My pulse raced as I pulled into the local drug store. Throwing my truck into park, I practically shouted, “Hold on! I’ll get your door!”
I jumped out and ran to Paxton’s side. She sat in the passenger seat with a wide grin. Opening the door, I reached in and scooped her up into my arms. Letting out a small yelp, she laughed.
“Steed, what in the world are you doing?”
“What? I want to you help you out of the truck.”
Narrowing her eyes at me, she shook her head. “I’m not incapable of getting out of the truck. Besides, we don’t know if I’m…” She looked around and whispered, “Pregnant.”
“Why are you whispering?” I asked, setting her down.
“Because there is a lot at stake if I am.”
My brow lifted. “Such as?”
“My job? Do you have any idea how they would frown at their kindergarten teacher being knocked up out of wedlock?”
“Fuck them!” I shouted as she slapped her hand over my mouth.
“Steed Jonathon Parker!”
I drew her into my chest. “Jesus, Pax. You calling me by my full name in that tone turns me on. Will you dress up like the naughty teacher, and I’ll be your bad boy student?”
Humor crossed her face.
“Paxton, how are you?”
The voice behind me made her expression drop, and she immediately jumped away from me.
“Mr. Hines. H-how are you?”
Glancing over my shoulder, I flashed a grin at the school principal—who also happened to be Paxton’s boss.
“I’m doing well. Ready for some turkey tomorrow. How about you?”
Paxton rubbed her stomach and let out a nervous chuckle. “Yes. Turkey and dressing. All that yummy food. So ready.”
I was positive he had no clue who I was, even though Mitchell and I had him for our eighth grade teacher, and we singlehandedly killed three class pets by accident that year. I remember him sending a letter home to my father stating that if we killed another class pet we were going to have to finish out eighth grade in in-school suspension.
“Mr. Hines, this is…” Paxton paused, her cheeks turning pink as she glanced down at her ring.
“Paxton’s fiancé. Steed Parker,” I said.
He grimaced, and then anger shot across his face.
Oh, yeah. It was safe to say he remembered who I was.
“Steed Parker. Kill any turtles lately?”
Paxton’s smile dropped and a look of utter horror replaced it.
I let out a nervous chuckle. “No, sir. I put those days behind me years ago.”
He huffed, then focused back on Paxton. “Enjoy your time off, Paxton.”
“Um, you too, sir.”
He walked away…right into the drugstore.
Paxton hit my chest, hard. “Shit! He went into the drugstore, Steed.”
“So?” I asked as I grabbed her hand and headed to the door.
“We can’t buy a pregnancy test with my boss in there.”
I laughed and shook my head. “Then we’ll mingle until he leaves.”
Paxton stopped walking. “Mingle? Steed, we’re not at a party!”
“You know what I mean.”
We walked into the store and sure enough, the old goat was right there asking the young girl behind the counter where the orange flavored Metamucil would be. Leaning down to Paxton, I uttered, “I could have gone my whole life without hearing that.”
Covering her mouth, she pulled me deeper into the drugstore. After walking up and down each aisle and grabbing random things, we found ourselves in that aisle. The aisle you paid your older brother and sister to go down and buy condoms.
“I’m nervous,” she said.
“He left!” I yelled, making my way to the pregnancy tests. I stopped dead in my tracks. Paxton’s parents walked by the aisle and then stopped.
“Hey kids! What are you doing here?”
Paxton hit me on the back. More like punched me. Here we were, standing in the middle of the aisle that just happened to contain not only the pregnancy tests, but an array of condoms. A thought hit me. If Paxton was pregnant, that meant no…more…condoms.
“We’re not buying condoms I can tell you that!” I shot out. Why I said it, I had no fucking clue.
Paxton glared at me, wearing a horrified expression. “Oh my God. You didn’t,” she whispered harshly before hitting me in the back again.
From the look on her father’s face, I realized I had some serious ass kissing to do.
Always quick on her feet, Paxton turned back to her parents. “Hey Mom and Dad, we were going to get something for Steed’s allergies.”
When I glanced past the Monroes, I saw the display of allergy medicine.
April, Paxton’s mom, smiled while David, her father, continued to glare.
“Oh my! Oh my goodness! Paxton!” her mother cried out.
Jumping back in surprise, Paxton shouted, “What?”
April rushed up to her daughter and grabbed her hand. “He did it!”
My eyes drifted down to the engagement ring.
“Oh, Steed, when you came over the other day to ask for Paxton’s hand in marriage I had no idea you were going to ask so soon!” April said, tears building in her eyes.
David’s glare turned into a slow smile. “Congratulations, son! Did you do it like you planned? In the plane?”
“Wait, y’all knew?” Paxton asked.
Both of her parents laughed. “Yes! Of course. Steed has always been such a gentleman.”
David grunted under his breath, and I gave him a weak grin.
“He took us out to lunch a few weeks back to ask for your hand in marriage. Then he told us how he planned to ask.”
Trying to smile and ignore the fact that we were standing in front of the condoms and pregnancy tests, my eyes caught Paxton’s. She was struggling to hold back her tears, and I wondered if she would be successful in doing so.
I winked, and she let out a nervous giggle. “Well, I see y’all are good secret keepers.”
Her mother and father wrapped her up in a loving embrace.
“Well, we only came in to grab aspirin. Your father had a headache from helping me prepare all the pies for tomorrow. It was so sweet of your parents to invite us over, Steed.”
“Mom’s excited and so is Dad. He keeps going on about showing you his new fishing rod, David.”
Paxton’s father let out a roar of laughter. It seemed like the whole condom thing was slowly disappearing. “John always did love his fishing.”
“I’m excited to see Chloe again. Paxton mentioned bringing her over to play with our cat.”
I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Yes. Little stinker has been begging for one.”
Both April and David chuckled before April took her husband by the arm and gave him a tug. “We need to get going. We’ll see you kids tomorrow. Steed let your mother know if she needs anything to give me a call.”
“I will, April. Thank you.”
As I watched them wander off, we slowly walked to the allergy display. I picked up box after box and pretended to read them while Paxton stretched up on her toes to watch her parents.
“They’re gone! Come on!”
We spun around and rushed to the tests. My eyes glanced over them. What in the hell? Why were there so many different brands? And why in the hell did our small-town pharmacy carry them all?
“Which one?” I asked in a hushed voice.
“I don’t care. Grab one of each! Let’s just go before someone else see us,” Paxton replied in a hushed tone as she reached for the First Response. She grabbed two.
I grabbed six of Clearblue brand only to have Paxton gawk at me.
“Six?”
“Well, we want to be sure.”
She giggled. “I think two is enough.”
Shrugging, I put four back and then reached for two of the EPT tests. Paxton grabbed one that simply read Pregnancy Test. The last one was Fact Plus. I grabbed two of those and added it to the pile of tests in my hands.
“That should be good,” Paxton stated with a smile.
“You sure? What if they don’t work?”
“Whatcha doing?” The voice came from behind, causing both of us to let out a scream. My first instinct was to discard the six boxes of pregnancy tests I had in my hand. I watched as they all dropped at our feet.
My sister Amelia peered at the boxes and then snapped her head back up to us. Her look of shock quickly turned to pure excitement.
“Oh! My! Freaking! Hell!” she shouted.
Paxton and I both replied with a quick, “Shh!”
Dropping down, I gathered the tests back up.
“You’re pregnant?” Amelia asked. Then she screamed. Loudly. “Holy fuck! And you’re engaged?” She grabbed Paxton’s left hand, causing her to drop two of her tests.
Paxton giggled, beaming with happiness. “Yes! Steed asked me earlier today in the most romantic way ever.”
Amelia’s eyes landed on me, and she wiped a tear away. “I’m so happy. Does Chloe know?”
I shook my head. “Not yet.”
Covering her mouth with her hands, Amelia shook her head. “I’m so happy, y’all… I think I’m going to cry!”
I rolled my eyes. “I love you, sis, but we really need to get the fuck out of here before someone else walks up and—”
“Jesus, is it national buy your condoms day?”
Groaning, I dropped my head at the sound of my brother Cord’s voice.
“Why the hell are you in this aisle, Amelia?” he asked in an angry voice.
“Oh fuck off, Cord. I’m an adult and if I want to buy condoms, I’ll buy condoms.”
Paxton turned to me. I knew she wanted out of there just as much as I did, and here we were, listening to Cord and Amelia argue whether she was allowed to have sex or not.
“I’m twenty-two years old, Cord. I’ve been fucking guys for a few years now.”
“Oh, come on!” I said. Cord looked like he was about to blow a gasket.
“Meli, so help me God, if I ever find out who you’ve slept with I’m going to beat their ass so bad…”
“Listen, as much as I’d love to stay here and listen to y’all, we need to leave,” I said as I started to push between the two of them.
Cord’s hand grabbed my shoulder, stopping me. He stared down at the tests, then back at me. “Why do you have pregnancy tests in your arms?”
His eyes swung over to Paxton, and it dawned on him. “Holy. Shit. Are y’all?”
“They don’t know yet! That’s why they’re here, Cord!” Amelia said as she jumped up and down and pretended to clap her hands.
Cord looked back at me. “Dude! This is fucking amazing. Come on, let’s go!”
Both him and Amelia turned on their heels and headed down the aisle. “Oh wait!” Amelia said as she rushed back and grabbed a box of condoms.
I wanted to throw up in my mouth when she held up the extra-large and said, “Here’s to hoping!”
“Grab me a box of those, Meli!” Cord said.
Amelia laughed. “Are you sure you don’t need extra small?”
“Just get me the extra-large. Super extra if they have them,” he said tossing his head back in laughter.
“Is this really happening right now?” Paxton asked.
“I don’t know what bothers me more. The fact that they think they’re going with us or that my brother just asked my baby sister to grab him a box of condoms.”
Paxton laughed as we followed Amelia and Cord to the check out, both of them still arguing about whether Amelia was old enough for sex.