Page 21 of No First Kisses

Rather than say anything else to her, I turn to the doctor and ask him the question that is burning its way into my brain as I try to figure out when we made a baby.

“How far along is she? Were you able to tell?”

He glances down again, and the way his lips purse makes my heart stutter in my chest.

“We went ahead and did an abdominal ultrasound when the lab work showed you were pregnant. You’re twenty weeks along.” He taps a pen to the top of his folder. “Since this is news to the two of you, let’s go ahead and get another ultrasound in here and make sure everything is okay. I’ll also make sure that we get an obstetrician here too.”

Less than an hour later, Poppy and I are staring at our baby on the monitor.

“Congratulations,” the bubbly ultrasound tech announces. “It looks like you’re having a boy. Doc Martin will be right back in to go over the rest of the results with you.”

She leaves moments after, giving us a string of printed out copies because she’s excited that she’s showing us our boy.

An hour later, after she’s been moved into a different room where she’ll be staying for the next forty-eight hours, Poppy cries in my arms.

I’m not sure which is worse, to be honest. The fact that she’s crying and apologizing over and over, even though I keep telling her that she has nothing to be sorry for… or the fact that I can’t even figure out if she wants to be pregnant.

Me? I’ve never been happier about anything in my life.

The woman I love more than life itself is having our baby.

I just need to figure out how to make her realize that she’s mine.

And prove I’ll never let her go.

7

POPPY

“Please, for the love of all that I hold dear, leave me alone so that I can take a shower without you.”

Logan stares at me from the foot of my bed, sitting in the exact same position he’s been in since I was discharged from the hospital a week ago.

I mean, not that he’s sat there for the entire time. Just that every single time I open my eyes, there he is. And when I fall asleep, I swear he sits there too.

Wary eyes, taking in every single movement of my body and resting on my stomach, like they always do.

“No.”

The one word makes me want to throw something at him. Again. I’ve already tried changing the locks, throwing a pillow and my shoe at him, and going to stay with my parents. But when I walked in on them having sex in the kitchen, I walked right back out and came home.

“Why won’t you leave me alone?”

Crossing my arms over my chest and resting them on the stomach that seemed to appear out of nowhere over the last seven days, I watch as his eyes flare.

“Because not only are you pregnant with my kid, but I’ve been trying to get you to talk to me for a fuckin’ month, Poppy. Even before the camping trip. You dodged me at work. I did everything short of breaking into your house in the middle of the night to talk to you because we both know when that happens, I end up with my dick out. And I didn’t want that. I didn’t think you wanted that. I want you. I wanted to talk to you. I still do.”

He is right. I have avoided him for a month. I’ve also been avoiding him for the last week, which is hard since he is in my space and refuses to leave. When I wake up, he’s there. My house smells like his soap, and all I want is to cave and ask him to hug me. I want him to hold me, to tell me that everything will be okay.

“Your doctor put you on bed rest for a reason, Poppy.” Logan gets up off the bed and moves to my side. “Please, just take your shower and then get back to it. I don’t want anything to happen to him.”

When he holds up his hand, the question in his eyes, I nod.

Then I watch as Logan drops to his knees and puts his hands on my mostly flat stomach. He whispers words against my skin that I’ll never hear and caresses the skin where our son is. I still can’t even believe there’s a baby in there, let alone the fact that I’m over twenty weeks pregnant.

“Soon,” he says loud enough for me to hear.

“I need to take a shower.” I wait for him to move his hands, though, instead of walking away after the reminder that I need to go. I love him touching me even if I don’t tell him. That hasn’t changed since the day I fell in love with him, and I know that feelings will never go away. In fact, with him being here all the time, those feelings are getting stronger and it’s almost impossible to hold him at arm’s length.

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