Page 91 of Please Open Me
“It’s negative.”
Chapter 22
Mason
No part of me liked lying, especially to Sebastian. Last year, we’d promised each other we’d never keep secrets again. It wasn’t healthy. But after this morning, I didn’t feel like I had a choice. When he cornered me in the bathroom, our whole life together flashed before my eyes.
So, when he turned his back, I dipped the test into the toilet bowl before actually peeing. At the time, it felt necessary, but now, I wasn’t sure.
Mattie lay with her head in my lap, scrolling through her phone. My back pressed into the headboard while I picked at the watermelon Cameron had cubed for me. Around noon, an almost unquenchable thirst had joined my insatiable appetite. He’d thought the fruit might help, and he was right—but I hadn’t told him that.
All I wanted to do was watch the baby monitor in my hands. On the screen, Seb sat with Rosie in her rocking chair. His voice floated through the tiny speaker, reading her a bedtime story. None of us were ready to move her into her own room yet, but she’d slept better there in the last week than she had beside us in months.
My chest ached, and I couldn’t tell if it was from watching my baby grow up, or from the guilt of lying to her father.
“Hey, Pipsqueak, you good?” Mattie asked, glancing up with wide eyes.
Reluctantly, I set the monitor down.
“I… yeah. Why?” My voice wobbled.
“Because I’ve been teasing you about this—” She set her palm on my stomach, pressing a kiss there.
Butterflies swarmed my chest, not the happy oh-my-god-I’m-so-in-love kind, but the jittery kind. The ones who’d just gotten their wings and didn’t know how to use them, flapping into each other in a panic instead of floating gracefully.
“What about it?”
A crooked smirk curved her mouth before she kissed the spot again.
“You had a teeny-tiny belly this morning. Now you’re huge.”
I shoved her off my lap. “I am not!” Heat flared in my cheeks. “It’s not a bump. I’m just bloated.”
Mattie laughed, poking my stomach. “Still it looks like you’re five months pregnant.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Keep it up, and I’ll make you go home.”
She gasped, hand over her chest like I’d slapped her. “What? No! You can’t kick me out–I’m already planning on moving in.”
I snorted. She’d have to find space for her ferret cage, but I wasn’t completely against the idea.
My gaze drifted back to the monitor just in time to see Sebastian put the book down and focus on rocking Rosie. He traced a finger down her nose, smiling softly.
He was such a good dad.
“Do you think I did the wrong thing?” I asked, finally looking at Mattie.
I’d told her everything. How Sebastian’s absolutely-fucking-not when I’d mentioned another kid had crushed me. How I felt cornered, like I was choosing between him and a baby. How I’d cried to Cam, and Cam had said he’d “fix it.”
How I’d been spiraling.
She didn’t answer right away. Instead, her hand slid back to my stomach. I batted it away.
“Ow—quit being spicy. I just want to love on the baby,” she hissed.
“I’m starting to think you’ve got a pregnancy kink, and all I want is advice.”
Mattie’s mouth twitched like she wanted to make another joke, but she shifted instead—cross-legged now, elbows braced on her knees.
