Page 72 of Belonging to Them

Rapid Results Pregnancy Test Kit.

I raise my eyebrows at Kingston.

“What do you think it means?”he asks.

“She could be pregnant?”I say, blinking.“Doesn’t she have an IUD?”

“That’s what she told us.”

“She didn’t lie, you asshole,” I tell him, pulling out my phone.Whatever is going on, Ella wouldn’t lie to us about that.I open the internet browser and type infailure rate of IUDs.The top result tells me the failure rate is under one percent, but less than one percent is not the same as zero.

“Well, what does the internet say?”Kingston asks in a snarky voice.

“It says our girlfriend wouldn’t lie to us about birth control and if we’re concerned about something, we should act like motherfucking adults and talk to her.”

He glowers at me until I add, “And it says the chance is under one percent of an IUD failing.Somewhere between point-one percent and point-four.”

“What I want to know,” he says, “is if she was worried it was a possibility, why didn’t she come to us first?”

“Want me to search for that online, too?”I ask.

“Shut up, asshole.”

She’ll be back any minute with groceries.Maybe that’s why she wants to cook—she wants to make a special dinner, share an announcement.

Are we going to be dads?

“Do you think her IUD failed?”I ask.

He scowls.“I don’t know, I’m not a fucking fortune teller.”

“Stop being a dick.”

“Look, you remember what happened with Rayanne.”

I surge forward, ready to throw a punch.“Do not evenhintthat Ella would do something like baby-trap you?—”

“What?”He holds up his hands.“No, fuck no.I don’t think that at all.This just brings up a lot of fucking feelings, okay?Rayanne betrayed me.”

“I know, King.I was there.”I was there.And at the time, we didn’t know she was trying to trap him on purpose.We’d just thought her birth control failed and he was going to be a young dad.

Because of course, the idiot loved her at the time.I was less sure about everything, but maybe this is all in retrospect, I don’t know.I’d love to go back in time and stop him from sticking with Rayanne.Things would’ve gone a lot differently.If it weren’t for Joel, though, would King have noticed Ella?I’d like to think so.

But in the end, I’m glad everything happened the way it did, because we’re here now.Pregnant or not, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Kingston takes the pregnancy test box back from me and sets it on the kitchen island.

“I need a drink,” he says, “and we have to decide how we’re going to bring this up.Figure out how we’re going to go about it.”

“We could pour some champagne and see if she drinks any,” I say.

“Or we could be, as you put it, ‘motherfucking adults’ and talk to her about it,” he says.

I tilt my head in his direction.“Good point.Let’s do that.”

The elevator chimes a warning before the doors slide open.Ella’s home.

Kingston meets my gaze over the box resting on the island.I guess we’re going to have a conversation.