Loathe to Love You by Ali Hazelwood

            Not number five, like that Tuesday two years ago when he tried to propose and Mara didn’t quite let him, bursting out with a “Yes, yes, yes!” after he barely managed a “Will you m—” (It allowed him to spend the following week pretending that he’d only wanted to ask her to mail out the census form: amusing for him; less so for her.)

            And not number three, like the day Mara announced that she was planning to move into his bedroom, and to convert her own into a “The Bachelor blogging studio.” Approximately twenty minutes later, Liam’s walls were full of pictures of two girls he’d never even met in person yet, and his serviceable gray comforter had been replaced with a chevron rainbow quilt that should have given him a headache but instead had him craving cake pops for the first time in his life.

            Today . . . today is number one. The most perfect day of his life. Mara in his arms, the words she just said in the air between them, and the promise of what’s to come.

            It could be a boy. Or a girl. Or both, or neither. It doesn’t matter. Liam couldn’t care less. All he hopes for is carrot-red, curly hair and freckles. The baby should have Mara’s looks. And her understanding of numbers. And her temperament. Her love for broccoli, her ability to fix things, and Liam’s . . .

            Okay. Ideally, the baby will take exclusively after Mara. Liam would be perfectly okay if none of his alleles made it into its karyotype. Liam is taller, which is useful when it comes to reaching for higher shelves, but legroom on planes is a bitch and a half, and he really wouldn’t wish the cramps on anyone, let alone his progeny—

            “Hannah was right.”

            He pulls back to look at Mara. Her legs are wrapped around his waist, because he picked her up the second he got home and she used the p-word. There’s something lodged in Liam’s fist—ah, yes. The test.

            She showed him the second he got home, wagging it under his nose. There’s probably pee on it, and he should probably find it disgusting, but . . .

            Yeah. No.

            “Hannah? About what?”

            “About your reaction.” Mara presses a kiss to Liam’s cheek, then grins, then disentangles herself from his arms. A steady, nimble descent. “She said you were going to buffer for fifteen minutes once I told you.”

            “When you told me . . . ?”

            “About this.” Her fingers splay against her abdomen, and for a split second his brain short-circuits in the best possible way. It’s happening. This is going to happen. This is his life. He doesn’t deserve it, but somehow this is his life, and—

            “Wait.” He shakes his head, chasing the other, less pleasant train of thought. “How can Hannah know about the baby?”

            “I told her, of course.” Mara smiles again and grabs his hand, pulling him into the kitchen. She also takes the test from him and drops it into the hallway trash bin. It’s not something Liam’s ready for, saying good-bye to the one piece of evidence that yes, this is happening, so he makes a mental note to retrieve it later. In the meantime . . .

            “When did you tell her?”

            “Earlier this morning. When I found out.”

            Earlier this . . .

            Liam frowns. Then he scowls. Then a sound comes out of him, and Mara stops in her tracks to look back at him. She’s beautiful and still happy-looking, but also narrow eyed all of a sudden.

            “Did you just . . . growl?” she asks.

            “No.” Yes. “Did you tell your friends about the baby before telling me?”

            “Yeah.” She shrugs. “I had to tell someone.”

            “Did you consider . . . me?”

            “You were in court. All day.”

            “You could have called me.”

            “I couldn’t tell you on the phone.” Her hands come to her hips—usually Liam’s cue to let go of an argument.

            He does not let go. “You told your friends on the phone.” He sounds sullen.

            “It’s totally different. And anyway, Hannah and Sadie have been asking for updates every day since I told them we’d been trying, so.”