Chapter Thirty-Two
ISOBEL
New York
Evan was just as much of a romantic as Chase. And part of me envied her right now. Adrian, Sam, and Chase’s brothers had turned the courtyard in the center of The Met Cloisters into a surreal, romantic dream this morning after we’d arrived. Twinkling lights hung from the archways, and a long table set up nearby covered in lush floral arrangements and a variety of ornate platters.
The garden where he intended to propose was filled with summer flowers, the fragrance amazing, but too strong for my stomach, so I’d left the men to finish setting up the lights and rose petals Evan had requested. I waited in the main courtyard, idly flipping through my phone while some of the other guests started arriving and the sun sank in the sky.
“Isobel,” Kristine greeted when she joined me, smiling for once. I’d thought she’d be desperate to escape everyone involved with the tour, but she’d readily agreed to the invitation for tonight. She didn’t know the hiring committee’s decision yet, so I wouldn’t spoil it for her, but I was going to miss her when she moved on.
It felt like so much of my life was changing all at once, and I blinked hard when she hugged me, trying to fight off the urge to cry. Fucking hormones.
“Where’s the booze?” she asked, looking over her shoulder toward where Sam was standing.
“There’s some wine already open on the table. Help yourself. Everyone else should get here soon.” I watched as she filled her glass and then walked over to Sam. He placed his hand in the center of her back, leaning down to whisper in her ear. When they straightened, both with wide smiles on their faces, my stomach sank. Looked like they hadn’t discussed the phone conference Sam had been on this morning.
But I wasn’t getting involved in that mess. I had my own life to figure out first.
“You did good,” I whispered, leaning back into Adrian’s chest. He’d barely left my side the entire dinner, holding my hand or my thigh when he was near and wrapping me in his arms while we chatted with guests. Evan and Chase had just disappeared, and I knew it was showtime.
Evan’s dad quietly gestured for us to follow him through the path that led to the breezeway overlooking the lower gardens, where we’d wait for them to reappear.
“I just did what Evan asked me to.”
“Mmhmm,” I whispered, knowing that he’d done a lot more than that. He may have had a sometimes-acrimonious relationship with Evan, but it was clear he considered the young author a friend. “Take credit. You did a lot more than he expected and you know it.”
Now that the sun had set, the gardens had been transformed into something out of one of Chase’s novels. I was thrilled for her, but secretly wondered if that was in store for me. Adrian hadn’t mentioned the future of our relationship through all of this. He’d jumped headfirst into volunteering as tribute to get me pregnant, but he’d never brought up marriage .
I wasn’t even sure if it was something he wanted. He would be forty-one in a few months and had been a bachelor until this point, with no change in sight.
My story was messier. I knew how it felt to have someone you loved with your whole heart just crush it in their hands and walk away, leaving you to figure out what to do after your divorce. The love I’d felt for Grant was strong for us being so young, but what I felt for Adrian was so different.
Even though he liked to give off the impression he didn’t care about people, his actions told an entirely different story. He was a good man, and I was well on my way to falling for him.
We quietly watched while Evan led Chase into the courtyard, her eyes lighting up and filling with tears as he quietly knelt on one knee behind her.
“That could be us,” Adrian whispered in my ear, his hand moving to cover my stomach. Butterflies swarmed beneath it, a warm feeling spreading through me as he kissed my temple. “You let me know when you’re ready for it, and I’m there.”
He hadn’t even told me he loved me yet, and I’d been terrified to even think about voicing the depth of my feelings, but his comment was beyond those three little words.
As the people around us cheered and cat-called the newly engaged couple below us, I knew now was the time. Reaching back to cup the side of his face, I turned to look into his eyes.
“I’m pregnant.”
He seemed stunned for a moment, his fingers tightening his hold on my stomach, but then he exhaled and loosened his grip. “Seriously?”
Nodding, I tried to keep the tears from escaping my eyes, but as he tilted his head and his filled with moisture, I couldn’t keep them from falling.
“Babe,” he whispered, tucking his face into the side of neck. His chest heaved as he tried to keep his emotions in check, but he didn’t seem upset .
Closing my eyes, I rested my hand on the back of his, letting him process the news.
“Not sure how this happened,” he laughed, disbelief clear in his voice.
“Pretty sure you know how it happened,” I teased, but I hadn’t expected it to happen like this either. “Maybe we need to go buy some lottery tickets since chance seems to be on our side.”
“I don’t need lottery tickets. I feel like I already won the jackpot.”
Despite all the fears that still lingered, I did too.
Leila had been correct. Adrian indeed fucked the shit out of me once we got back to the hotel room in New York. He’d also been surprisingly discreet, not saying anything while we were still at the Cloisters that night.
Three days later—after we’d returned to Boston where he refused to let me out of sight—we were sitting in an exam room with my brand-new obstetrician.
“So,” Adrian’s voice was light, conversational, but I could tell from the naughty gleam in his eye he was going to say something stupid. He’d learned to read my expressions, but this was one of his I’d been familiar with for years.
“Did you have a question, Mr. O’Neill?”
“Is this something that happens regularly?”
“Pregnancy?” My OB laughed lightly. “Yeah, it happens quite often. My kids wouldn’t have gotten braces if people practiced more abstinence or regular use of contraceptives.”
“No, I know that happens. We’re all one condom break from becoming a parent. Am I right?”
Fortunately, Dr. Reeves looked more amused by Adrian than annoyed. Depending on what he was going to say next, my response might go either way .
“I meant an IUD dislodging itself. Is that common?”
“No,” she replied, her eyes briefly flashing to mine. “It’s somewhere between a point zero five to eight percent chance of an IUD spontaneously migrating or dislodging. It typically happens during a woman’s cycle. And if she doesn’t know it happened, it significantly increases the risk of pregnancy within the first month afterward.”
“Does the size of her partner impact that?”
“Not typically, but particularly rough sex could affect the placement of the device’s strings that would put it at risk for migration or expulsion.”
“So it’s possible that a well-endowed partner could cause something like this?”
“Very small one, Mr. O’Neill,” she laughed. “But it’s not out of the realm of possibility.”
“A very small one wouldn’t have done the job.” Adrian leaned toward me, cupping his hand in front of his mouth. I shook my head, squeezing his knee, but it didn’t stop the Dickhead from slipping out. “Did you hear that, babe? Your IUD never stood a chance against my massive dick.”
“Oh, my God. Just shut up.” Part of me wanted to be surprised he’d actually said it. But as my obstetrician laughed loudly at his not so quiet comment, I knew he’d said it to take my mind off the fact this part of my plan hadn’t exactly gone how I thought it would.
“Anyway, now that we’ve got that out of the way, would you like to know the due date of your little one?”
Adrian and I looked at each other before we nodded.
“Looks like you’ll be having a baby chick right before Easter this year. He or she will make their appearance on March twentieth.”
“Wonder if they’ll have a cock-a-doodle-doo?” Adrian snickered, and I smacked him in the stomach with one palm while I covered my face with the other.
“Hutch told me when his ex was pregnant that babies on ultrasounds look like aliens,” Adrian mused as we sat side by side on a bench outside our office building. Today was cooler, the shade of the building allowing us to sit outside until we were ready to return from our lunch break despite it being the middle of July.
“Feels pretty alien right now.” Looking down at my flat stomach, I tried to imagine it getting bigger, but I also didn’t want to let myself think that far ahead.
“How’re you feeling? Need me to get you something bland to snack on from the bodega down the street?”
Smiling at him, I cupped his cheek and kissed him softly. He was killin’ it at this attentive baby daddy thing. “I’m good for now. But thank you for offering. Hopefully, the ginger ale in my travel mug will be enough to get me through today.”
Dr. Reeves had told me that the sudden onset of morning sickness was typical from ten to fifteen weeks, but it’d come in with a vengeance a bit early. If I hadn’t told him while we were in New York, Adrian would have figured it out pretty quickly when I woke him up at six am heaving over the toilet the last three days. She’d sent a prescription for an anti-nausea medication to the pharmacy near my apartment building to use as needed, and I had a feeling I’d be needing it.
“If it’s any consolation, your tits have been quite impressive the last few weeks,” Adrian teased, laying his palm on my stomach. “Wonder how big they’ll get by the time the baby’s here?”
Rolling my eyes, I leaned into him as his arm wrapped around my back. “You keep letting the Dickhead out and you won’t be touching them. ”
“I thought you liked my dickhead?” he whispered, goosebumps cropping up across my neck as his lips traced behind my ear. “In fact, I’m pretty sure I remember you screaming how much you loved it this weekend, as the headboard dented the wall in our hotel room while you rode me.”
“You weren’t complaining.”
“You know how Dr. Reeves was telling us about possible symptoms during the second trimester?” I had a feeling I knew where this was going. “I think we need to come up with a signal, so I know when you’re needing to take the edge off.”
“So it’s selfless? Nothing for you to gain from the increase in my hormones?”
“I’ll selflessly press you up against my office window and fuck the daylights out of you whenever you need it, babe. My body is yours to command.”
“Your priorities are clearly in the right place.”
“Exactly. Have tah worry about the health and wellbein’ of my baby mama. Don’t want to leave her miserable and pent up. I’m willin’ to work night and day tah make sure she’s got what she needs.”
“Such a pervert,” I laughed, placing my hand atop his resting on my stomach. There was also something about him slipping back into his natural accent when he was saying dirty things in my ear that stirred something entirely different from my nausea.
“You wouldn’t like me if I wasn’t.” And some small part of me agreed with him. His humor, especially the self-deprecating part, had been one of the more endearing traits that attracted me to him in the first place.
“You might possibly be right.”
“Of course I am.”