Teagan

I thought Joshua was spoiling me before, but now, after telling him about the baby, he’s downright pampering me. I now have a credit card with the incredibly descriptive limit of the sky and have been tasked with picking out a room for a nursery as well as a theme and hiring painters and purchasing furniture. I tried to put up a fight about it, but he wasn’t having it. Joshua says he trusts me to go with my gut, but I send him pictures of everything and let him weigh in on it all before making a single purchase. This isn’t about me, this is about us. Our baby. It would be all wrong to do it all myself.

He’s gone into overdrive, trying to get all the meetings and negotiations tied up as fast as he can so he can get back into the country sooner so we can do all of this together. Every night when he gets back to his room, he calls me and we talk for hours, even though I try to get him to go to sleep. Dark circles stand out under his eyes and I know it’s because he’s burning the candle at both ends and not sleeping or eating enough. But he keeps telling me it’s all worth it. That he’s been exhausted before and he’ll be exhausted again but that he’ll never get another chance to experience my first pregnancy with me. I smile from the inside out every time he says it.

Tonight, his call comes in a few minutes early and when I answer, he looks particularly amped up. “Guess what,” he says, a wide smile stretched across his face.

“What?” God, he’s so handsome. He might be the most attractive man I’ve ever seen in all of my life. And the more I get to know who he is on the inside? The more I realize that his face and body are nothing compared to his heart and soul.

“You have to guess, silly.”

“Ummm.” I stare off into space, trying to come up with something that would make him this wound up. “You had a shit ton of coffee and plan to work all night?”

Joshua shakes his head. “Nope. Guess again.”

“You decided to pick up cocaine as a habit?”

“Uh. No.” Joshua grins. “You’re terrible at this game.”

“I’m just trying to figure out why in the world you would be so amped up…” I trail off as a thought hits me. “Oh my gosh! You’re done! You get to come home now, right?”

“Bingo. I knew you could do it.” He sits, holding the iPad close. “I have a flight scheduled for early tomorrow morning. I’ll have you back in my arms by sometime tomorrow night.”

“But, what about the negotiations? The merger?”

“It’s done, baby doll.” Joshua leans back and folds his hands behind his head.

“Already? But … how? I thought things were going terribly.”

“They were. But I got inspired to speed things up and nothing gets in the way of me getting what I want once I’ve set my mind to it.”

“And did you get what you wanted?”

“Of course I got what I wanted. I’m going to be a very rich man, baby doll. All the better to spoil you and our little nugget with, of course.”

"Wow. So you'll be home almost a full month ahead of schedule." I lick my lips and lean towards the camera. "We'll get to spend the rest of the summer together. Unless my dad kills you. And then I get to spend the rest of my life alone."

"Don't you worry about that. I know your dad and he's the kind of man who listens to reason. What kind of father would be upset about finding out his daughter has the heart of a man who can make all her dreams come true?"

I roll my eyes. "The kind of man who was fully invested in teaching his daughter to make her own dreams come true without having to rely on anyone else to do it for her."

I have a point and Joshua knows it. Robert Flowers prides himself on how well he raised me. He's going to have a small aneurysm when he finds out that I’m pregnant before I’ve even completed my degree. And when I tell him that I’m considering dropping out of college to raise our child? Yeah, he won't like that, either.

Onscreen, Joshua looks as deep in thought as I am, his brows drawn together, his lips pulled into a taut line.

"Joshua?" I frown into the camera. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, baby doll. You most definitely did not say anything wrong. I don't think you ever could say anything wrong, I just got lost in thought." He leans forward and folds his hands under his chin. "I think it's time that we tell your parents. About us. About the baby."

I can feel the color drain from my face. "Do you?"

He nods. "I do. I didn't want to do it over the phone. And I didn't want you to do it without me there. But now that I'll be back in the country, we can invite them over for dinner and explain everything face to face." He smiles, happiness lighting up his face.

"Oh, God, Joshua. I'm scared."

"Why? What's there to be scared about?"

I let out a long breath, shaking my head. "They're going to be so shocked. They devoted their lives to making sure my lifepath was clear in front of me. And I kind of stepped off it big time. I don’t want to be a disappointment."

"Are you happy, Teagan?"

"Huh?" His question takes me off guard.

"Are you happy? With me? At my house? With my baby in my belly?"

"Yes. Happier than I've ever been in all of my life."

"Then don't you think that means you didn’t step off the path, but onto it? I think any parent, especially yours, would be thrilled to find out that their little girl has found a life worth living."

The thought makes me smile, because I would love for Mom and Dad to be as happy about all of this as I am. But part of me is afraid that it’s all just pretty words and that my dad is going to kill the father of my child at dinner.