Page 31 of Text Me A Kiss

I took it. The bag was warm from her touch, and it had two little plastic things in it, like folded-up, travel-sized toothbrushes.

They weren’t toothbrushes.

“Kady,” I stated quietly, turning them over in my hands. The word wasn’t a question, or really anything but a sudden need to just say her name.

“They’re pregnancy tests.” The hesitancy was gone, but I couldn’t read her face at all.

I could see pink lines, two of them on each test. “You’re….”

“Pregnant, yeah.”

There it was. The reason that Kady had been so anxious to see me today, that there had been such long gaps between her texts, and that our phone calls had been short lately. She’d been dealing with this all throughout finals week, on her own.

I knew exactly what to say.

I dropped the tests on the couch and pulled Kady close, saltiness tingling my lips as I kissed away a single shining tear. We embraced, and we kissed, and we were so very close. We couldn’t get any closer—

—physically. I had to be closer to Kitten. It was time to let her know exactly how close.

“I love you,” I murmured into her ear before I kissed her long, slow, passionate, and deep.

For a second, Kitten froze against me. Then her arms wrapped around me and she curled up against me, crying into my chest. I just sat there, making soothing sounds. One hand rested on her stomach. Her fingers intertwined with mine and held it there.

“Hey,” she sniffed, emerging from the now-damp folds of my T-shirt. Her tearstained face gazed up at me, and her eyes glistened with emotions that I knew I shared. “I love you too. And thank you.”

“For what, Kitten?” I maneuvered us so that we lay on our sides, pulling her back into me.

“For being the man that you are. The man that I love,” she added, and the word sounded so natural.

“I can’t help it that you’re so easy to love.” My lips found her neck, and I relished the shiver from every gentle kiss.

“But Graham… what do we do? Finals are over, my parents are coming to my graduation, I have to decide where to go next…. Most Juilliard graduates know where they’re going to go like a semester before they graduate.” Her nails scratched at the arm that held her against me restlessly.

“Shhh,” I whispered, ever-so-carefully combing a snarl out of a wayward wave. “What were you planning to do after graduation?”

“I wanted to go back to Chicago. I’ve wanted that ever since I left.”

I’d call up Cara right now and tell her to fly us both back to Chicago immediately if it would take that bitter note of homesickness out of Kady’s voice. “So, come back to Chicago.”

“It’s not that easy. My parents live there. What would I tell them?”

“Hm.” A deep breath of Kady’s scent helped me think. “Honestly, Kady, we should tell them about us. I’ve had one or two near-misses with your dad at work, and pregnancy….” I laid my hand on her belly. “Maybe we weren’t expecting it, but it’s a wonderful, incredible, beautiful thing, and it’s not something you can hide for long.”

“I know… I know.” Her words were just wisps of air. “But not yet, okay? After my graduation. After I figure out what to do next. Because the top ballet companies in Chicago won’t want to hire a pregnant ballerina.”

No one knew better than I how hard Kady had worked to graduate from Juilliard, but she didn’t sound disappointed that her career would be put on hold, or even set back. She hadn’t been ready for this, neither of us had—but neither I nor the beautiful woman tucked under my chin regretted it. “We’ll figure that out. For now, why don’t you live in my penthouse in Chicago for a while? You’ll be back home. I can take care of you. And we can figure out what to do or say next.”

“Yeah….” Cautious hope accompanied the word. “I could tell my parents that I decided to stay in my apartment a little longer and teaching a ballet clinic or something.”

More lies, just like the inadvertent ones I told her father every time I stayed silent after a meeting. But if Kady believed she could keep this secret and little longer and it was for the best, I would go along with it. “Okay. Then it’s settled. After your parents come for your graduation, I’ll come back and pick you up.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

She flipped around to face me, and we shared another kiss. We would get through this together.