Page 69 of Blue Norther
He shook his head, looking up from the illuminated screen of his phone. “No. I called Birdie.”
“Oh?”
“She said vivid dreams like that can be common in pregnancy, but if you feel like something is wrong, not to ignore it. She’s working tonight and said she’d have no problem with you going in to see her, just for reassurance if you need it.”
I climbed back into bed, more on his side than my own. I didn’t want to admit it, but I needed his arms around me. “That’s really kind of her, but it was just a dream. He’s moving around now that he has more room since I emptied my bladder.”
Colt nodded, his hand settling over the largest part of my bump. “Are you sure you don’t want to go in?”
“I’m sure. Nothing feels off. It was just that dream…just my mind…”
He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me into his side, pressing a kiss to the top of my head as it rested on his shoulder.
“Think you can go back to sleep?”
“No. I might just get up and try to write for a bit. But you should go back to sleep. Your head?—”
“I have a better idea.”
“Colt, honestly, you need to be resting. Is your head bothering you?”
He smiled over his shoulder as we walked down the stairs. “Not one bit.”
“Liar.”
“Fine. Maybe a little. But nothing a cup of coffee and holding my girl won’t fix.”
My eyes rolled to the ceiling, even though I knew he couldn’t see my sass. “Smooth.”
“Always have been. Always will be.”
We stopped for a minute by the front door, where Colt draped one of his Carhartts over my shoulders. I slipped my arms into the sleeves and laughed, knowing there was no way I was going to be able to zip it up over my belly, but grateful for the extra warmth. I was only wearing an old shirt of Colt’s because I got really hot at night. And my cotton undies really weren’t thermal at all.
“I fear I’ve grown too large to share your clothes.” There was a tinge of self-doubt in there, but the way Colt’s gaze lingered on the extra curvy parts of my body washed it away in an instant.
“No need to zip it. I’ll keep you warm if you start to get cold.”
We stopped in the kitchen, where I opened the cupboard and pulled down the bottle of over the counter headache meds I knew he kept in there.
“Here. Take two of these.” I passed over the pills and watched as he swallowed them down dry. My whole body shuddered. “That’s still as horrific as the first time I saw you do it.”
He just chuckled as he tapped the code into the security system and opened the door to the back porch.
The air was crisp. Chilly, but not terribly cold. And the sky…my heart skipped a beat as I looked up at the sky, full of bright, shining stars.
“What are we doing out here?” I whispered, sinking back into his chest as he moved in close behind me. Our hands found each other and we gently swayed back and forth.
“We’re going to watch the sunrise. It’s not too far off now. Maybe another five, ten minutes and we’ll start to see the sky light up.”
I tipped my face up. “There are so many stars. I missed this.”
“Too much light pollution in the city?”
“Yeah. And I never had a reason to look at them, you know? Life just gets busy, and these really slow and purposeful moments just sort of start slipping by.”
Colt’s grip tightened on my hand. “Are you warm enough?”
“Yes. Your son usually makes me feel like I have a furnace attached to me. The air feels nice.”
