Cupid and Psych (Cupid Inc Book 2) Read online

  A knock came at the door.

  “Let me go and see who that is.”

  I nodded, incapable of doing anything else.

  Shelley’s voice was recognisable from the crack in the door. “Come in, Shelley. Actually, you might be able to help.”

  Shelley’s brow was creased as she walked towards me. “Hey, lovely. How are you feeling? I thought I’d come to check because you’ve been in here a while.”

  I removed the brown paper bag. “It’s possible…” My breath quickened. “I might…”

  Shelley spoke an incantation and smoke-like tendrils swirled from her fingers, wrapping around me and making me feel calmer. My breath calmed to a stage where I could speak again. It really benefited to have a part-witch, part-vampire as a friend.

  “That is a seriously good trick and I might need it for the foreseeable if shit has hit the fan.”

  Shelley looked from me to Jessica and back again. “What’s going on?”

  “I’m wondering if I might be pregnant, and you know my feelings on babies after how I was brought up.”

  “Well, you are not your parents, but let’s save that conversation for later. Luckily you have a super-speedy part-vampire at your disposal. Give me a mo.” And with that the only sign she’d gone was the whoosh of the door and my hair blowing a little.

  In no time at all she was back. She pointed to the bathroom off the counselling room. “Off you go.”

  I followed the instructions from the box, my hands shaking the whole time I did it. I placed the test on the side and waited for the longest minutes in history.

  But before they could appear my phone buzzed in my pocket.

  Ebs: Thanks for the entertainment and congrats!

  Was she saying…?

  I looked over at the plastic. It was a digital test and so I couldn’t say I was confused by the result when it appeared on the screen.

  PREGNANT

  I swallowed. My worst fears had come to life. The responsibility of a baby. What if I screwed its life up? How the hell could I look after a child? I could barely look after myself.

  There was no question about not keeping it though. I thought of a baby looking like a miniature version of my husband and my heart fluttered a little.

  Could I do this?

  Could I be a mum?

  One thing I knew for sure. Its maternal grandparents weren’t getting anywhere near it.

  And that’s when it all clicked into place. Because powerful feelings of over-protectiveness came out of nowhere. A dogged determination to keep fuckers like my evil parents away and to love it with a love I’d never got to experience from my own.

  All this overwhelming emotion and I’d only been pregnant for approximately one-and-a-half minutes.

  Jessica

  “Do you think I should have gone in with her in case she fainted again?” Shelley asked.

  I shook my head.

  “No, she needs to do this on her own. If the test is positive, she might need a moment. If she wants us, she’ll call out. Either that or we’ll hear the thud as she hits the floor in a faint.”

  “Well, if it’s positive and she’s in shock, I can sympathise.” Shelley rubbed her stomach. “I’m thirteen weeks pregnant and seeing as I wasn’t supposed to be able to get pregnant again for another hundred years, this one kind of took me by surprise.”

  “Oh congratulations.” I said, while I processed the hundred years bit. I knew about supernaturals but being up close and personal with them in Withernsea would take some getting used to.

  “Thanks.”

  “Maybe you’re best placed to give her some advice then if she comes out of the bathroom saying she’s pregnant.”

  “I’ll try, depending on the level of hysteria.”

  We smiled at each other.

  Then the bathroom door opened, and Samara walked out, but rather than hysterical she seemed serene but tearful. “I’m having a baby.” She said. “And I already love it. What the fuck is happening to me?”

  She burst into noisy tears and Shelley grabbed her shoulders and gave her a huge hug.

  Another knock at the door had me rolling my eyes. Who now?

  The door opened and Kim walked through. Kim worked with Shelley at the dating agency and was married to a werewolf, Darius. I’d been told she had three werebabies when I’d met her earlier. Or as she’d put it, ‘thank fuck for having this opening ceremony. I’ve left the trio of brats with daddy, auntie, and granny and legged it here to support a fellow business. Now where’s the wine?’

  “Are you having a private party in here and forgot to invite me?” She spotted Samara who was sat on the couch crying. “What’s up with her? They discontinued her favourite lipstick?”

  Samara turned to Kim, her lips trembling.

  “I’m p-pregnant.”

  “Yeah? Cry about it if you find out you’re having three. Otherwise, get a grip.”

  “Kim,” Shelley admonished. “She’s in shock.”

  “Yeah, so was my vajayjay when I birthed three cubs.”

  “Well, this isn’t about you. It’s about me.” Samara wiped her eyes and pouted in Kim’s direction.

  “And there she is. Congrats, Sam. You’re going to be a mummy. Welcome to the club.”

  Shelley looked over to me and raised a brow. “Who knew a small room like this could fit in two diva personalities.”

  Kim took a seat next to Samara. “So, how ya feeling?”

  “I thought I’d be hysterical with fright, but I just feel really overprotective, like if anyone tries to upset them ever, I’ll kill them.”

  “Ah, see, your motherly instinct has already kicked in.” Kim hugged her. “You need to get yourself fixed up and go tell that husband of yours he’s going to be a daddy.”

  Shelley turned to me. “Wait until they have teenagers. My daughter was only one for part of a year, but I’d have sold her given half a chance.”

  They all said their goodbyes and left over the next few minutes and then I found myself alone in my office. All the three women had bonded over the fruits of their womb and there I was childless and alone. I sat back on my own couch as memories hit and I found myself powerless to stop them.

  I was late. Two days late. We’d been trying for over six months and I’d started to wonder if there was a problem, but my breasts were so painful I couldn’t remove my bra and something inside me told me that this time it had happened.

  Lachlan got up to hit the shower, and he banged on the bathroom door.

  “Jess, come on. I need to get to work, I’m leading an important case.”

  I sighed and pulled up my panties. When wasn’t he? He spent more and more time at work, telling me he was trying to get himself a promotion to Sergeant, but I’d been hearing this for over a year now and nothing had changed. Actually, that wasn’t true. Lachlan had changed, being out for hours. Not only was he in the police, he was the son of Cupid and so also had to matchmake regularly. It was in his genes. Had I known this when I’d met him, I’d have walked away, but unfortunately, I’d fallen hook, line, and sinker before he’d revealed the truth about his parentage.

  I walked out of the bathroom. “Hey, good news, I thin-”

  “Tonight, Jess, okay. I’m running really late now. You can get showered anytime this week, can’t you? It is the holidays, right?”

  I was training to be a psychologist and he was right; we were currently on leave. At least he’d paid attention to that. I didn’t think he’d even looked me in the eyes yet this morning.

  I walked past him out of the bathroom, feeling like a ghost in my own home.

  That morning, I went to the supermarket and bought a test. Then I sat in my bathroom and held my breath at times while I waited for the result. When the line appeared in the box, I was beside myself with emotion. I was pregnant. Finally, I was pregnant. I spent the day clutching my tummy, joining Mumnset and BabyCentre. I went out and bought a pregnancy magazine and a pair of white booties that I planned t
o put on Lachlan’s dinner plate that evening.

  But the dinner went cold with no sign of my husband.

  As I went to bed, I realised I’d got a text.

  Lachlan: Don’t wait up. We have a lead.

  The other side of my bed was still empty the next morning. I checked my phone.

  Lachlan: Sorry can’t call. Delicate situation. I’m going to stay down here. Got a hotel room so I can be where needed.

  Where he needed to be was here, but he wasn’t.

  Later that afternoon, I went to the bathroom and found I was bleeding. The doctors said it could have been an early miscarriage or a false positive result. Whichever, I felt a loss so immense I thought I would die. And there was no one there to share this with me, certainly not my husband.

  When he finally returned home, I’d burned the magazine and the bootees.

  We sat at dinner and he said. ‘I think I did it. This is going to have got me that promotion’. He never asked me what my own news had been. Maybe he didn’t care. But I knew then that I was done.

  “I want a divorce. I’m leaving you.” I told him.

  His face had drained of all colour. Now he knew how I felt. He begged me to change my mind, but something inside me had hardened and I felt distant and impossible to reach.

  I left and didn’t look back.

  Standing up straight and composing myself, I closed the door on my office and my thoughts, and I made my way back out to the opening ceremony. It was time for my life to move forward and who knew? With a dating agency on my doorstep and three Cupids at my disposal, maybe my own new time for love might be right around the corner?

  Samara

  Johnny came home thoroughly overexcited.

  “Wife, strip and wait for me in the bedroom because do you know who you’re married to?” He shouted from the doorway.

  I walked into the hall and leaned against the doorframe.

  “Tom Hardy?”

  “Tom Hardy is nothing special at the side of this guy here.” He pointed a finger at himself. “I just saved the life of a cat… and her six little kittens.”

  “Oh my god. You amazing man. We’ll have to call you the Pussy Master.”

  “I already had that title. Let’s add Supervet to the mix.”

  I shook my head. “Nope, I love you, but you’re no match for Noel ‘Supervet’ Fitzpatrick.”

  “Damn television guy with his fiendish skills. Are we sure he’s not supernatural? The guy stays up half the night to operate too. I smell a rat.”

  “That’ll be what the cat had for tea.”

  He laughed. “Why are you still in the doorway and not naked in our bedroom?”

  “Because.” I swallowed. “I have some news of my own. You might want to come and sit down.”

  He pursed his lips. “The last time this happened you just wanted to tell me Kylie Jenner had brought out a new shade of gloss.”

  “I promise this time it’s bigger than that and sitting down worthy.”

  He began to move past me, shaking off his shoes and moving into the living room. “A new series of Love Island has been announced?”

  “No.”

  “Joe Browns have a sale on, and you’ve spent a grand?”

  “I wouldn’t confess to a Joe Brown sale if there was. Now shut up and sit down.”

  He plonked himself down on the sofa and I sat opposite him.

  “Before you tell me your news, I’ve got to get this out there. I really want one of the kittens. They’re so cute and there’s this gorgeous black one that has just a white patch over one eye.”

  “Johnny, for heaven’s sake.”

  “I know, I know, but hear me out. We said we’d get a pet to ease us into there being three of us, and a cat would be perfect because they’re self-reliant to a large degree, and if it gets ill, I can care for it and-”

  “I’m pregnant. We’re having a baby, Johnny.”

  There was a large silence. Mainly because my husband’s mouth was gaping open.

  He then actually shook his head as if there was something that had got in his ears and he needed it to come out. It reminded me of when he’d been a Whippet post-bath.

  “Say that again. I can’t have heard right.”

  “I’ll tell you a story, Johnny. Once upon a time there was a man who’d been turned into a Whippet by Fate. She turned him back and he had sex multiple times with his wife without the use of contraception, such was their joy at being reunited. Fate decided it was time for them to have a baby and so now the wife is pregnant. The end.”

  A huge boom sounded in the flat and a woman with blue and black hair appeared in the living room.

  “Talk of the Devil.” I huffed.

  “I’m not Satan, Samara, as you well know. I am Fate. I just wanted to confirm that you are indeed with child. Your baby is due around the seventh of July.”

  “Thank you for that nugget of information. Now there comes a time in a woman’s life when she has some special exciting news for her husband, such as news of their first child. Then they probably hug and kiss with joy. Or, it could be like my living room where a stupified husband sits on the sofa and Fate herself turns up unannounced and stands in the middle of the happy couple.”

  “Oh, er, yes. I see. Well, congrats. Bye.”

  Boom.

  “Seriously, that woman.”

  “Yeah, but she’s gone now.” Johnny winked, looking much more his usual self. He stood up and stalked towards me. A frisson of excitement pulsed in my core. He’d got that horny look about him.

  “Well, wife. What a day. Not only have I proved my excellence in the surgery, but I come home, and my prowess is proved by the fact I have put a bun in your oven. I’m on fire. So, get into the bedroom Baby Mama because I want to dip my wick.”

  He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close, planting a huge kiss to my lips.

  “Are you happy, Sam, about the baby? Given your own family history.”

  “I really am. Yes, it was a complete shock, but I can’t wait to meet our little baby.”

  “So before I do carry you into our bedroom to do dastardly things to you, how did you find out?”

  “Well,” I smiled. “Firstly, I threw up down Rebecca, so this baby already has good taste.”

  He high-fived me. That’s why I married this man. He just got me completely.

  Then he picked me up and carried me into the bedroom.

  We’d arranged to meet Max for Sunday dinner at The Marine, a pub near the beach front. They did an all-day carvery with a veggie option for Max. It was so cheap there was no point in cooking.

  When Johnny and I arrived, we found him seated at a table with Rebecca and the domestic, Mabel.

  I raised a brow.

  “So, my sister decided to tag along, and I invited Mabel because she had no plans for the evening and I thought it would be a good bonding experience, though Jess blew us out.”

  “She got other plans?” I asked.

  “Yeah, brooding in her apartment. I don’t know what happened but when she came back out of the office after sorting you out after Pukefest, something was different. She just didn’t seem herself.”

  “Hmmm, I’ll ask her tomorrow. I hope I didn’t upset her somehow. I don’t remember doing anything.”

  “Like you ever do.” Rebecca huffed under her breath. I let it go. I had puked on her earlier, plus I refused to let her spoil the day I found out I was pregnant.

  “I’m surprised to see you here actually.” Rebecca added. “I thought you’d be curled up in bed with how ill you were earlier.”

  I shook my head. “I feel amazing now. Must have passed off whatever it was.” Johnny and I had decided there would be no announcements until I’d seen the doctor and had my early scan. I wanted to get to the docs as soon as possible so I’d be ringing first thing the next morning, to make it all official.

  We ordered our meals and queued up for the lovely smelling food. I noticed India walk in, so I waved her over and in
vited her to join us.

  The poor girl barely had time to take a bite of a roast potato before Max started on her.

  “India, darling. I have my first client tomorrow to matchmake and well, she’s a werecat. Any ideas on what kind of person might want to be matchmade with one of those? Any flaws about cats I should know about in particular, in order to avoid an error, only this one in particular is very erm…”

  “Snobby, greedy, aloof, anyone’s for a piece of fish.” I filled in for him. “In other words, a regular kitty cat.”

  “Well, cats love to be warm, well fed, and able to be free to come and go as they please. They don’t like being wet-”

  Max interrupted, “I’m guessing you mean by water, rather than sexually?”

  India went bright red.

  “Max!”

  “I need to make sure. It’s important my first match goes very well.”

  “Oh yeah, you two are still on probation, unlike me.” Rebecca’s face was smug. A look I was realising she wore every chance she could. I couldn’t wait to start going through her past caseload and turning her from smug to mug.

  “So, India. Where did you live before Withernsea?” Max asked her.

  “I’m from Hull but I’ve spent the last few years travelling around. I find it hard settling down in one place.”

  “Been anywhere good?” Johnny asked.

  “I did Australia and Thailand last year. Fabulous places.”

  “Withernsea must seem a bit of a come down after those.” I added.

  “Actually, I like it here. The place has an eclectic mix of people. I feel at home here. Like I finally found what I’ve been searching for.”

  “Well, I’m hoping for a place in the main team in London. That’s where I want to be.” Rebecca said. “Not stuck here for the rest of my days in Withernsea and Hornsea.”

  I realised then I’d got a quandary on my hands. I wanted to wipe the smug grin off her face but if she didn’t succeed, I’d be stuck with her. If I wanted rid, then I had to kill Rebecca with kindness. Get her enough success that she was gone. Hmmm, food for thought indeed. My mind flipped through a few possible scenarios until I took a bite of roast beef and then all my thoughts were real food ones. I was so hungry, I flagged down the waitress and paid for another carvery dinner.