Page 161 of The Rebel

I took in her profile, and, God, she was fucking gorgeous. Pregnancy had done nothing but enhance her features, makingthem more prominent. Everything on her face was richer—the color of her eyes, skin tone, even the way she moved her mouth and kissed me.

I held the back of her neck, rubbing across a spot that caused her to melt the moment I began to massage it. “We’ve had the results for almost a week. You’ve been extremely patient, and I know that wasn’t easy. Never once have you asked when I’m going to give them to you.”

A request I’d made when we went in for the last ultrasound, which revealed our baby’s sex. I told the doctor to put the findings in an envelope rather than voice it out loud. And I’d told Rowan that I was going to do something special with the results. Since we still didn’t want a party and we wanted to keep it only between us, that didn’t mean I was going to allow the moment to escape without making it memorable.

“It’s the gender of our baby,” I told her.

“In this box?”

I laughed, knowing what I’d said sounded a little strange. “Yes.”

She carefully pulled at the wrapping paper until the velvet box was bare, her hands positioned along the top and bottom, and she looked at me. “I can’t believe we’re finally finding out what we’re having.”

We’d chosen a name for each gender, both having an extremely special meaning to this family. Once we knew the sex, we’d continue to keep the name to ourselves until the baby was here, not even revealing it at the baby shower that was coming up in a few months.

We had our reasoning for keeping it private, and when the time came, everyone would understand why.

“Show me what’s inside the belly that I love.” I nodded toward the box. “Open it.”

She gave me a kiss, her lips mashing against mine. The sweetness of her scent, the apples and cedarwood, was only getting stronger throughout her pregnancy.

When she pulled away, she carefully lifted the lid. “Oh my God. Oh my God!” With the box balancing on her lap, she covered her mouth with her hands.

Inside was a band of diamonds that I’d designed, the stones in multiple shapes as they spread across the platinum setting. Of course, I didn’t know if those diamonds would be in pink or blue; the answer was in the envelope I’d handed to the jeweler, and the rest had been up to him at that point.

The color that stared back at me made my heart fucking pound and my lips pull into the widest smile.

“Cooper …” she breathed, the emotion thick in her voice as I lifted the ring out of the box and slid it over the appropriate finger on her right hand. When she looked at me, the tears were already starting to fall. “It’s so beautiful.” She threw her arms around my neck. “Just like our baby girl is going to be.”

THIRTY-SIX

Rowan

“We just landed,” I said to my father, holding the phone to my ear as I climbed into the backseat of the SUV. “How’s everything going?”

“You mean since you last checked in? Which was?—”

“Just over three hours ago,” Rhett voiced, cutting my father off, proving that Dad had me on speakerphone. “He’s fine. We’re both fine. Go have a good time. You have nothing to worry about.”

Except I had everything to worry about. Dad was declining a little more every day. He was now using a walker to get around. If Cooper hadn’t insisted on taking a babymoon, then I would have been sitting right next to Rhett, driving them both wild.

“Stop it, you two. You know I have to ask.” I sighed. “I’ll be back in four days and?—”

“You’re going to check in at least three times a day while you’re gone, we know,” Rhett said. “Do us a favor, at least try to spend some time with Cooper. That is why you’re in Canada, isn’t it?”

I looked at Cooper as he got in on the other side of the backseat and rolled my eyes. “Yes …sir.”

That was one of the reasons we were here.

The other was to sign a lease on the house that Cooper had found us to rent, which we’d be moving into about six months after the baby was born. That was when the build-out on the two hotels would start, and we’d be relocating here until construction was done.

Cooper had wanted to go somewhere tropical for the babymoon.

But Banff was close, and I really wanted to see the house before I got too far into my third trimester and my doctor wouldn’t let me fly anymore.

“You’re missing the pie my housekeeper just made,” Dad said. “It’s peach. Delicious.”

“And are you eating it?” I asked.

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