Baby On Board ✓

Chapter 13: The Announcement

Staring at the pie, Autumn took a hesitant cut out of it. It was still firm as she slid it onto her plate and stepped back. Sniffing, the cloves and ginger eased the tensions in her shoulders. Alright, she smiled. I might have finally done it.

Pushing her fork into the pie, she cut off a piece. Hmmm. As the first taste of pumpkin hit her tongue, she was quickly overwhelmed by a slap of saltiness. Ack! Grabbing a napkin, she spit the piece into her mouth. "Too much salt."

Knock. Knock.

She glanced toward the door. Whose that? With one last check to make sure the oven was off, she went to answer. "Hey, what are you doing here?"

Gian raised an eyebrow. "We had a meeting today? To go over the designs for your home."

Autumn blinked. "Oh, crap, we did?"

"Yeah." Amusement warmed his voice. "We did."

Stepping into the apartment, he took a few deep breaths. "Hmm, something smells good." She watched him make his way into the kitchen. "You're cooking pumpkin pie?"

Autumn nodded. Her hands brushed against her messed up apron. "Well, I'm trying to." She sighed. "This is the third one."

"What happened to the other two?"

"The first one I forgot to add the eggs to, and it was basically pumpkin soup." She pointed to the trash can. "And the second one is in there."

Moving toward the trash can, Gian glanced down. "Um, pumpkin pie should not be black, Autumn."

"I know." She groaned. "I closed my eyes for five minutes, and it turned into an hour."

Wide eyes snapped back to her with a mixture of concern then relief when he seemed to notice nothing off. "Ok, well I'm glad you didn't burn down the apartment. How about we don't try to sleep while cooking again?"

"Yeah," She rubbed her stomach. "Normally, I would just buy a pie, but Willow really wants me to bake a pie. Since it's Thanksgiving, I thought I would at least try."

"Well what about this one?" He pointed to her newest pie. "It actually looks good."

Autumn gestured for him to try the piece she cut. "Try it." Gian glanced at the piece, before he found a fork to eat it with. As he cut into it, Autumn watched him lift it to his lips and pop it in.

Instantly,he grimaced and pressed a hand to his lips. "Hmm, it's a little..." he swallowed and shuddered. "Salty."

"I think I accidently added salt instead of sugar." Autumn shifted as Gian stared at her like she had grown another head.

"You're really struggling here aren't you?"

"Yes." He started to blur as tears welled up in her eyes. "Yes, I am."

Wiping away some escape ones, she sniffed and wrapped her arms around herself. It was just a stupid pie. It shouldn't have made her this upset. However, if she couldn't bake a stupid pie, how could she cook for her future child?

"Hey." Gian's voice chased away her tears. "It's not that bad." Dropping his bag, he glanced around. "You have an apron?"

Autumn raised an eyebrow. "You're going to help me?"

Gian nodded. "Yeah, I don't have any more appointments. You were the last one." At her nod, he made his way over to where an apron hung. "Alright, I'm going to teach you the family secret pie." He wiggled his eyebrow. "This is sure to win over any family members."