Jennifer touched her abdomen gently as she drove up to town. The pregnancy cravings she had been having were horrible. She had never really been a fan of natural foods before, but the bear-shifter cubs were apparently great at inspiring their mothers to eat healthy.
Ironically, the part of her child that was human had been craving pizza for the past week. The doctor had said it wouldn’t hurt the baby as long as she didn’t get in the habit of eating processed human foods too often, and so she decided to spoil the baby a bit and give it exactly what it seemed to be wanting. There was one place she knew of on Oak Mountain that made pizza in the human style and that was where Jennifer was heading.
She was starting to show a little, and the thought of her baby growing healthy and strong sent waves of love throughout her body. She hadn’t known she’d be able to feel this way about anybody before, let alone somebody who wasn’t even born yet.
She had been swamped with work and doctor’s appointments all week, but on her mind had been Dax, and Vince’s plan against him. She had to tell him, but she didn’t know where he lived. All she knew was where he worked, and the idea of approaching him there, or at all, made her stomach knot up. If he or anybody else there was able to tell that she was pregnant, then it could cost him his promotion, and that was what he needed more than anything.
She pulled into the pizza place and walked inside, inhaling deeply and basking in the scent of oregano and basil. The baby seemed excited about this new development as she made her way to the counter.
“Jennifer!”
She froze, horror-stricken, at the sound of Dax’s voice.
“Jennifer!” a much smaller voice repeated.
She whipped around to see Dax and Marnie sitting at a booth. He smiled sheepishly.
“She wanted pizza. Why don’t you join us?”
Jennifer’s heart tremored at the thought of joining this incredible man and his daughter. She had been nothing but horrible these past two and a half months, hiding her pregnancy and the fact Vince had sabotaged him. He had so much on his plate already, and yet somehow all she seemed to have to offer him were secrets. Still, he deserved to know about what Vince was doing, if nothing else.
“All right,” she said, her throat dry. Marnie scooted over enthusiastically to make room then beamed up at her. She was an even more beautiful child up close and in person than she had seen when she had passed by Dax and his daughter before. It was no wonder he was so head over heels in love with her.
“My name’s Marnie,” the child announced, staring at Jennifer expectantly with her big brown eyes.
“Nice to meet you, Marnie,” Jennifer said, reaching over to shake the girl’s tiny hand. This seemed to perplex as well as please her and Dax chuckled.
“She’s only seen people shake hands on TV,” he explained.
“Ah.”
Soon she was snared into a deep and easy conversation with the child as Dax watched, his face nearly impossible to read. She wished she could get him alone, even if just for a few moments so they could talk about what was going on with Vince, but it was obvious he was unwinding after work with his daughter, and it almost seemed cruel to bring it up to him again—especially with Marnie there.
Jennifer’s stomach rumbled when they began discussing what toppings should be on their extra-large pizza and she found that both Marnie and the unborn baby seemed to have the same preference: pineapple and sage. It was a pizza one could only find on Oak Mountain, that was for sure. When it came to the table, the smell made her mouth water. It was exactly what she had been wanting.
“So, how’s work been going?” Dax asked her, his eyes steady. They hadn’t spoken since his last awkward visit when she had been sure there was no salvaging their relationship. She had wanted to be with him, badly, but not only was he already busy enough with work and being a parent, but it would be impossible to hide the pregnancy from him if they were spending a lot of time together. It was already hard to do that, even just spending a dinner together.
“It’s been all right,” she said. In truth, the bear-shifters that had been coming in had been treating her differently. They were more snarky with her, as if they sensed there was some kind of change in her attitude. Maybe they didn’t like the fact she wasn’t drinking anymore. Whatever the reason happened to be, they seemed resentful of her. It was kind of unnerving, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it, and she certainly couldn’t tell Dax about what she was going through. That would lead to questions.
“I did work today!” Marnie announced.
“Oh really? What kind of work did you do today?” Jennifer asked, grateful for the change of topic. If they kept talking about work, she would have no choice but to tell him about Vince. However, she really wanted to speak privately to him about that, not in front of his daughter.
“I did color work!” Marnie said proudly.
“You know colors?” Jennifer gasped.
Marnie nodded proudly. “And ABCs!”
“She loves to sing,” Dax said, his voice gentle and deep. Marnie giggled and nodded.
“Well I think singing is great,” Jennifer said.
Before long they were all chattering easily, eating their pizza and spending time together as if they had always been just one, big happy family. Even though she felt the weight of the world on her shoulders, it was nice to just relax with Dax and his daughter and pretend everything was going to be all right after all. She didn’t know how to begin to break the news about the bad things and she decided it would just have to wait. Marnie enjoyed their full attention and they could all at least try to be light-hearted for her sake, if nothing else. Adult things could wait. At least until after dinner.
***
“I think she really likes you,” Dax said with a grin after he’d loaded Marnie into her car seat. She leaned back against it, her eyes sleepy and oblivious to the adult’s conversation. The fiberglass and glass of the car separated their worlds and Jennifer knew that if she didn’t tell Dax about Vince now, she would never get another chance.
“I really like her too,” Jennifer said, smiling through the window at the little girl whose heavy eyes were beginning to droop. “Listen, there’s something—”
“Me first,” Dax said. Jennifer’s heart thudded. Was he going to tell her how he felt about her, finally? She was tired of having to guess. But instead of speaking, Jennifer frowned as he pulled a piece of paper out from his back pocket. “Before I forget, because I always seem to, look. If I get this promotion, I thought I should probably let you know Marnie and I are going to be moving. I don’t know where yet, but the house we’re in now reminds us too much of my ex-wife. if I don’t see you around for a while, that’s why. I’m selling the house.”
He showed her the leaflet. His house was for sale.
“If you or anyone you know is interested in buying our old place, I would appreciate it if you would share the news.”
The ‘news’ hit Jennifer like a ton of bricks, but she did her best to smile at Dax. No, he wasn’t telling her how he felt about her. He was telling her he and his child would be moving far away from her to an unspecified location, just in case she hadn’t gotten the message yet that he didn’t care for her.
“Oh, that’s wonderful,” she managed to say. “It’s always good to get a fresh start.”
“Yeah,” Dax agreed. “So, what was it that you wanted to tell me?”
Jennifer’s stomach knotted. “That guy you work with, the huge asshole, Vince? He came into the bar. He’s talking about how he’s going to screw you over. There’s this whole deal where—”
Dax held up his hand to stop her from speaking.
“Look, I know that Vince is a piece of scum. I already know that and I’m shocked the elders don’t seem to know that, but they will eventually, especially if they put him on the board. If he’s planning on trying to make me lose favor with the elders then there isn’t anything I can do about his plans, so I don’t even want to know about them. Does that make sense to you? If he’s going to use dark ways to make me look bad, then he’s going to do it. All I can do is my best, and so far that’s hardly good enough as it is. I don’t need to be psyched out about what all Vince is doing to bring me down, you know?”
He seemed angry now and Jennifer felt the knot in her stomach grow tighter. She had just ruined what had started out as a perfectly good evening. Instead of parting on good terms, Dax was stomping around the car to the driver’s seat and getting inside. He slammed the door closed and Jennifer jumped, hot tears springing to her eyes. The slamming of the door startled Marnie into wakefulness too and the little girl waved tiredly to Jennifer as Dax pulled away. Jennifer waved back, despite the crushing feeling of sadness she felt as he pulled away.
She should have just kept her big fat mouth shut. Why had she thought it might be a good idea to tell him about what Vince was planning? Maybe she had been hoping to prepare him so he wouldn’t be humiliated in front of his bosses, but apparently bear-shifters saw things differently than humans did and she would have been better off staying out of it. She sighed and returned to her own car, touching the small swelling off her abdomen and stroking it gently. The baby seemed placated after having its pizza. Even the dark rumble of its father’s voice wasn’t penetrating its peace of mind.
Jennifer sighed, turning her engine and backing out of the parking lot. She would have to take a lesson from her baby and try not to let it bother her. It just hadn’t been meant to be, and that was all there was to it. She would never be with Dax. He didn’t care for her at all the way she cared for him. That much had never been clearer. She was just going to go back home and spend the rest of the evening alone.