Page 49 of Interception

“I’m a huge fan!” Her composure lasted all of two seconds. “Would you mind giving me your autograph?”

“Yes, he minds. I mind.” Zee’s dulcet tones reverberate around the room.

“Hey, beautiful.” I give her a quick kiss and rest my hand on her now sizable baby bump. I wonder if it should be called a ‘babies’ bump when you’re having twins? “You ready to go?” I’m mildly aware of the receptionist sighing behind me.

“Come on back to my office for a minute. I need to grab some stuff to work on tonight. Plus, you won’t have to deal with our wildly inappropriate receptionist drooling all over you.” My woman is feeling possessive today. I like it. It’s pretty sexy.

As I follow her to her office, all eyes are on us. It would be funny if Zee weren’t so bothered by it.

“You’d think they’ve never seen a pregnant chick before.” I try to make light of the situation.

“It must be nice to be you. No one is looking down their nose at you, wondering how the hell you snagged a hot catch like me.” There’s my girl, with a little fire in her belly. “I’m hot! Or I was before I started growing humans.”

“Zee, take a breath, baby. Why do you give a fuck what any of those losers think? Besides, this is all in your head. Trust me, no one thinks that I’m too good for you or too hot. I’m the fucking envy of the locker room. All of my friends are wondering how the hell I managed to get you to agree to a date with me.”

“It’s not in my head. It’s on your Twitter feed and all over Instagram.”

“Seriously, I’m going to delete my accounts. I’m sick of idiotic keyboard warriors having any kind of sway over your mood.”

“You can’t do that.”

“The fuck I can’t! My job is to win games. That’s what I get paid for. The rest is just bullshit I put up with to do what I love. I’m sick of it. In fact, can we just stop talking about it. I’m deleting all that crap today. I want to focus on the really amazing part of the day. We’re going to find out if we’re having boys or girls.”

“Or one of each.” A small smile returns to her stunning face as she shoves whatever papers she needs into her bag.

“I never even thought about that. I’m pumped! I got totally slammed at practice today. My head was in the clouds.”

“Okay, let’s do this.”

When we head out into the main office space, we’re back to being the center of attention. I sling my arm over Zee’s shoulder, pulling her tight to my side. I hate when she’s uncomfortable because she’s with me.

“Wow. Your co-workers are bad at the incognito stares. I think the word blatant was invented for them.”

“Don’t y’all have better things to do? Haven’t you ever seen a pregnant woman and her boyfriend before? Go about your business, people!”

“You heard the woman. Get back to work!” Her anger dissipates as she snuggles in at my side. “You okay, beautiful?”

“I’m good. Happy. There’s no one I’d rather do all this stuff with.”

“You sure you wouldn’t prefer a guy who lives in obscurity? Someone who wouldn’t draw attention when you walk down the street or through your own goddamn office.”

“Even if you weren’t… who you are… you’d still be noticed by every red-blooded woman in America. Famous or not, you’re gorgeous. Like stupid handsome. Peak physical, mouthwatering, ‘want to mount you every minute of the day’ kind of masculine beauty.” She’s so stinking cute when her pregnancy brain lets loose for a minute or two.

“Well, thank you for the compliments, and rest assured, I’ll let you ‘mount’ me the second we get home, but you missed the point. I meant you might prefer someone who isn’t famous, who isn’t me.” We step into the elevator and head for the lobby. Zee moves up onto her tiptoes and pulls my face down, her lips soft as they meet mine in a sensual caress.

“I know what you meant, Coop. There’s no one out there who could ever be better for me than you.” I tangle my hands in her hair, deepening our kiss, but the lobby arrives all too soon.

“Let’s go find out some genders.”

* * *

“Are you sure you want to know?” Our OBGYN is enjoying this. We said at the last appointment that we didn’t want to find out the gender of the babies, but I’m guessing she’s seen this more than a few times, and the majority of parents-to-be cave and want to know. I just think with it being twins, we need to be as prepared as possible before they arrive. The Doc says it’s unlikely Zee will get to forty weeks carrying twins, so we have even less time to prepare for twice as many babies.

My stomach is doing somersaults as we wait to hear the Doc say the words. Zee looks at me. “We want to know, right? All that scouts be prepared crap. We need to know.”

“If you’re having second thoughts, we don’t have to find out.” I squeeze her hand. I’m desperate to know, especially as we look at the screen and see those little hands and feet moving around. It actually looks like one of them is waving at us. It’s insane and adorable, and I’m still struggling to wrap my brain around all of this. Yes, I can see Zee’s beautiful big belly, and I can see the scan, watching the babies moving, but it’s impossible for me to marry the two in my mind.

“I want to know. I just don’t want to find out if it’s going to ruin it for you. We’re in this together, Coop. Your opinion matters to me.” God, she just slays me at the most inopportune times. I don’t want to start bubbling like a baby in the doctor’s office.

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