wiggling my eyebrows – “you can come and join me.”

He moved to the couch and pulled off his coat and boots before he went to the kitchen.

He paused, turned back my way, and raised an eyebrow in question. “Did you change your mind?”

I grinned, my stomach flipping in anticipation, before I raced up the stairs as my answer.

Once in our bedroom, I moved to the master bathroom and was pleased to find it in semi good shape despite the clothes on the floor. I really needed to take them to Brady’s to wash them. The washer and dryer we had wasn't in any shape or form to use. That was on our list to buy as well as a refrigerator and stove.

As my feet moved from the carpet to the cold tiled floor, I turned on the shower and made quick work of stripping but paused midway when I caught myself in the mirror. My pants were off, my arms were tucked in my shirt midway to taking it off, and my eyes drew down to my flat stomach.

I shucked the shirt and turned sideways to get a better view, putting my hands on the low-rise of my hips before sliding them to the center. It was just a bit firmer than it was before, but then again, it was too early to tell.

I was guessing I was at least eight weeks if not more, but I didn’t really have any idea when I got pregnant since we had been using birth control.

When my monthly passed and I started having symptoms, I took the test. I was slightly worried about the effects the birth control might have on my child, but I figured I'd learn everything I'd need to know when I went in and had my pregnancy confirmed. I was kind of nervous about that. My nightly thoughts before I went to sleep were consumed by my pregnancy and how I’d change. I hadn’t yet thought about the after, with teddy bears, dolls, cribs, or baby clothes. Even though I should, I’d only got as far as which room would be best for the baby. Since the renovation took over the fourth bedroom nearest to ours for the bathroom and the extra closet space for the master bedroom, we only had two other bedrooms to choose from.

If I got to pick, it would be the one closest to us, for obvious reasons, and that was because when the baby or toddler cried during the night, it would be the closest room we could get to. I wasn't sure how many kids we would have, but I knew I wasn't ready for a house full. We'd have to see how this one turned out, or in reality, how we turned out as parents and if we were cut out for it. This was like our practice baby. Sad to say it, but it was the truth.

With that final thought, I jumped in the shower and waited for Kayden.