Forever with You

On the nights he had off, he came over or we went out and had di

And there was more between him and me. A lot of skin-on-skin time. Or skin against clothes. Or just the removal of the necessary clothing. Like the night on Halloween, it felt different each time, felt like more. Definitely not about two people getting off.

When Kira was with his grandfather, he stayed the night. And last Saturday he’d surprised me by coming by after work. I’d been half asleep when I let him, in and that night there was little conversation. Nick had lifted me up as soon as he closed the door behind him, and he had us skin-to-skin within minutes. The sex . . . the way he had pi

God, he . . . he took me like he was insatiable, like he thirsted for me, only me.

My mind was fully in a place where it shouldn’t be when Dr. Co

Jerk.

Dr. Co

The appointment reminded me of a normal gynecologist visit until we got to the point the ultrasound was brought into the picture. By then Nick had scooted his butt closer to the table and was staring avidly at the screen as Dr. Co

“There you go,” Dr. Co

My gaze darted from her to the screen. Uh . . . I had no idea what I was looking at. “You see it?” I asked Nick.

He was leaning forward. “Yeah, I think I do.” Stretching, he ran his finger around what sort of looked like a lima bean. “Right there, right?”

Dr. Co

What in the hell? I shot him a look. He could see it and I couldn’t? I glanced at the doctor, who was smiling broadly at him like she wasn’t immune to Nick. “I don’t see it.”

“That’s common,” she said, and the screen stilled. The picture was taken. “It doesn’t really look like a baby right now. It’s still so small, but the little bun is in there. Believe it or not, fingers are moving and so are the legs.”

“Really?” I asked, my eyes widening.

She nodded as she started to pull away from the table. “The fingers are slightly webbed at this stage.”

Nick gri

“And cool little fact for you,” Dr. Co

“Wow,” I whispered, floored as I stared at the screen. There were other things on the screen, dots and lines and numbers, but I focused on the blur that Nick had so easily seen. The longer I stared, I sort of saw it, and it was so incredibly tiny.

My throat clogged and I cleared it. Without having to say a word, Nick reached over and folded his hand over mine. He squeezed. “You find it yet? Or do we need to draw a circle around it with a bunch of arrows?”

“Jerk.” I laughed hoarsely. “I think I see it. Looks like a lima bean, right?” My gaze moved to Nick’s and was stuck, held by the softness in those light green eyes. “That’s what it looks like?”

Nick nodded.

“The baby looks like a lima bean,” I told him, fighting a grin.

“Yeah, but it’s our lima bean,” he said.

My lips curled up at the corners and I nodded. Yeah, it was our lima bean.

Chapter 22

Because I was a cornball of epic proportions, I’d tacked the sonogram on the fridge with a heart-shaped magnet. Sort of like when I was a kid and my parents displayed my grades. I mean, they were proud of my grades and I was proud of the lima bean.

Nick was coming over in the afternoon. Things had been rough with his grandfather the week after the prenatal appointment, so I hadn’t seen a lot of him, and I missed him.

God, I really did miss Nick.

When he wasn’t around, I thought about him at the oddest moments. Seeing certain things reminded me of him. Fresh, crisp scents made me think of his cologne. When something happened at work or if Roxy or Katie said something fu

Relationships were weird like that, I decided.

A twinge of unease formed. Relationships were also tricky. No labels had been tossed around. He didn’t call me his girlfriend, and vice versa, but what we were doing felt like that. Except I still hadn’t met his grandfather and he hadn’t met my mom.

My mom would really like him. Based on everything I’d told her, about his grandfather and everything, she already did, and while I knew his grandfather wouldn’t know who I was, I still wanted to meet him.

I still wanted more.

Was that what falling . . . in love felt like? I sighed. I imagined that it was what it felt like when you weren’t sure if the other person felt the same way. Actually, I knew that was what it felt like.

I held out waiting for the perfect guy—the perfect relationship. I never fell for anyone I’d been with. Guys who had no baggage I knew of. Guys who were already firmly seated in their careers. Ironically, it was the most imperfect situation and imperfect guy who was capturing my heart.

Who had captured my heart.

I just didn’t know where Nick stood in this. Yes, he cared about me. I could tell in the way he talked to me. Yes, he wanted me. That was obvious. Yes, he was making plans with me. Those plans centered around the baby. His words lingered in the back of my head.

We’ll make the best of this.

Kind of like when life handed you lemons bullshit, but I wasn’t a lemon, dammit, and making the best of us wasn’t going to get us to the long haul, after the baby arrived and the newness of all of that wore off. Feelings had to run deeper for both of us.

I shook the troubling thoughts out of my head. Standing in the kitchen, staring at the sonogram, I pressed my lips together as I glanced down. There was the tiniest change in the shape of my stomach. Nothing noticeable. Yet. But eventually I would be like Lorraine in the doctor’s waiting room, and my feet would be so swollen I couldn’t wear shoes. I started to grin as I patted my belly. Considering the way I was eating now, I was going to have a heavy belly way before I hit nine months.

Walking to the couch with a glass of OJ, I plopped down and picked up my laptop and resumed my “mommy board” creeping.

Mommy board creeping was a really bad idea I discovered by the time Nick arrived. When I let him in and he kissed me, I was so distracted by everything I’d learned that I wandered aimlessly over to the couch and sat down again.

“I thought you wanted to go out for di

“I do.” I picked up the pillow.

A slight grin appeared on his lips. “You going to wear that?”

Confused, I looked down at myself. Oh. I was rocking a pair of oversized sweats and an old Shepherd hoodie. “Sorry. I kind of got distracted.”

He sat beside me. “With what?”

I gestured at the closed laptop on one of the pillows that I’d placed on the floor. “I got on these boards—these online forums they call mommy boards.”

“Sounds interesting.”

I shot him a wide-eyed look. “It was terrifying.”

“What?” he laughed.

He had no idea. None whatsoever. Holding my pillow to my chest, I stared at him. “I did learn that I had a symptom of being pregnant almost right after we conceived. My breasts were tender like two weeks after we had sex. I didn’t think you had symptoms that soon, but you can.” I gestured at the computer with my chin. “Did you know the nipple stimulation is the only scientifically proven method of inducing labor?”