Kate hoped to get back before he noticed anything was amiss, but she knew that was a longshot. For one thing, she needed to move slowly down the stairs to keep things quiet. She didn't need to wake Charmaine up and get dragged into some early morning pregnant lady shenanigans.

So, she took it slow, but she made it into the kitchen, then puttered around there for a while, getting what she needed from the cupboards and the fridge and setting it all up on a small tray.

And then she had to be careful, bringing her little tray back up the stairs. Yeah, this was taking forever compared to what she'd hoped for.