Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
BLAKE
T here will be moments in my life that are seared into my brain and haunt me until my dying breath.
One of them will be seeing Harper hobble into my ER with a black eye and a split lip, her hair in disarray, and her blue scrub top torn at the sleeve.
“Jesus, baby,” I rush over to her and lift her in my arms, but she winces and cries out in pain.
“Christ, that hurts,” she says, a tear falling down her cheek. “The right side is probably bruised pretty bad. Hip, too.”
“Fuck.” Two nurses rush after me as I get her on a gurney in a room, and we immediately start working on her, but Harper holds her hands up, stopping us.
“Everyone out,” she barks, her pain-filled eyes holding mine. “I need to talk to you alone.”
“Let us get you?—”
“No.” She closes her eyes with a wince, and it takes everything in me not to reach for her. I need to help my girl. “You don’t have my consent to touch me until after I talk with you alone.”
Unease slithers through my core, but I nod at the nurses. “Out. Close the door.”
Harper shifts on the bed, wincing again, and it’s killing me.
“Baby, let me help you.”
“Oh, I plan to. Get over here.”
I rush to her side and take her offered hand, bringing it to my lips. “What happened?”
“Fucking pissed-off dad happened. Motherfucker hit me from behind, threw me into a cart, and I fell to the floor. My right side is a mess, but Blake, we need to talk. ”
She swallows hard, making all of the hairs stand up on my body.
“Just tell me, Harper. What’s wrong? Talk to me.”
“Okay.” She blows out a breath. “So we’re having a surprise baby.”
I’m pretty sure the Earth just shifted on its axis.
“What?”
“I’m sorry.” I pull my hand out of hers and cross my arms over my chest, and the immediate hurt in her eyes makes my gut clench.
“I swear to God, Blake, I planned to tell you on Wednesday when we had the day off together so we could talk and not be interrupted or rushed. But that’s not going to happen now, and that pisses me off.
I just found out last night. I have not been hiding this from you. ”
The knot around my chest loosens as tears fill her gorgeous gray eyes.
“I swear, I wasn’t hiding it. You got home late, and then you were gone this morning, and our schedules?—”
I remember when I climbed into bed, and she said we needed to talk.
“Okay.” I can’t stand it. I pull her against me, careful of her right side and press my lips to her hair. “Okay, baby. You weren’t keeping secrets.”
“ No. I wouldn’t do that. I think my implant expired. But I saw the baby today because I got an ultrasound to be sure”—she pulls ultrasound images out of her pocket—“and there’s a baby.”
“I need to examine you, and we need to get another ultrasound to make sure that fucker didn’t hurt the baby, then we can talk about the rest, Harper.”
I know I sound detached and hard, but I’m in doctor mode. I need to make sure she’s okay before I can dive into the emotions of what this all means.
My God, she’s pregnant.
“I get it,” she says with a nod, and she lets me tug her scrubs top up over her head so I can see her side.
Bruises bloom in angry purple and black over her ribs and down her hip.
“Christ, baby.”
“I don’t think anything’s broken,” she says. “But fuck if it doesn’t hurt.”
“It looks like agony. Are you dizzy?”
“I was, but that’s better now. He hit me on the head twice. Once on the side, and one punch to the face. ”
Rage coils in my belly, and I clench my teeth together.
“I’m going to kill that motherfucker.”
“I’ll press charges. I just needed you first. I really needed you, Blake.”
“I’m right here,” I reply, then poke my head out the door. “I need an ultrasound machine in here now. Let’s get an IV going with warm fluids.”
I glance over and see Harper’s teeth chattering.
“And warm blankets. Move.”
We hustle, and within minutes, my girl is hooked up to an IV, a heart monitor, and a blood pressure cuff, which she glares at.
No one loves the blood pressure cuff.
“Do they have to stay?” she asks when I get ready to do the ultrasound.
“I’m going to go check on room 3,” my nurse says, and takes the tech with her, leaving just Harper and me in the room.
“Thanks,” she says softly, her eyes pinned to the screen as I start the ultrasound.
The heartbeat starts right away, shifting something in my soul, and then it’s on the screen, beating strong.
“Is everything okay?” Harper asks. “Tell me it’s okay, Blake.”
That’s our baby. I study the screen and take measurements. Nine weeks. This little one has existed for nine weeks, and we didn’t know.
“It all looks good to me. We’ll watch for bleeding over the next few days, but I’d say that everything is just fine, sugar.”
And now that the adrenaline is wearing off, I take a second to just stare at my girl, the heartbeat still sounding in the room.
“I don’t want you to think I’m trapping you or something stupid like that,” she says softly.
“By all means, trap me.”
Her eyes widen, and then she starts to cry. I clean up from the imaging and pull her against me, kissing her forehead, her temple, and then her lips.
“I’m so sorry.” God, she’s breaking my heart.
“What are you sorry for?” I cup her face and rest my forehead against hers.
“I didn’t mean to get pregnant, and I told you that I had the birth control handled. You trusted me.”
“I still trust you, Harper.”
“You shouldn’t,” she whispers. “Because I fucked up.”
“I want to get you home, and then we can sleep, or talk, or whatever you need.”
“I should go back to work.”
Fuck that.
“Neither of us is going back to work. You’re going to finish that bag of fluids, and I’m going to make some calls. I want you to rest, Harper.”
“Blake, I can handle my own?—”
“Let me.” Cupping her face, I brush my lips over hers and let myself take a moment to soak her in, knowing she’s safe. “Let me handle this for you. I know you’re a badass and as tough as nails, but let me deal with this, okay? You and the bean are mine to take care of, sugar.”
Harper’s shoulders fall, and she nods as she bites that lower lip. “Thank you.”
“Just relax. I’ll be right back.”
Rushing out of the room, I pull my phone out and start making calls, starting with administration. I want to make sure that piece of shit isn’t allowed anywhere near this hospital again.
Within twenty minutes, I have my shift covered, along with Harper’s, and I’m taking the IV out of her arm.
“I’m so freaking tired,” she says, barely holding her eyes open.
“That’s pretty normal, baby. You’re coming off the adrenaline of a scary episode. But I’ve got you.” Helping her to her feet, I keep my arm around her shoulders and lead her out of the ER and out to the parking lot where my car is.
“My purse. My car?—”
“I’ll have someone get it for you.” I press my lips to her head. “Do you want me to carry you?”
“No, I’m going to keep my dignity intact and walk,” she says, making me smile. “But when we get home, you can carry me all you want.”
“Deal.” I keep pace with her, not rushing her as she walks to the vehicle, then help her into the passenger seat.
The ride home is quiet. Harper dozes next to me but wakes up when I pull into the garage. True to her word, she doesn’t put up a fight when I lift her into my arms and carry her inside.
“Bed or couch?” I ask.
“Couch. We need to talk.”
I nod and set her down on the sofa, then walk into the kitchen to get a couple of waters and bring her one, then sit facing her.
“I want it to be known right now that I’m super salty that all of my plans got ruined,” she says with a frown.
“I mean, I wasn’t going to do anything cheesy because that’s not me, but still.
I wanted to talk to you on my own terms and not spring it on you in the middle of a crisis at work. That’s fucked up.”
“I’m glad that you’re mad and not upset anymore.” I reach for her hand and steel myself for the answer to my next question. “What do you want to do, Harper?”
She blinks at me, and then she’s up and in my lap, hugging me close, and I finally breathe a sigh of relief.
“Shit, did you think I wouldn’t—” She shakes her head, not completing the thought. “I know I said I didn’t want kids. And neither do you?—”
“I said I didn’t see myself with a family,” I correct her, brushing her hair back from her face. “But I didn’t have you yet, sugar.”
She bites her lip. “I was afraid that you’d be so mad, but you don’t seem mad at all.”
“I’m not mad. Surprised. Pissed off that someone put his hands on you. Worried about you. But no, I’m not at all mad at you, baby. ”
“I’m really scared that you’re going to think I did this on purpose. That I’d try to trap you?—”
“You said that before, and I hate that fucking word.” I tug her lip out of her teeth and run my thumb over the soft skin.
“We’re consenting adults, Harper. I can’t keep my hands off you.
You believed that your birth control was working, and if I was worried about that, I could have used condoms. I told you that I love you before we had any inkling that you could be pregnant.
You moved in with me. We’re a team, sugar, so no.
I don’t feel trapped in any way. I want you. I need you in my life.”
“It’s really soon for a baby.” She licks her lips. “I’m not trying to talk anyone out of anything. I’m just talking.”
“I understand. Go ahead.”
“We haven’t been together long, and I just moved in. I would have liked some more time with you, all to myself, before we started thinking about adding more people to the mix.”
Her fingers are in my hair, brushing through the strands. You’d never know we’re talking about bringing a life into this world. We’re both so calm.
I’d say that means that everything about this is right.
“The fact that you’re not running, that you want to be here with me, is all I need to know. I don’t disagree with you. More time would have been ideal, but we have roughly seven-ish months to get used to the idea.” I press my hand to her stomach, and a ghost of a smile spreads over her lips.
My clinical brain knows there’s a baby in there. I know all the medical nuances about everything happening in Harper’s body. The how and why and when.
But this is my girl, the woman who I’m so in love with, it’s a living, breathing emotion in every cell of my body, carrying my child. And that makes every bit of my medical degree go right out the window.
“What are we going to do?” she whispers, watching my fingers splay over her abdomen. “We both work so much, Blake. We hardly have time for each other.”
“What we’ve been doing.” I lift my eyes to hers and cradle her face. My thumb drifts over the apple of her cheek. “I’m going to keep loving you and take care of you as much as you’ll let me. We’ll figure out all of the logistics.”
I’m going to marry you.
She’s not ready to hear that yet.
“And we’re going to get ready for a baby.”
She wrinkles her nose. “That’s a crazy statement.”
“It’s a little overwhelming,” I admit with a chuckle.
“Oh, thank God you’re overwhelmed, too. I thought it was just me.”
“No, it’s not just you. Harper, there is no one else in the world that I’d want to do this with.”
“Same.” Her finger drifts over my lips. “I never thought I wanted kids, and while I’m definitely a little … concerned , and I was a little scared of your reaction, I’m not freaking out about this. Ava?—”
“Ava knows?”
She pauses and nods. “She was with me. And even though I had no intention of keeping it from you, she made sure to remind me that I needed to tell you ASAP. She also offered to take our girl to Seattle for the weekend for a Swift concert.”
I blink at her, feeling like I’ve just missed fifteen years in there somewhere.
“Uh, I think that’s a few years off.”
Harper grins. “I know. She’s going to be an awesome auntie. Anyway, Ava was shocked at how calm I was. And I think that under any other circumstances, I would not be calm. But it’s you. And despite the bad timing, I can’t be upset about it, Blake.”
I hug her to me and kiss her hair, and Harper clings to me.
“We have to think of B names,” she says, making me smile.
“We don’t have to,” I reply, shaking my head. “We have enough of those already. Hey, did you know that Billie’s pregnant? She called me at work this morning …”
I trail off when I see the look on her face.
“You knew.”
“We kind of found out at the same time.”
“Okay, what the hell happened last night, Harper?”
“We had a pregnancy test party because of the surprise baby in the book. It was Ava’s idea. Turned out, two of us were pregnant, and neither of us knew about it.”
“You had a pregnancy test party. ”
“Ava’s the wild one,” she says, holding up her hands in surrender. “It was her idea. But it’s good that we did it because your sister is so over the moon, and I’m glad we know, too.”
“My sister isn’t the only one over the moon.”
Her eyes fill with so much hope as she stares at me. “Really?”
“Absolutely. You’re what I want. I have no doubts about that. You moving in here was just the beginning, and when you’re ready, we’ll talk about more.”
“I mean, I’m pregnant , Blake. Wow, that’s still weird to say. I don’t know how much more there can be?”
I lift a brow and tap her ring finger.
“I don’t want you to propose just because?—”
“Don’t even finish that sentence.” I press my finger to her mouth and frown down at her. “In case you missed it, I love you. That’s why I’ll propose one day, sugar.”
But first, I need you to tell me you love me, too.