Vanessa was in the kitchen rummaging for something to eat when a voice startled her.
“Hey there, sleepy head. I thought you’d never come down.”
Shrieking, she spun around and nearly lost her balance. She grabbed the door of the refrigerator to steady herself. Glancing in the direction of the voice, she saw Nicolai bracing the door leading to the patio.
“Oh my Gawd! What’s wrong with you?” she angrily asked him. “Don’t you know better than to sneak up and scare a pregnant woman? You scared the beejesus out of me!”
With his hands up in the universal sign of ‘I come in peace’, Nick apologized. "I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“Well you did,” Vanessa retorted. Her right hand was on her heart, trying to calm it, while her left hand was gently soothing her protruding stomach. “Wh
