Read Online Reconciled for Easter by Noelle Adams - Free Book Online

before they got married and agreed they would wait until they were settled.
    This wasn’t supposed to have happened.
    She was praying silently, desperately, her eyes closed, when she heard his voice in the hall and came out to meet him, holding the little stick behind her back.
    “Are you all right?” Thomas asked, eyeing her with a quiet scrutiny that was very familiar. “You look a little shaky.”
    Sometimes she wondered what he was thinking, what secret flaws and failures he thought he would find, when he peered at her with such intent observation.
    “I’m all right.” Her voice cracked on the last word.
    His brows drew together, and he glanced back at the bathroom. “Are you sick again? If you are, I’m calling the doctor. No arguments this time. You shouldn’t have gone to class or Bible study this week.”
    “I enjoy Bible study.” She’d only begun a new women’s Bible study a month ago, but she felt closer to God than she ever had before, for the first time understanding how grace meant she didn’t always have to try to be good enough. The study felt like a revelation to her, and she didn’t want to miss a single week. “And I have to go to class if I want to pass.”
    “Yeah, but you don’t really need to pass, do you? It’s just something you’re doing to kill time, so what does it matter? If you’re sick, then you should stay home and get better.”
    She started to object. She’d started the degree primarily for something to do outside her mostly empty home, but she’d begun to enjoy her coursework and was invested now in the degree—something he should know since she’d told him all about it quite often this semester—so it bothered her that he kept referring to it like a hobby that had no real significance.
    But this was hardly the time to get into an argument.
    “I’m not sick,” she said instead, taking a breath and steeling her will again. “But I will need to see a doctor.”
    She handed him the plastic stick with a slightly trembling hand.
    Thomas took the stick and stared down at it. He didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Just appeared frozen for a long time. For far too long.
    Abigail gulped over the lump in her throat. “The little plus means yes.”
    “Wha—?” Finally breaking out of his stupor, Thomas cut off the word and shook his head hard. “I don’t—”
    “I’ve been good about the birth control,” she said in a rush, with a surge of fear that he’d assume she’d done it on purpose. “I must just be in that small percentage that gets pregnant anyway.”
    Thomas opened his mouth but no sound came out. His gaze shifted from the stick to Abigail’s face.
    “I know we didn’t plan this,” Abigail said, her voice breaking a few times. She put a hand on her belly. “But...our baby. Are you...are you okay?”
    He walked into the bedroom and sat down on the edge of the bed abruptly. “Yes. Yes, of course, I’m okay. I’m just surprised.”
    Abigail hugged her arms to her middle, following him and shaking even more now than before. “Are you sure?” she whispered. “I know we were going to wait until you were done your residency and everything, but I want you to be happy.”
    “Of course, I’m happy,” Thomas said, his voice soothing now and natural. He held out his arms. “Come here, baby. Of course, I’m happy.”
    She went to him, let him gather her into his lap, hold her in a tight embrace, and murmur out reassurances.
    After a few minutes, her shaking stopped. And soon they were able to talk about it, make plans for the future.
    Abigail didn’t leave the security of Thomas’s arms for a long time, but she also didn’t look too deeply into his eyes.
    She was too afraid of what she might see there.
    ***
    Please be okay. Please be okay. Please be okay.
    Like before, she heard the voice through the darkness until it morphed into words she was saying herself as she once again knocked on the door to Thomas’s study in Durham. This time, four years