Edge Of Fear (Arrow's Edge MC Book 4) by Freya Barker (best love novels of all time .TXT) 📗

voice on that, leaning in as if he’s sharing a secret I didn’t already know. I can tell he’s pleased with my choice of man. Not that I doubted that for a minute.

“I need a drink. Anyone else?” Blossom pipes up and turns to me. “Give me a hand, Sophia.”

I know when I’m being summoned so I look at Tse, who is wearing a bemused, perhaps slightly exasperated look on his face. I did warn him.

“Beer, honey?”

“You bet.”

I give his arm a reassuring squeeze and follow my mother into the kitchen, where I can see she’s already made herself at home. I have to dig through wax-paper-wrapped produce I’m sure they brought from home to find a couple of beers. When I close the fridge and turn around, she’s a foot away, her hands on her hips.

“You’re not drinking that, are you?” she says, pointing at the beers.

“Uhh, I was planning to.”

She reaches out and snatches it from my hand.

“You’re not supposed to drink when you’re pregnant.”

You could’ve knocked me over with a feather and it takes me a minute to gather my words.

“I’m not pregnant.”

She raises an eyebrow in a way that tells you she knows something you don’t know.

“I had my period.”

The eyebrow goes higher.

“It was a light one, barely lasted the day, but you know mine have always been a couple of days at most. I can’t be.”

“When did you have sex?”

I close my eyes and do some deep breathing. This is what I mean when I say no boundaries. Everything is subject to discussion in my family. At least, with my parents.

“Mom…”

“Don’t Mom me, you know how I hate labels. When?” she insists.

“Couple of weeks.”

Her stern face suddenly breaks into a huge smile.

“I knew it!”

“Knew what?” Duff calls from the back door.

“Our baby’s having a baby!”

I turn to find Tse has come in after my father, his face a mask of shock.

CHAPTER 21

Sophia

“HOW THE FUCK was I supposed to know there’s something called implantation bleeding?”

I’m standing in the doorway to the bedroom, Tse is still in bed, an arm tucked behind his head as he calmly observes me have my second major freak-out since yesterday. He seems to be taking this much better than I am.

Last night’s freak-out—while my parents were giving each other high fives and loudly declaring they’d never thought they’d see the day—was snuffed out by Tse getting in my tear-streaked face and declaring we weren’t gonna borrow trouble until we had cause. His calm voice and strong presence drowned out my parents’ boisterous celebration, helping me to get a grip.

I ended up in the kitchen with Blossom to start working on dinner, while Tse lured Duff back outside with a beer. My mother was a bit more subdued, and I hyperventilated only a little when she told me there were early tests I could take and she’d pick me up one in the morning.

At some point Tse offered to go into town to pick up some tamarind sauce I didn’t stock but Blossom absolutely needed, and I begged him to bring back a vat of vanilla ice cream. I had a feeling I’d need it—my go-to comfort food—before the night was done.

That turned out to be a good call because while my parents and Tse anesthetized with beer and my mother’s homemade elderberry wine, ice cream was my only option. Over dinner Blossom explained at length, and in great detail, how the best time to take a pregnancy test was in the morning because of the higher concentration of urine. I wanted to dive under the table but Tse just grinned.

I noticed he’d been doing a lot of that.

By the time my folks retreated to their motor home and Tse took Van out for a last pee, I went upstairs in a bloated food coma and fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.

“Fee, baby, just take the test. We’ll know, and we’ll deal.”

The test he’s referring to is the one I just found on the counter in the bathroom. Turns out tamarind sauce and ice cream had not been all he picked up in town last night. Nothing like the sight of a pregnancy test to make me forget the urgent need to relieve myself I woke up with. Not even the mental picture of Tse going into a drugstore checking out the family-planning aisle makes a dent in the wave of panic.

“Why are you so calm?” I snap.

He scoots up in bed, resting his back against the headboard, and patting the mattress beside him.

“Sit with me.”

I’m stubborn for only a moment before my feet move me to the bed. He tugs me to his side and my head automatically comes to rest on his chest. His heart beats steady and strong, just like he is. If you had told me last year that annoyingly cocky, womanizing, and persistent flirt was hiding the man I’ve gotten to know, I wouldn’t have believed it.

Whoever gave Tse his name picked wisely. He’s a rock. My rock.

“I’m calm because I’m starting to believe the best things in life are unexpected. I mean, look at us. It wasn’t that long ago you could barely stand to be in the same space as me, and I fully expected to grow old in the clubhouse. Now I get to wake up with you every day. Look at us, Fee.”

I put my hand on his chest beside my face and close my eyes.

“But it’s all still so new. So…uncharted,” I mumble softly against his skin, and his arm tightens around me.

“I know. If we’re lucky it’ll stay that way. An adventure at every turn of the road I hope never has to end.” I feel his lips brush my forehead. “Toss out your itinerary, my Fee, you don’t need it. Just feel the wind in your face, look at the beauty already around you. It’s never about the destination, it’s about the ride.”

Turning my head, I press my face to his skin, smiling. How is it possible