I laugh. “Wasn’t planning on it. And I think I’ve already gotten more of you than I should.”

He frowns, lifting his head to study my face.

Shoot, why did I make that last joke?

I climb quickly from the car, hurrying toward our door, and then slip the key into the lock. Keys. A definite indication we are somewhere not pricy and stylish.

I flip on the light, enter our room, and drop my stuff on the desk.

I turn toward Bobby as he closes and bolts the door.

I lie on my side on a bed and watch him start to undress.

“There are two beds,” I say. “Since you don’t want to give me any, maybe we should each sleep in separate beds tonight. You really do look worn out. But you really do look hot when you’re a sweaty mess. I may not be able to resist myself and jump you even though you are exhausted.”

Laughing, he puts a kiss on my head. “Just let me take a shower. I might get a second wind.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m not counting on it with the way you look.” I crinkle my nose. “Or the way you smell. Nope, you’re the one not getting any tonight.”

“You’ll change your tune once I’m clean,” he says in a sexy, half whispering voice.

“You are so conceited, Bobby.”

He grins. “Nope. I just know my wife.”

I keep my face carefully blank. Not as well as you think, Bobby. I wait until he’s out of view in the bathroom and I hear the water turn on before I lie back on the bed, turning my decisions over and over again inside my head. My first impulse is always to run and tell Bobby everything. It’s so freaking hard not to, to wait and try to do it at the right time, in the right way.

But Bobby is not just my husband. He’s my best friend and I want to share everything with him.

I want to tell him so badly…

I cross the room, take my Surface from my tote, sit back on the bed, and log on to my e-mail. I’ll let the e-mail decide. If the last known locations of either of his parents are a reasonable drive from where we are, I’m telling Bobby everything tonight.

I quickly search through the attachment. No last known address for his birth mother, but the dad is in Lodi, California.

Lodi? Lodi? Lodi?

Where the fuck is that?

I do a Google map search.

Oh crap, that’s not far.

Isn’t there a song about Lodi?

I Google again. Yep, there’s a song by Creedence Clearwater Revival. I don’t like the lyrics. Stuck in Lodi again. Doesn’t sound like a great place for a milestone moment.

Bobby doesn’t even want to find his birth parents.

Maybe I should leave it alone.

My other secret reminds me why I shouldn’t.

“What are you sitting there plotting?”

I look up to find Bobby standing in the bathroom door—smelling good, looking good—waiting expectantly with only a towel draped around his hips.

I flush. “Nothing.”

He goes to his bag and pulls out a pair of shorts. “You’re a terrible liar. Do you know that, Kaley?” He drops his towel and pulls on his shorts, and then sinks down beside me on the bed. “Are you going to tell me what you’re hiding from me? Something has been going on with you for weeks.”

I debate.

He waits.

Fuck. No point delaying even if this room is not the scene I pictured in my head. I rummage through my bag, pull out the small case I carry my tampons in, kiss him on the cheek, curl into his side, and drop the white stick with the blue cross onto his lap.

“There, that’s my secret,” I announce, anxiously trying to read his reaction. “I don’t know if this is good or bad. We haven’t really talked about kids. Blue means pregnant.”

I wait. He’s just staring at the stick. He looks like he’s in shock.

“Aren’t you going to say something, Bobby? You better say something soon or I’m going to freak out—”

It happens so fast—being pulled into his arms, crushed into his chest, and his mouth closing in on mine—that the last of my rambling words are trapped in my throat.

When he finally pulls back, he’s breathing like he just ran a marathon. “Oh fuck. I’m going to be a father. How? When?”

I make a face at him. “How? Really? You just asked me how?”

He laughs, but the entire surface of his body is trembling. “Oh God, I can’t breathe.”

“Can’t breathe? Is that good or bad?”

His expression makes tears rise to my eyes. “Good. Definitely good. How could you ask me that, Kaley?” He lies back on the bed, taking me with him and holding me close. “We’re going to be parents. We’re going to have our own family. I’m going to have my own family.”

This time the tears give way as I pick up on what he hasn’t said: a connection to someone by blood. Absolute. From the start. No unanswered questions. No missing pieces. Complete.

God, how foolish I am at times. I shouldn’t have worried even for a second about telling him. I should have known how he’d take it, how important us having a baby someday would be to him even if we haven’t discussed it.

I kiss him on his chest. “Pretty wonderful, huh?”

He stares at me, his eyes sparkling. “How long have you known?”

“Two months.”

His brows lower. “Two months? And you didn’t tell me.”

“I didn’t want you to think that the only reason I agreed to marry you was because you knocked me up.”

He stills, anxiously studying me. “It isn’t, is it?”

“No. Of course not.” I settle into him, moving an arm across his stomach and this time holding him. “So this pretty much seals the deal. We need to go home. Tell the families we got married and that you knocked me up.”

Bobby grimaces. “Oh, this is going to go over great with your dad. Can you use a different word when you tell him that you’re pregnant?”

We both erupt into laughter.

Once he’s calmed, I lean up and gaze down at him, smiling. “Can you imagine how crazy your mom is going to be when she finds out she’s going to be a grandmother? We definitely need to figure out where we want to live. I need to see a doctor soon. I’m in my third month. And we need a home.”

He inhales deeply then exhales loudly. His hands take hold of my face. “Whatever you want. That’s what we’ll do.”

I shrug. “I don’t know what I want. I haven’t gotten to thinking about that yet. I’ve been a little preoccupied with the how to tell you part.”

His hand moves slowly under my shirt and starts to inch upward to my breasts. “I know what I want. I want to make love to you. Right now. This second.”

He turns me beneath him on the bed. “It better be more than a second,” I warn between kisses, “or you are definitely going to be sleeping in the other bed the rest of the night.”

He has me half undressed before I stop him.

“Wait. There is something else I have to tell you, Bobby.”

“Now? Can’t it wait?”

I shake my head, pull away from him, grab my tablet and click it on.

Bobby falls back on the bed, groaning. “Kaley, what are you doing?”

I open the attachment but I don’t let him see it yet.

“I’ve done something I need to tell you about.”

His eyes shoot open. “What?”

He sounds alarmed.

Damn, why did my voice have to sound all worried and shit?

I search for the right words to ease into this. “I know what you said, how you feel about this, but I thought it was important because we’re having a baby.”

He sits up, tense. “You thought what was important?”

I clutch the tablet even more firmly against me. “Finding your birth parents.” Fuck. Everything in his body goes rigid. “Hear me out before you get angry, OK? I’m a mommy-to-be here so remember that before you get really pissed off. I know my parents. My genetic history. But I want to know yours, too. Those things are important when you’re having a baby.”

He stares at me, the light completely gone from his eyes. “Fuck, what did you do, Kaley?”

Oh crap.

I don’t like the look on his face.