Page 31 of Her Baby His Gift

Damian was equally nervous but did his best to mask it as she placed the little piece of plastic into his palm. When Harlem moved to pull her hand out of his grasp, Damian tightened his hold. He hoped his smile conveyed confidence he didn’t feel. Damian did his best to project calm. “No matter what, we’ll be okay. Youknowthat, right?”

Harlem couldn’t speak. Her throat was thick. All she could do was nod.

Damian couldn’t stand to see the anxiety in her eyes – not his Harlem. She was always so fearless in everything. Damian pulled her close and pressed his lips gently against hers. He spoke softly. “I couldn’t love you any more than I already do.”

Harlem fought back the tears.That’s why I want to give you a baby so badly.Harlem did her best to check her emotions.

Damian gave her a minute. “You ready?” He asked.

Harlem shook her head no as she quietly whispered. “Yes.”

Slowly, Damian lifted the pregnancy test. They stilled as they looked up to read the results. The answer seemed to pulse as it glowed bright blue.

Neither spoke for several long moments as they stared at the results.

There was only one line.

The tears Harlem had been barely holding back rolled down her face and splashed onto her cheeks. She was a failure—an utter disappointment.

Damian’s heart broke. He swallowed hard and coughed a couple of times to clear the thickness from his voice before speaking. “Sooner or later, we’ll have a few knuckled-head kids running around driving us both crazy.”

She whispered. “I’m sorry.”

Damian wanted to reassure her. He kissed the temple of her head. “You have nothing to be sorry for. It’s just not our time.”

“We’ve been trying so hard. Maybe having our own children isn’t in our future.”

He cradled her face in the palm of his hands and gazed lovingly into her eyes. “C’mon now. You’re young and healthy, and so am I. It’ll happen for us. It will. I’ll get my little black Princess to go with my Queen. You’ll get a big head boy that will grow up to be tall, dark, and handsome . . . just like me. Folks will envy us and all this strong black love.”

Harlem admired his faith. She had to trust it. “M-Maybe we need to see another specialist or . . .”

Damian tensed. “We can do this. We just have to be patient.”

“Dame . . . we’ve been trying for a year. Is that not patient?” She knew it was hard for him to watch all of their friends start their families and felt inadequate for not giving him the one thing he craved. Damian loved kids. He volunteered a lot of his time to underserved children. There wasn’t an organization or group home in the Chicagoland area that hadn’t received a donation from Damian Fox. He was especially partial to the one he grew up in, Maryville Academy.

Damian was fighting hard to contain his own frustrations and pulled away slightly. “Look, we’re both disappointed and emotional. It’s late. Let’s just go to sleep and figure out our next move tomorrow.”

Harlem didn’t want to argue. Instead, she allowed Damian to take her by the hand and lead her toward the bed. Once they were settled underneath the covers, he cocooned her within the strong embrace of his arms.

Damian’s chest felt tight. As if his heart was going to explode into a million jagged pieces. Still, he had to keep it together and took comfort in being able to hold Harlem in his arms.

Harlem could handle almost anything, but this was a hard blow. She felt like such a failure. She laid her head on his chest and listened to the accelerated beat of his heart.

He wanted a child, and Harlem wanted to give him one. What she couldn’t reconcile was why she secretly felt at least partially relieved at the negative pregnancy test.

Chapter 17

It had been a few days, and things between Harlem and Damian had been strained.

Damian kissed a sleeping Harlem on the forehead before leaving for work. He had a couple of stops to make on his way into the office. Neither of them had received much sleep over the last several nights. Their days were filled with tiptoeing around each other to not say the wrong thing.

That was even more tiring.

Damian walked into the restaurant where he was meeting Carter. He immediately spotted him and went over toward his table.

Carter’s smile was wide but slipped just a little at the sight of Damian’s bloodshot eyes. “You look like shit.”

Exhausted, Damian sat down. “I feel worse than that.” Almost as soon as he was seated, a server came over to take their order. “I’ll just have coffee, strong and black, please.”

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