Chapter Twenty-Five
Whitney
August
“Thanks for picking me up,” I lean in, buckling my lap band, kissing Ryan on the cheek.
I’d had a meeting with a client at The Café in town, and instead of driving two cars, I’d had Trevor drop me off on his way to work and gotten Ryan to pick me up. Today, we get to find out what our baby is going to be.
“Like you had to ask me twice to pick you up? You’re vibrating with excitement,” he laughs as he eases his truck into traffic, putting his arm around my shoulders.
“I’m so excited, I could barely sleep last night. It was bad enough you weren’t there,” I put my hand on his thigh as we drive through downtown. Even though it’s almost noon, it’s not yet bustling with activity.
“Well, trust me, working the night shift last night sucked. I don’t like riding with Ace as much as I like riding with Tank, but luckily it was a slow night either way.
I had trouble sleeping last night, too,” he indicates the back seat of the crew cab.
“Totally packed a bag for tonight. I don’t like sleeping away from you. ”
I curl against him in the truck, inhaling deeply.
I love his scent, it’s all over my sheets and I slept with his pillow tucked into my arms last night.
There’s something about the scent that makes me feel safe, loved, and sexy all at the same time.
“I don’t either, I’m glad you packed it.
Maybe you could pack all your stuff up and move it over sometime. ”
He inhales loudly. “Are you shitting me, Whit?”
“No,” I shake my head, offering him a smile. “Whenever you’re ready, I’d love for you to move in. I don’t like being without you.”
And right now that’s as close as I can get to telling him I love him without saying the words. Looking at his sunglass covered eyes, I think he knows it too.
“We can for sure make this happen. I won’t crowd you.”
I lean up, flicking his ear with my tongue. “I kinda like when you crowd me.”
He pulls me closer. “Then be prepared for all kinds of crowding, because you’ve just made my entire year.”
We make good time to the medical building where my OB/GYN is housed. As he parks along the square, he taps my leg. “Come out over here, people don’t watch on that side of the road.”
He helps me scoot out of the driver’s side and I almost swoon at the way he makes sure I’m good, regardless of where we are.
I straighten my skirt and grab my purse before he shuts the door and entwines our fingers together as we walk up the street.
I love that he doesn’t care who sees us strolling along.
He stops as we see the local baby boutique.
“After we finish with our appointment, we should come here and pick out the furniture. You know, so we can figure out what in the world that room you’ve planned is going to be male or female.”
I bashfully hide my face in his shoulder. “I can’t believe I did that without asking you, I really am sorry.”
“Don’t be babe, you’re the planner between us. At least we got to agree on the names together.”
I think back to the night I showed him the rooms I’d planned while I’d been bored and wishing he was with me.
He’d laughed and told me he was surprised it’d taken me that long to figure out what I wanted the rooms to look like.
I’d been embarrassed but we’d had a seat in the room and got the feel of it together, discussing names.
We were bound and determined not to tell anyone what the name would be until we found out the gender.
“Well I didn’t want to keep you out of the loop on everything.”
He pulls me closer, kissing me on the forehead. “You keep me in the loop on everything that matters, Princess. We’re doing pretty good together, don’t you think?”
“Yeah,” I smile up at him. “We are. Better than I ever thought we would.”
We stop at the front of the office, both taking a deep breath. “You ready?” he asks.
“If you are.”
“I don’t know if you know this or not, but I’d face a firing squad for you and our kid. I’m beyond ready.”
Leaning up on my tiptoes I give him a kiss. “Then I’m ready, too.”
We’re waiting in the back for the ultrasound tech to show up and we’re both totally nervous. “Do you feel like your heart could beat out of your chest?” I ask him, running a hand through my hair.
“Yes! I’ve done missions with the MTF and the Army and not ever felt this nervous. I feel like every part of my life depends on this picture we’re about to see.”
I reach over for his hand. “I feel the same way, and maybe it does mean that much. Maybe we’re placing too much importance on it, but it’s us, Ryan. It’s what we think it should be. We know how much we already love this child, whether it’s a boy or a girl makes no difference to me.”
“But it does to me,” his face gets red. “If it’s a boy I only have to worry about him sticking his dick in other girls. If it’s a girl I gotta worry about all the other dicks of the world. I mean that’s a lot of pressure, babe.”
I throw my head back, laughing hysterically, making my shoulders jerk with the force of it. “How long have you worried about this?”
“Like every night for the past two months,” he runs a hand through his hair. “On my mind all the damn time.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I giggle, feeling sorry for him. “Don’t make me laugh, I have to pee so bad.”
“I didn’t want to worry you with my crazy, too. I mean I figured you had a lot of shit going through your own mind.”
I’m wiping tears I’ve laughed so hard, and oh my God, was it a good laugh. I needed it to get rid of all that nervous energy. “I would have helped you get through your fears. We’re in this together, remember?”
“I do remember that, but I felt like I was being a pussy.”
I chuckle some more as the tech makes her way into the room. “I can hear you two laughing outside. These are the types of parents I like,” she claps her hands as she sits down.
“We’re pretty excited,” I tell her jumping when she reaches down to lift up my shirt and puts the cold gel on it.
“Sorry, probably should have warned you about that, I’m a little frazzled. The people in front of you found out they’re having four instead of two.”
“Oh holy fuck,” Ryan mumbles from beside me. “What if we’re having more than one?” He questions, his eyebrows in his hair line.
“We’re good,” I tell him, even though I just got even more scared myself. “We’re good.” I’m not sure if I’m trying to calm his fears or my own.
“Well,” the tech gives us a wink. “We’ll definitely find out.”
Both of us are as quiet as I’ve ever heard us as we wait for her to turn the machine on. Then we hear the loud thumping of the heartbeat and we both look at each other. “It’s fast,” I comment as I wait for a picture to come up on the screen.
“It’s perfect,” she says as she presses some buttons, and that’s when we see it. The picture of our baby.
“So let me show you what we’ve got here,” she situates herself so we can both see everything she’s doing.
I grip Ryan’s hand tightly in mine, waiting for what feels like forever until she speaks again.
“We have the head, legs, arms, all that stuff looks perfect. You’re right on target with size and all. Now, for the most important part of today. You two want to know the sex of the baby?”
“Yes,” we answer together.
“Congratulations you two, you’re having a girl.”
Beside me Ryan let’s out a sigh with a groan. “Guess I’m gonna have to worry about all the dicks.”
I laugh, wiping tears from my eyes. “But Stella will know exactly which one she wants.”
He leans forward, kissing me on the forehead. “I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or not.”
The tech laughs at the two of us. “Do you want some pictures?”
We both nod, and as she hands one to Ryan, he takes a picture of it on his phone. “Do you mind if I send this to Tank?”
“Not at all,” I want Ryan to feel like he’s a part of this, and letting him tell my brother is probably more important to him than it is to me.
He waits while I get dressed and cleaned up, then we head down to the children’s boutique where we pick out everything but a crib.
Neither one of us can agree on the crib, but we’re both excited to get home, and put together what we’ve bought for Stella. As we get into the truck, I text Trevor, asking if he wants to come help.
Finally, I feel like we’re all one big happy family.