Page 324 of Steamy Ever After

He reached around her and lifted her into his arms. “Not on my watch. You need to go somewhere, I’ll be the one taking you there.”

“Oh!” She gasped. “I almost forgot. I have an appointment today with the obstetrician.”

“What time?”

“Uh, eleven.” Peyton laughed when she looked at the clock. They had twenty minutes to get to the office, which was a few minutes away.

Brodie carried her back down the hallway, where they both threw on the clothes they wore the day before, not that he had any choice. Last night, he hadn’t given any thought to stopping at his house to pick up his stuff.

“Mind a drive to my place after your appointment?”

“Only if you promise to feed me first.”

Brodie thought his heart would explode. What had his sister said yesterday? That Peyton was glowing? She was. She was beaming, and happy, and it was in part because of him.

“I love you.” She smiled, standing on her toes to reach up and kiss him. “We better go. You aren’t going to believe this, Brodie.”

He sat in stunned silence, watching the screen and seeing their baby, his baby, move inside Peyton.

“She’s thriving,” the doctor told them both. “Growing right on schedule.”

“Can he hear her heartbeat?” Peyton asked once the doctor finished the ultrasound.

“Of course.” He smiled. “I’ll be right back.”

Brodie came over to where Peyton rested on the gurney, still too stunned to speak. He took both her hands in his and stared into her eyes.

“What?”

He shook his head, smiling, but unable to find the words to describe how he felt, seeing their baby.

“I know.” Peyton smiled too. “I told you, didn’t I? Unbelievable, right?”

Brodie tried to blink his tears away before she realized he was crying.

“Wait until you hear her heartbeat.”

When he returned, the doctor showed Brodie how the fetal Doppler worked.

“It’ll sound like whooshing,” she added. “It’s the best sound ever. Right, doc?”

“Especially the first time you hear it.”

Peyton pulled her shirt up, and he closed his eyes, wanting to focus only on sound. His eyes flooded again, as she’d predicted, when he heard what she’d described.

They held hands tightly in hers. “I think I know how you felt when you were rescued.”

“You do?” He was having a hard time speaking.

“I dreamed this. You and me, seeing our baby, hearing her heartbeat. Never, for one minute, did I think it would happen. Now that it is, I keep hoping I’m not dreaming. I don’t want this to be a dream, Brodie. I want it to be real.”

“Me too, sweetheart. And you’re right, it’s exactly how I felt. Even now, I pray I’m not dreaming.”

The doctor asked Brodie to step out while he examined Peyton, but she asked if he could stay. “I want you to hold my hand,” she told him.

At the end of the appointment, the obstetrician told her she could go back to work but no more than one or two days a week and, even then, to take it easy.

PEYTON

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