“What?” Everyone speaks up at the same time.
“I think after all pregger women have popped, we should do a day of going four-wheeling. I haven’t been on one in years. I wouldn’t mind going mudding.”
“That’s a great idea,” Everleigh shouts, smile beaming. “We totally need to do this. Girls’ weekend at the mud park.”
“Think we’d be able to pull it off?” Ivy asks, glancing at me. “We’d have to leave kids with their dads and find a way for them to agree.”
“There’s no way we’ll be able to pull off a whole weekend. We wouldn’t be able to do a day, but we could figure something out,” Josephine remarks.
“Tell them we’re going shopping and then leave them a note.” Isabel snickers.
“You realize who our men are? They’d see right through it.”
“You got that right.” Bristol snorts.
Conversation flows. Ideas are created. They have time to figure everything out.
As I listen to them all, something I hadn’t thought about since the day I was shot pops in my head, and my breathing becomes shallow. Looking at Stella, I blurt out the question I need the answers to most. “How early can you tell if you’re pregnant?”
“Do you think you are?” Stella asks, watching me closely.
“I’m not on birth control, and Cerberus didn’t use a condom.”
“What is it with these men and not using condoms?” Everleigh huffs.
“It’s like they don’t know what one is when it comes to their women,” London says, shaking her head. “Like they don’t care if they get us pregnant or not.”
“Some would say it’s their way of trapping us.” Ivy sighs and leans back against the headboard, hand resting on her stomach. “I think it’s not that, though. Those men, when they see what they want, don’t waste time making it happen.”
“We could possibly do a blood test,” Stella suggests. “We have supplies here at the clubhouse, so I can do that here. I can take the blood to the hospital and run it there for the results. Or we can wait a couple more weeks, and you can take a home test. Is this something you want?”
Would I want a baby?
Not just any baby. Cerberus’s baby. I could see it in my head. I used to dream about it when we dated. But now? “I’d want it,” I find myself whispering.
“Then we’ll draw your blood and get it tested.” Stella nods and gives me a small smile, then changes the subject.
Thankfully, conversation flows easily again. They stick around until the door opens and Cerberus steps into the room. No one says a word when we all see he’s got blood coating his hands, his face unreadable.
“Guess they’re done,” Ivy says, climbing off the bed. “Let’s get this all cleaned up and leave them be. We need to check on kids anyway.”
All the women leave, telling me to call them if I need anything. The entire time, I stand there watching Cerberus watching me.
CHAPTER 20
CERBERUS
After I finish showering the blood and evidence from my skin, I step back into my room to find Ember sitting up, waiting for me. At least there wasn’t a bunch of trash left for me to clean up. The ol’ ladies had taken all the garbage with them when they left.
I was glad Ember hadn’t been alone the entire time I was dealing with business, but I hadn’t wanted to come back to my room to find all of them, I mean all of them, camped out on my bed. Not that it wasn’t something a man wouldn’t mind seeing, but after what I’d been dealing with, I wasn’t in the mood to think about that shit.
All I wanted was to climb into bed and hold Ember. To hell with food. I just needed her. She’s nothealed enough for much of anything else, but I could hold her. I haven’t been able to do that since the day she was shot.
“You okay?” she asks, cocking her head slightly and watching me closely. “Don’t lie to me, please,” she says before I have the chance to answer her question.
Sighing, I cross the room, not bothering with putting clothes on. I drop the towel and climb into the bed next to her, pulling the sheet up over both of us. “I’m good, baby. Just need to hold you for a bit. Club’s gonna be meeting in an hour to talk about what went down.”
“What went down?”
