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How Long This Time?
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All Grown Up Autumn Vibes
AudreyI knew that I shouldn’t have eaten so much, but I really had been starving when Jesse asked if I had eaten lunch. I definitely shouldn’t have eaten so many fried, heavy foods, especially not when I had been so careful about my diet over the past couple of months in France. But I was hungry, and French fries had just sounded way too good to pass up.Now, though, I was feeling queasy again. The last thing I wanted was to bolt for the restroom to get sick. The lies about why I was really back here just kept coming, and although Jesse believed me for now, I didn’t think it would take much for him to put two and two together and realize why I was really here. He was a perceptive guy, and he knew me all too well.I tried to play it cool as he kept asking me questions about Paris and getting kicked out of the Academy. This, I hadn’t planned on. I had thought, somehow, that he would be so happy that I was back that he wouldn’t care so much about why. I’d known before I went to see him
All Grown Up Putting It Off
AudreyFirst, though, I had to get to the point where I had the baby. Right now, my visions of the future were dashed as my stomach roiled uncomfortably. I bolted from the table, barely managing to gasp out a quick, “Be right back!” Fortunately, there was no one in the bathroom as I hunched over the toilet and threw up everything that had tasted so good just minutes ago.I was pale and shaking by the time I was through, and I gave myself a grim look in the mirror as I washed my hands. Behavior like this wasn’t going to help me keep my secret, I knew that. Jesse was bound to worry about me. The last thing I needed was for him to insist on taking me to a doctor or something. Which was just the kind of thing that he might do.Food poisoning. That would probably cover it for now. I’d say it was something on the flight, maybe. That it had been bugging me the whole time that I was in transit. That would buy me time until I was ready to tell him about the pregnancy. Maybe the morning sicknes
All Grown Up Making Plans
JesseThere was a smile on my face when I woke up on Sunday morning, and it only grew as I rolled over and found Audrey still in bed beside me. It was the first time that I could remember waking up happy in the two months since she had left. Audrey was still asleep, and her beauty took my breath away. She looked relaxed and peaceful, comfortable. She had the blanket pulled up under her cheek, her arm curled around the pillow.She looked just as perfect as I remembered her. I never wanted to let her go again; I wanted her there next to me every morning when I woke up.I forced myself not to think that far ahead into the future. That was a recipe for disappointment. Eventually, she was probably going to want to head back to Paris and try to get herself back into the Academy. Or into some other dance troupe; there had to be more out there who would leap at the opportunity to have her. She was incredible, and I didn’t believe that some gaffe, even if it had been on stage, was enough to kn
All Grown Up Foundation
Jesse“Audrey?” I asked, worried about her. “Are you all right?”She shook her head and rushed off to the bathroom, just like she had the previous day at lunch. This time, though, I was there to hold back her hair as she heaved over the toilet. There wasn’t much to come up, and I winced in sympathy as she dry-retched a few times. Finally, she drew a ragged breath and wiped at her mouth, sitting back. I held her against my chest.“Are you sure this is just food poisoning?” I asked her. “Maybe you should see a doctor.”Audrey shook her head. “I’ll be all right,” she said. “I’m sure I’m just making it worse each time I try to eat something. I just need to let it pass and then I’ll be fine.”I frowned, wanting to argue with that, but I didn’t know what to say. Of course she knew her body better than I could. Anyway, it seemed like the nausea was her only symptom. Maybe it was just food poisoning. I felt sorry for her either way.She pulled out of my arms and pushed herself to her feet, lo
All Grown Up Morning Sickness
AudreyI breathed a sigh of relief as I closed the front door behind me. I hated that I’d had to rush out of Jesse’s place like that. He had no idea how much I wanted to have breakfast with him and then tumble back into bed until work dragged him off again. I had woken up that morning with a smile on my face for the first time in so long. Even though he wasn’t right there next to me in bed, I felt like I was surrounded by his presence. That presence let me know that everything was going to be okay.The trouble was, I still hadn’t told him that I was pregnant, and I wasn’t sure how long I could manage to hide that from him while I was there in his presence. I could already see the concern on his face, could see the way that he was trying to puzzle things out. He knew that it wasn’t food poisoning that was making me feel this way.It was only a matter of time before he figured out just what it was. I needed to tell him first.It seemed like the more I psyched myself up to tell him, the
All Grown Up Do the Right Thing
Audrey“It’s good to see him,” I said honestly. “Better than I expected, even.”“Does that mean you told him about the baby and everything went well?” Annabelle asked. “Wait, he didn’t propose to you or something already, did he?”“No,” I said, shaking my head. I bit my lower lip. “No to both of those things, actually. He didn’t propose, but I also didn’t tell him about the baby.”Annabelle groaned. “Audrey,” she said. “You know you have to tell him at some point. He has a right to know his own kid. Besides, this is Jesse that we’re talking about. What’s the worst that he could do?”“Marry me out of a sense of duty,” I suggested.Annabelle snorted. “That’s ridiculous. That man is head over heels for you, in case you hadn’t noticed.”“What if he doesn’t want a kid? The timing of this just isn’t right,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t want him to feel like I’m trapping him.” I paused. “I don’t know, when you really think about it, all of this is so crazy. Sure, we used to be best frie
All Grown Up Dreams
JesseWith the way that Audrey had rushed out of my place on Sunday morning, claiming that she had to get home to help her mom, I had been worried that I had somehow messed things up between us already, after just one night. I couldn’t put my finger on anything that I might have done, but I could tell that there was a lot going on in her head at the moment.She still wasn’t sharing any of it with me, but she had swung by the shop on Sunday evening as Chance and I were closing up and had come home with me. We had spent every night together since then, but curiously enough, the more mornings that I woke up beside her, the more I felt those dreams from the first morning, those hopes for domestic bliss, slipping further and further away from me.Mainly because she still wasn’t telling me what the hell was going on. I didn’t think that she had told me the whole story for why she had left Paris, and she definitely wasn’t explaining her health issues or any of the rest of it. I knew that the
All Grown Up Trouble In Paradise
JesseWe finished up breakfast, and I noted as I carried the plates over to the sink that she had barely eaten anything. Again. I was really starting to worry about her. She didn’t have a lot of extra weight to begin with, and this illness wasn’t going to make things any better for her. I didn’t know how to convince her of that, though.When I got to the hardware store, Joe immediately sensed that something was up. He made a show of looking at his watch. “Trouble in paradise?” he joked. “Thought you’d be running late this morning, not early.”I rolled my eyes. “We have a couple of big shipments coming in this morning, doofus,” I reminded him, as though that was the reason that I was here as early as I was. It was a lie. To be honest, part of me had been hoping that after breakfast, I could entice Audrey to come back to bed with me. By the time I had put the plates in the dishwasher and followed her upstairs, I had found her already dressed and pulling on her shoes.This in spite of th
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