Till Death Do Us Apart
27. What If She Doesn’t Come Out
Chapter 27
While Caleb stepped out to take a call from Marcus, Tania packed her own suitcase quickly, then moved on to his, folding his shirts the way he liked them.
She sent Dr. Jeff a quick message before she lost her nerve, then kept packing.
Caleb walked back in and stopped her with a hand over hers. “I’ve got it.”
He finished the folding himself and hoisted the heavy suitcase like it weighed nothing.
“Can you actually carry that alone?” she teased.
In answer, he scooped her up with his free arm, holding both her and the suitcase without visible effort.
She laughed, then remembered his arm had been dislocated not that long ago, and reached out to check it. “Wait, does this hurt?”
“Are you feeling guilty now, Mrs. Wilson?”
• • •
Something about the way he said it sent a warm flutter through her chest. “If you weren’t such a pervert,” she shot back, “I wouldn’t have accidentally pushed you into anything.”
“Let me show you what a real pervert does, then.”
The moment they boarded the private plane, he pulled her onto his lap, his hands already wandering the fabric of her dress. She barely had time to protest before a muffled shriek came from somewhere near the entrance.
They broke apart to find Nicole clamping a hand over Cecile’s mouth, both of them frozen mid-step.
Tania flushed scarlet. While the two men fell into some overlapping, embarrassed excuse of a conversation, Cecile tugged her aside, practically glowing.
“I’m so happy you two worked things out,” Cecile whispered.
Tania’s smile faltered for half a second before she caught it. “You okay?” Cecile asked, catching the shift.
“I’m fine,” Tania said.
• • •
It was an overnight flight. Tania woke sometime past midnight to muffled sounds coming from the direction of Cecile and Nicole’s cabin, and was halfway to the bathroom when Caleb caught her frozen mid-step, clearly listening.
“Shameless,” he murmured against her ear, “eavesdropping like that.”
“I wasn’t eavesdropping. I was walking.”
“Slowly.”
She didn’t have a good comeback for that, and he didn’t seem to need one, pulling her back toward their own cabin instead.
By morning, Tania looked wrecked, and Cecile teased her mercilessly over breakfast, clearly drawing her own conclusions. In truth, Tania’s exhaustion had more to do with her heart stuttering strangely through the night than anything else.
She threw up in the plane’s small bathroom shortly after landing, and for one long, terrified second, couldn’t make herself look down at the sink.
• • •
No blood. Tania sagged against the sink in relief.
They drove out to the private villas in separate cars, Cecile and Nicole practically stumbling over each other in a fit of laughter and kissing by the time they reached their own door.
Caleb kept a careful hand at Tania’s back the entire walk inside, clearly still worried about her balance, and ended up carrying her over the threshold despite her protests.
He set her down on the couch and knelt to work the ache out of her legs, his thumbs pressing firm circles into sore muscle. She watched him a little too long.
“Are you crying?” he asked, not looking up.
“No.”
She hesitated, then asked anyway. “Caleb. What if the baby just, suddenly, didn’t come? Would you still love me the way you do now?”
• • •
His head snapped up. “Stop talking like that.”
She only smiled, closing her eyes, listening to the quiet thud of her own heartbeat. When she opened them again, his face was inches from hers.
His mouth brushed hers, light, then pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose instead.
She laughed softly. “What are you doing?”
“Just picturing what she’ll look like. If it’s a girl.”
Tania threw her arms around his neck and pressed her face into his shoulder, holding back a sob with everything she had left.
He went still, clearly feeling the shake of it against him, but he didn’t pull away. When he finally lifted his arms to hold her back properly, she went completely limp in his arms.