by Sam Mariano
Of course, he did still buy that girl a present. Yesterday.
But Sin just teased my breasts and touched my ass last night, so maybe we should clear the slate.
Rafe is silent, watching me, waiting for me to say something.
In the interest of the clean slate, I put on my best smile and say, “Now, how ‘bout you show me this library?”
13
Laurel
I cannot for the life of me understand why, but Sin accompanies us to my baby doctor appointment. When Rafe informed me he would be driving us, I prepared myself for the awkward hell of the ride there, but I was not prepared for Sin to get out of the car and accompany us inside.
All three of us stand in the elevator on the way up, staring at the silver doors, not speaking to one another. I’m developing a theory that Rafe is testing me, but testing me when he knows I’ll fail isn’t cool. Even slightly-inebriated-Rafe gave me a few days, and it has only been one.
The elevator dings and the doors slide open. Sin walks out ahead of me and I follow, my steps heavy with reluctance. Rafe walks by my side, so I try to keep my gaze off Sin. Because I’m trying, it’s that much harder.
In low tones as I look over at Rafe, I ask, “Are you anticipating an assassination attempt at the baby doctor?”
Rafe cracks a smile. “He wanted to come. I figured there was no reason to say no.”
“Is he at least going to stay in the waiting room?”
“You’d have to ask him.”
I sigh to myself, glancing up at Sin as he holds the door open for us.
Chairs are set up in a boxy U around the room, then there’s a blue, hard-looking couch in the center. That is already occupied by a very pregnant woman in a blue floral shirt with a schlubby-looking man next to her, scrolling through his phone. I see her gaze flicker in our direction as we walk in. Her eyes lower, then immediately snap back up and widen slightly. She’s looking at Rafe, of course. It’s like walking around with Brad Pitt in his prime, I swear to God. Since she has no idea who we are, after she gets done checking him out, her gaze drifts over to Sin. She looks him over more briefly, more warily, then her gaze snaps back to Rafe. Finally, she lands on me, like she wonders who I am that I warrant this well-dressed, sexy as hell entourage.
Rafe’s hand lands on my waist and he tugs me toward the window, a faint smile on his face as he leans down and says, “We can people watch later. Let’s get you checked in.”
“People watching with you is too hard. You attract too much attention,” I tell him.
“Want me to start wearing ugly glasses? You can bring yours, too; we’ll both go out in disguise all the time.”
“You’d still have this body, wouldn’t you?” I mutter. “Glasses won’t help. They’d just make you look smarter.”
“Hey, it seemed to work for Clark Kent,” he reasons.
My eyes brighten and I look over at him. “Do you like Superman? Carly and I have an unhealthy obsession with Smallville. Have you ever seen it?”
Nodding casually, he says, “I’ve seen a couple of episodes. You’re a little young to have seen that, aren’t you?”
I shake my head at him. “You can stream anything now, Grandpa.”
“Keep it up, I’m gonna go steal that pregnant woman from her husband,” he tells me, grabbing a pen out of a cup and jotting my name down on a sign-in sheet.
“I don’t think you’d have to work very hard at it,” I tell him.
“I love not working hard.”
I roll my eyes. “I bet you do.”
The frosted glass window obscuring the receptionist slides open and a woman with curly blonde hair and glasses addresses us without looking away from her computer screen. “Name?”
I open my mouth to give mine, but Rafe is already speaking. “Rafe Morelli. We’re here to see Dr. Clark.”
Her fingers halt their mad dash across the keys and she glances up. Smiling like suddenly greeting her patients is her passion, she says, “Of course, Mr. Morelli. Go ahead and come right back.” She pushes back, standing. “I’ll grab the door for you.”
If she seemed annoyed by her job when the window first slid open, now she dotes on me like a loving mother. “You must be Laurel. How are you feeling today, honey? Have you been experiencing any morning sickness?”
I glance back over my shoulder at the pregnant woman and see her spying, but she turns back around when I catch her. I wonder how long she’s been waiting? Doesn’t seem fair that I get ushered right in.
“No morning sickness,” I tell the lady, shaking my head.
“Oh, good.”
I glance over at Rafe, a little uncertain, but the special treatment doesn’t throw him at all. I guess he’s probably used to it.
The woman leads me into a tiny room with a scale, two chairs, and a counter with a sink. Rafe and Sin both remain in the wide doorway, each holding up one side like the wall might fall down otherwise.
The receptionist tells me to take a seat in the chair and the nurse will be right in, apologizing for the size of the room. It wouldn’t be so crowded if Rafe and Sin didn’t each take up so much damn space. Not even just physically, but the bulk of their presences. It’s like having three other people squeezed in this tiny room with me.
The nurse comes in next, not even blinking that there are two space-hogging men standing here guarding me. She runs down a checklist, asking questions, checking my blood pressure. Then she weighs me and marks that down, too.
“All right, if you guys will follow me to the exam room.”
Now I expect Sin to fall back. No one is going to murder me in the exam room, right? The nurse has incredible discretion, because she doesn’t so much as blink again when both men walk into the room with me.
I have less chill. I am wide-eyed and completely fucking confounded that Rafe is allowing this. Especially after the nurse tells me to undress and slip on this flimsy paper gown and the doctor will be right in to see me.
She leaves the room, shutting the door behind me. I hold the paper gown and stare at Rafe, then glance at Sin, then back at Rafe.
“Yes?” Rafe asks, expectantly.
“I have to undress.”
“I heard,” he says.
I nod pointedly, looking at the door. “You guys want to step outside?”
Rafe smiles calmly. “We’ve both seen you naked.”
Face flushing, I say, “That’s not the point. This is different. This is… weird.”
Dismissing my concern, Rafe says, “It’s fine. Go ahead, unless you’d also like to strip in front of Dr. Clark.”
“You’re a psycho,” I mutter, stepping out of my shoes. Clutching the paper gown to my chest, I try to figure out how to undress without either of them seeing me. This is unbelievably awkward. It’s worse because they’ve both seen me naked. My heart thrums enthusiastically in my chest as I awkwardly try to push down my pants. I didn’t have anything of my own to wear, so I put on the smallest pair of black leather maternity leggings Mia sent with me—she sent two sizes, one for now, one for later—and on reflection, leather leggings were not a good choice. They would be annoying to get out of with two hands, but one and grasping a paper gown against me, trying to hide my nakedness from the two last men who have played with my body? Kill me now.
Sin sighs when he sees me struggling to keep myself hidden. He storms over, grabs the paper gown out of my hand, and wordlessly holds it up in front of me like a screen. I steal a wary glance at him, but he’s not looking at me. He’s in guard mode, completely impassive. That makes me more comfortable though, so before I lose my chance, I make quick work of stripping.
“Thank you,” I murmur, as I take the gown and slip it on.
Without acknowledging I’ve spoken, he eases back to stand next to Rafe.
Rafe has a faint smirk on his face. Lightly mocking, he intones, “Aren’t you thoughtful?”
“That’s what I’m known for,” Sin deadpans.
I hop up on the exam table and
the paper rustles beneath me as I scoot back. There are stirrups on this seat. Oh, God, they’re not seriously going to stand over there while the doctor gives me an exam, are they? I can understand husbands being in here for this, but I am husbandless. I don’t even have a boyfriend, just these two assholes who don’t believe in privacy.
I huff and look over at Rafe, eyes narrowed.
“What’s that look for?” he asks me.
“I want a milkshake when this is over.”
Sin almost smiles. I see it, but he brings his hand up to cover his mouth and scratch a phantom itch on his face. When his hand drops, his handsome face is carefully blank again.
Whatever, he smiled.
Rafe shakes his head, not bothering to hide his. “I can get you a milkshake. Would you like a lollipop, too? We could stop at the toy store if you’d like.”
“That’s a cute thing to say to the girl you knocked up,” I tell him, nodding my head. “We’re all very impressed.”
“I didn’t say what kind of toy store,” Rafe states.
Thankfully, he’s easy to ignore as there’s a knock on the door. A second later, the door opens and a man with thinning gray hair and glasses balanced precariously on his nose comes inside. He stops short, looking at Sin as if startled to see him, then his gaze jumps past him to Rafe.
Rafe steps forward, offering his hand for the doctor to shake. “Dr. Clark.”
“Mr. Morelli,” the doctor says, glancing uneasily at Sin, then attempting a smile as he looks at Rafe. “These are certainly better circumstances—”
Sin places a hand on the doctor’s shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze. “No one needs a history lesson, doc. Your patient’s over there.”
The doctor looks so uncomfortable, you’d think he has to strip in front of Sin and Rafe. Steering right into it, he turns away from the men and walks over to me. He already looks a bit tired as he looks up at me. “And how are you, young lady?”
“Pregnant,” I offer.
His lips curve up faintly. “Yes, I heard. Congratulations.” Walking over to the sink to wash his hands, he begins asking a slew of questions regarding my medical history. The date of my last period is not a thing I thought Rafe or Sin would ever know about me, but here we are.
At least when it’s time for me to put my feet in the stirrups, despite clearly being intimidated by at least Sin, Dr. Clark looks over at the men and indicates the wall over by my head. “Perhaps you gentlemen would like to stand over here for this part.”
They both move closer to my bedside and the doctor directs a forced smile at Sin. “I assure you, we’re quite safe in here if you feel more comfortable waiting outside.”
“Oh, I’m perfectly comfortable,” Sin assures him.
“We do have a larger exam room with a curtain partition, at least. We could move over there.”
“We’re good here,” Sin states, smiling faintly while meanness oozes out of his eyes.
The doctor gives up lobbying for my privacy and begins the invasive part of the exam.
At least, I thought that was the invasive part of the exam until he grabbed a long gray wand and squeezed blue lube onto it. I realize it must be an internal Doppler, but it looks like a really boring dildo.
“Um, I thought the ultrasound was just… I thought you ran the thingy over my stomach.”
“At later appointments, yes. This one has to be done this way.”
“Oh, my God.” I tilt my head sidewise to look at Rafe. “Two milkshakes.”
Rafe smirks, stepping forward and coming over to surprise me by taking my hand. “I’ll get you all the milkshakes you want.”
The doctor looks like he wants to say something about that, but he holds his tongue. It’s still a little startling when he slides this Doppler dildo thing inside me with Rafe and Sin both standing right here. I steal the most fleeting glance at Sin, but he’s looking at the monitor. I turn my attention to the noisy white and gray image on the screen. There’s a black hole in the shape of an eggplant with a little gray blur inside. The doctor moves the wand inside of me and the shape changes.
“Okay,” the doctor says, pointing to the little gray blob. He moves the wand slightly and all of a sudden, it’s baby-shaped. There are little legs, little arms, and a bulbous head. My hand flies to my mouth, all thoughts melting out of my brain except for one: that’s my baby.
My heart beats strangely, my stomach rocking like this is the first time anyone has ever bothered to tell me I’m pregnant.
“He’s wiggling a little, let me try to get a picture for you,” the doctor says.
“He’s wiggling?” I question, my eyes darting to the little movements. Oh, my god, it is wiggling. “Oh, my god, it’s so cute,” I gush, unable to help myself.
The doctor smiles faintly, pointing to a spot on the screen. “The heart is right here. Looks good. You want to hear the heartbeat?”
“Yes,” I say, nodding vehemently.
The baby wiggles along the side of the sac like it’s snuggling me.
“Oh, my god.” I can’t take my eyes off the screen, so I reach a hand in Rafe’s direction. “Are you seeing this? Do you see how cute this is?”
“He’s an active little guy,” Rafe says.
“Or girl,” I offer, glancing at the doctor. “Right?”
“Of course, too little to tell. At the 20 week appointment you should be able to tell. Sometimes the 16, but we like to wait until 20 to say anything.”
I glance over at Rafe, remembering belatedly that Carly asked me to record this. My mind completely blanked the minute I saw the baby, but thankfully it’s covered. By Sin. Face impassive, he stands beside Rafe, holding up a phone and recording all this. My stomach sinks and I look back at the gray monitor.
“Now, if the heartbeat cuts in and out, don’t worry,” the doctor says. “Since he’s moving around so much, that might happen. It doesn’t mean anything.”
The sound of a rapid little heartbeat fills the room, and I clutch my own, certain it’s going to either race out of my chest or drop out of my body.
“There we go, there’s baby’s heartbeat,” the doctor says. “Sounds good.” He measures something on the screen to get the beats per minute, then switches the screen back to the live view. Baby is dancing around again, then it snuggles me.
It’s the cutest thing in the whole entire world. “I want to stay here forever and watch its cute little dance moves.”
The doctor smiles and flicks a glance back at me. “I can make a DVD for you, if you’d like.”
“Oh, yes, I would like. Thank you.”
“Of course. I’ll take a few more photos, too.”
“You are my favorite OB-GYN ever, hands-down.”
I moon at the screen the whole time. I might have thought it would get old watching the same few inches of space over and over, but it doesn’t. I could move into this room and spend all of my days watching the baby dance to its own little beat, then snuggle me.
That’s probably not what it’s doing, but I don’t care. That’s what it looks like, and that’s what I’m going to believe.
I didn’t think I’d fall in love once in Vegas, let alone twice, but here I am—completely in love with the little wiggle worm snuggled up in my womb.
It would be nice if the first time had been with its father, but hey, life isn’t perfect. As happy as I am, it’s easy not to look at Sin right now. I don’t want to worry about how he feels or what he’s thinking. I refuse to feel guilty that I’ve been holding Rafe’s hand this whole time. I ignore their drama and focus on the most important thing in the room—my little wiggle worm.
I’m in a daze now, removed from this earthly plane, floating on cloud nine. It’s funny that as recently as a half hour ago, just thinking about it as a baby was vaguely stressful. Everything has changed. The doctor gives me two long strips of photos to look at and tells me come December 23rd, everything will change even more.
I’m gonna be a mommy.
The doc
tor is still talking. I assume Rafe is paying attention, because I’m not. All I can focus on now is my pictures. I touch my tummy and know this adorable little thing is nestled away in there. I’m much less mad at Rafe and the condom company about this situation now. Ideal? No. But holy cuteness, I can’t be mad about it.
Thank God Sin kidnapped me.
Rafe is talking to the doctor, so I steal a moment to look back at him, hanging back against the wall. There are no shadows in this brightly lit room, but he still tries to keep to them. He’s watching the doctor and Rafe. I hold up the ultrasound pictures to get his attention. My movement causes his gaze to flicker in my direction and he takes a tentative step forward. I nod and wave him over.
“Look at this,” I tell him, handing over the strip.
Smirking faintly, he says, “I just saw. I was standing right here, remember?”
“How freaking adorable was that?”
He rolls his eyes and his tone is dry, but I know he means it, the big brute. “So adorable.”
Now that I’m firmly decided and I would take a bullet for the tiny little nugget that couldn’t even survive outside my womb, I feel like a jerk for saying it was a pregnancy I didn’t want. I mean, it was, but it’s not now. I know logically it couldn’t hear me, but still.
“I normally wouldn’t want to say this and further encourage your pushy, oppressive, caveman bullshit, but thank you. I was leaning in the direction of not doing this, and… well, I’m glad now that I had a little extra time to consider my options first.”
“You like my pushy, oppressive, caveman bullshit,” Sin mutters, handing back my photo strip.
“I really don’t. Not philosophically. It’s why I dumped you.”
Snorting in amusement, he says, “Is that how that went down?”
I nod confidently. “Yep. All my idea. I hope your feelings weren’t hurt too badly.”
“I’ll try to survive,” he assures me, dryly.
