Page 49 of His Bittersweet Regret

“Ow, my stomach hurts now,” I complained through the waning laughter. “You’re going to make me go into labor from laughing too much.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not a thing.”

“You don’t know,” I challenged.

“I’m a nurse,” she corrected, as if that meant everything.

“You work in a pediatrician’s office.”

“I moonlight two weekends a month in the emergency room. Trust me, we see everything there.”

“That’s true,” I conceded.

Beth glanced around again and frowned. “Are you sure you can’t take Marsh up on staying in the three-bedroom house?”

“What? No! Why?”

“Because, it’s going to suck camping out on your floor until you go into labor.”

“Aw! You’d do that for me?”

“I’d give you my left kidney if you needed it.”

I stared at her for a moment before she asked, “What?”

“Is there something wrong with your right kidney?”

“Nah, I just thought having to carry around the extra weight on my dominant-hand side would be a bonus,” she rolled her eyes at my ridiculous question, as if pointing out which kidney she’d give wasn’t equally nutso.

“Thank you for being the best, best friend a girl could ask for.”

“Thank you for being the same.”

No matter what, I could rest assured that my boy would be born into a world where we had at least one good person at our back and I would teach him by example to make sure he always reciprocated that. It was something positive to look forward to.

20

Marsh

“How did it go?” My mom asked immediately when I entered the house. Ryker was there, in the kitchen, baking cookies with her. He seemed a bit on edge, as if he was waiting for a full report too.

“It sucked.”

“What did you do?” Ryker accused.

“The best part of today was getting to hear my son’s heart beating.”

My little brother’s grin said it all. He had already experienced that and got to see my son on a sonogram too. That was something I’d never experience since Opal was so close to giving birth.

“What else happened to bring you so down, Son?”

“Where should I start?”

“How about the beginning?”

“I fucked up and left the love of my life,” I started.

“We all know that part. Maybe fast forward to when you were waiting at the doctor’s office for Opal to show up. Was she surprised?”

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