Page 69 of Found By You

Maci places her hand over mine. “I’m sticking with a girl. What do you think? Cassidy keeps saying boy, but I think she’s just saying that because she swears she’s having a boy with how big she already is.”

I chuckle. “Cass better hope it’s a boy, I can’t see Butch having a daughter. The guy will lose his mind.”

“You think so?” She smiles. “I think it’d soften him up to have a girl.”

“He’ll be following her around like some lunatic by the teen years, guaranteed. And I’ll be right there with him. The little lady born into the Montgomery’s is going to have an escort for every dance, I’ll tell ya that right now.”

She laughs. “I can see it now.”

We arrive at Hey, Baby Ultrasounds a minute later. The technician calls us back and into a private room. The space is clean, quiet, and dark. Maci gets on the bed, and the tech pulls up a chair for me to sit next to her. “My name is Katie; I’ll be doing your ultrasound. Are we planning on finding out the gender today?”

Maci smiles. “Yes.”

Katie squirts gel onto Maci’s belly and presses against her with a white wand. “I’m going to start with a few measurements, then we’ll take a closer look,” she tells us, going through the necessary motions.

I glance over at Maci watching the screen with avid, rapt eyes. She takes my hand, and I squeeze hers in return. My nerves are shot, a jackhammer pounding in my chest. I haven’t been this anxious since… Shit, ever.

“All right,” Katie says. “Let’s see what we’re having…”

The wand twirls and shifts the view of the baby.

“It’s a…” the tech pauses, anticipation rising, “…girl,” she announces. “Congratulations.”

A girl.

My heart swells.

Maci gasps, covers her mouth, and starts to cry. Hot tears sting my eyes as she reaches for me. She wraps her arms around my neck and holds me tight. “It’s a girl,” she cries softly.

I hold her, blowing out a jagged breath. “A girl.” My voice strains with an overwhelming flood of emotion.

Maci leans away to look at me. Holding my face in her hands, she lays a tender kiss on my lips. “I love you, Duke,” she whispers.

Time stops when she tells me she loves me. And I kiss her—again, and again, and again. I love you, too, I want to shout, but I don’t. I…can’t. Instead, I kiss her a hundred times to the point she’s laughing tears of joy.

My whole life is right in front of me. “We’re having a girl.”

“Close your eyes,” Maci tells me, peeking out the bedroom door of the cabin.

I cross my arms over my chest and kick back on the couch where she told me to sit. “Why?”

She fakes a pout. “Please.”

Reluctantly, I close my eyes and wait a beat before attempting to discreetly open one eye.

“Duke,” she scolds me with a laugh.

I grin. She knows me too well. “All right, all right.” I close my eyes and listen to her light steps as she approaches. I have a hunch as to what she’s doing, but when I hear the rustle of paper, my brow furrows.

“Okay, you can open them now.”

I open my eyes to Maci standing before me holding a large poster of a candy red, 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454 with the signature double black stripes on the hood—my dream classic muscle car.

“This is the one, right?” she asks with a beautiful smile.

I’m confused. “Yeah, doll, but why do you—”

“Good,” she starts. “Because you’re going to need this for reference when you go with Butch next week to pick up yours.”

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