Page 39 of Tangled Up With You

He smiled down at me. It wasn’t his charming smile or the one he used on camera for interviews or in that one underwear campaign he did that I might have printed out and kept stashed in the drawer of my bedside table.

“I’ve got you.” Three simple words, yet the surety in his voice when he said them as he reached up and caressed my arms in soothing, gentle strokes, worked wonders in grounding me. “You aren’t alone, okay? I’m right here, and I’m going to make sure everything is okay.”

I took my first full breath that day and returned his smile. “Thanks.”

“Don’t have to thank me for doin’ my job, sweetheart. Now, you ready?” He held his hand out and waited for me to place my palm in his.

I gave him a single sharp nod once his fingers wrapped around mine securely and together.

“Hi.I’m Ivy Young, I’m here for my appointment with Dr. Shaundry.”

The woman behind the front desk lifted her head, and her eyes went wide with recognition. “Oh, hi.”

My smile shook a little as I looked back at Blythe. “Hi.” I hadn’t seen her since that time at Muffin Top a few months back, despite my attempts to call and connect. She was always incredibly polite, just stressed that she was busy with work and the kids. I understood. She was a single mom of three now, since her husband passed. I hoped she wasn’t closing herself off from everything else.

She looked a lot better than she had when she’d first gotten back into town, but I could still see the haunting sadness in her eyes, and it broke my heart for her. “I didn’t realize you were working here.”

“Yeah. For about a month and a half now.”

“And you like it?” As far as small talk went, it wasn’t my finest attempt, but I’d already locked in, so I was determined to see it through.

“Oh, yeah. It’s good. And Dr. Shaundry is great,” she added quickly, as though it were an afterthought. “You’re in good hands.”

I swallowed. “Thanks. Um...” I looked around the seating area, thankful it was empty, aside from Connor and me. Leaning in, I lowered my voice so only she could hear me. “Um, no one else knows about...” I waved my hand in front of my midsection awkwardly. “If you wouldn’t mind not mentioning you saw me here? I’m telling my parents tonight. I just... I wanted to make sure everything is okay first.”

“Of course!” she insisted. “I wouldn’t say anything. But, um...” She cast a look over my shoulder to where Connor was sitting in one of the chairs that was too small for his frame. “Congratulations.” Her smile grew a bit warmer. “You’re going to be a great mom, Ivy.”

I returned her smile and reached over the desk to give her hand a squeeze. “Thanks.” With that done, I turned and headed toward Connor, taking the empty seat beside him. He looked up from the magazine he was thumbing through with a furrowed brow. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah. It’s good.” I cast my eyes at the magazine and back up to him. “Interesting reading?”

He shrugged and went back to reading, the picture of confidence holding a magazine on breastfeeding. “I’m reading whatever I can get my hands on. I want to make sure I’m prepared by the time chickpea gets here.”

Two things hit me at once. The first was that I loved how he heard me refer to the baby aschickpeaand had adopted the moniker as well. The second was the knowledge that he’d been studying up on all things baby so he could be prepared. It was a blow so hard to that protective wall around my heart it damaged the structural integrity. I wasn’t sure how many more hits like that I could withstand.

“You’re studying?”

“I wouldn’t call it studying. It’s not like I’m preparing for a test. I think every new father should know as much as humanly possible in order to help the mom in any way she might need.”

Bam! Hit number two.

And,son of a bitch,but every word out of his mouth only made him sexier. I wasn’t sure my vibrator was strong enough to survive the workout it was going to get later tonight.

Fortunately, I was saved from my naughty gutter thoughts when a nurse opened the door to the back and popped her head out, calling my name.

Blythe had been right.Dr. Shaundry was great. I’d told her my concerns—thanks a lot,GoogleandWebMd—and she hadn’t looked at me like I was crazy once. She patiently explained away every one of my fears, putting me at ease so I could finally focus on my excitement. I hadn’t expected it but Connor had some questions too, and they were surprisingly astute, and things I wouldn’t have thought to ask. Thanks to him, I now knew I wasn’t allowed to go near a charcuterie board or sushi for the foreseeable future. I wasn’t sure if I appreciated him looking out for me or pissed off that, because of him, I had to avoid two of my favorite things for the next several months. At the moment I was leaning toward pissed.

“What do you say, guys? You ready to see your baby?” Dr. Shaundry asked, interrupting my mourning for my beloved spicy tuna roll.

“We get to see it now?” Connor asked, his voice full of awe. “It’s not too soon?”

She shook her head. “Nope. Not too soon. We won’t be able to tell the gender yet, but I can take measurements, and if your little one cooperates, we should be able to see the heartbeat.”

She instructed me to place my feet in the stirrups on the bed and squirted jelly on a long, weird-looking wand before inserting it. Definitely not the most comfortable situation I’d ever been in,but the discomfort only lasted as long as it took for her to point at a little white speck on the monitor beside her.

“Ah, there it is.”

“Where?” Connor and I asked at the same time.

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