Pregnant Pause [H.S]

Chapter 21

To me, it looked almost fun.

Twenty minutes later, after bending over with my head between my knees as I gasped for air outside of the cottage, I was walking through the door drenched in sweat. The sun had gotten hotter on my way back, and I certainly hadn't gotten any fitter. Without a doubt, I'd be hurting the next day.

But my lungs felt clean and my soul felt a bit exfoliated, so in place of pain and moaning, I just felt a still calm.

"G'morning," Liam said cheerfully over his shoulder from where he stood over a pot of coffee in the kitchen.

"Morning," I replied, extending the greeting to Josie with a nod when she materialized from the back deck. "Is Fitz up?"

"Nope," Josie answered, raising her eyebrows as she looked me up and down. "If I were you, I'd shower before she wakes – you look smelly."

I shrugged, not bothered. "You want a hug?"

"Definitely not."

"C'mere."

She backed away as I approached, and I settled for hugging Liam from behind, who tensed and groaned near the coffeepot.

After showering off all the sand and sweat from my body, I dressed and made myself a cup of tea. There was a plush armchair in the common area, so I usurped it from Liam when he got up for a bowl of cereal and flashed him a shit-eating grin when he returned at a loss.

Fitz was up just moments before Louis, the last of the bunch, and I watched her walk from the bedroom to the kitchen rubbing her eyes and yawning, dressed in those little shorts with my jumper thrown over her head. She busied herself in the kitchen and eventually joined us in the living room with a plate.

It was a small room, but there was space on the couch seeing as Macy had chosen to eat her breakfast on the floor. Regardless, Fitz waved a sleepy good morning to everyone and made her way to me, sitting herself down on my lap.

I gulped away my surprise to maintain a straight face. The past weeks had been god-awful, with the two of us exchanging no more than a peck here and there. Maybe it was vacation, maybe it was the clean air and rest, or maybe we were finally healing. I was more than willing to hop on board, so I placed a hand on her hip and gave her a squeeze as she leaned against me.

"Good morning," she said while the others continued their conversation.

"Morning, sleepyhead."

She smiled sheepishly, chuckling to herself when she looked me in the eyes. "Sorry I fell asleep last night."

I made a big show of rolling my eyes. "It's fiiiine."

She continued to chuckle softly but held out her breakfast to me: peanut butter and sliced bananas on toast. "Bite?"

I nodded and leaned forward, taking a piece between my teeth and settling back into the chair. She made herself more comfortable on my lap and took a bite herself, tuning into the others' conversation without a care in the world. Like this was normal.

I tried and failed to suppress my smile as I chewed.

*

We had a lazy morning but headed to the beach in a pack after an early lunch. The weather was markedly different from the day before – sunny, cloudless, warm. It seemed too lucky, but I wasn't complaining.

After we'd dropped our bags and laid out our towels, Lou and I brought out a Nerf football to kick around in the sand. I wasn't much of a reader and I wasn't tired enough to sleep. For the first time in a long time, I just wanted to be moving.