Free Determinant by E. H. Reinhard Page A

of women’s emotions.
    “I’m sorry she called. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you it was someone else. Remember we talked about the whole honesty thing?”
    She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “You should have just lied.”
    “No I shouldn’t have. I’ll call her back and find out what she wanted. That’s it. I don’t see why her calling should cause us to argue. Sam and my relationship has been over for years. I mean, hell, she’s remarried and…” The look on Callie’s face just told me to shut up. I did.
    She got up in a huff and walked to the kitchen. I followed her. She started to make coffee. Each movement was fast and violent. She grabbed two coffee cups from the cabinet and knocked them down on the kitchen counter, followed by her jamming a single serve cup into the machine and splashing water in and over the side. She pushed a coffee cup into the machine hard enough for it to slide back and rock. Her hand slammed into the button to start the coffee. The coffee mayhem was somewhat amusing to me but in hopes of staying alive I didn’t dare crack a smile. “Callie, I’m sorry. It’s not that big of a deal.”
    The coffee maker bubbled and beeped telling her it was done. She yanked the cup out and sat it down hard in front of me spilling a little over the top. She lunged into the fridge to grab the creamer and set it down next to my cup equally hard. “Yes, it is a big deal.”
    I unscrewed the top on the creamer and poured some into my cup. I didn’t want to ask for a spoon to stir it in. “Why is it such a big deal?”
    “Because I love you and I don’t want to lose you.” Her words came out quick as if by instinct. Her face said she wanted to jam them back into her mouth, but it was too late. It was the first time she said it, and it hadn’t crossed my mind to think about saying it to her. Not that I didn’t, I just never thought about it. By my figuring, I had about fifteen seconds or less to assess my feelings toward her. The situation would get a lot worse if I didn’t say it back. I was on the clock. We had a great time together—nine seconds. I saw this going somewhere—five seconds. She was gorgeous—three seconds. I didn’t want to lose her. It was all I had time for. I sat on the barstool at the breakfast bar. “I love you too and I’m not going anywhere.”
    She tried to hide a smile. They were the magic words I looked for earlier.
    She took her cup of coffee from the machine and stood at the breakfast bar across from me. “Good, because I’m pregnant.”
    I thought I heard her wrong, but wasn’t sure what the sentence could have been mistaken for. “You’re what?”
    She pointed to her stomach. “Baby.”
    I didn’t know what to say. It was like someone exploded a bomb in my head. Flashes of my life with dirty diapers, swing sets and toys underfoot rushed through my head. Visions of moving in together and nights of less sleep than I already got. The last few weeks of her not drinking now made sense. I remembered the captain talking about family yesterday. My brain had never moved faster. It was taking too much time for me to respond.
    “But we…”
    I know we were careful.
    “And it’s definitely…”
    She interrupted. “If you’re about to ask me if it’s yours, I swear to God I’m going to grab a knife from the kitchen and stab you in the face.”
    It took care of that question. “Are…”
    She interrupted me again. “If you’re going to ask me if I’m going to keep it, again, knife.”
    I sat quiet for a second trying to get my bearings. I needed to buy time. “Come here.”
    She walked over, sat on my knee and put her arm around my neck. “It’s kind of a lot to take in, huh?” She smiled.
    I let out a deep breath, smiled back, and sat quiet.
    “Well, come on, talk,” she said.
    I tried but couldn’t come up with anything.
    She faced me and pulled her head in close trying to read my emotions. “Are you happy? Are you leaving me?