Page 22 of On Thin Ice

I smiled. “Mine’sGladiator.”

“I don’t think I have a favorite. I like action and spy movies, like the Bourne ones. I used to watch them with my dad,” she said.

“Really? Not rom-coms?” I asked.

She snorted. “Nope. So many of them have love triangles, and they piss me off.”

I chuckled. “Got it. Okay, then. Favorite movie snack.”

“M&M’s in popcorn. But they have to be the plain ones,” she said. “Salty and sweet. Just like me.”

“You’re definitely salty and sweet,” I said, my voice low as memories of how she tasted and how she felt in my arms hit me. Fuck. It’d been a while.

“Dom,” she murmured, and I wondered if she was thinking the same thing.

Then she gasped.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing. She just moved. Sometimes, it still startles me.”

I could hear the smile in her voice.

“Will you send me a picture?”

“Of me?” she asked.

“I’ll always want a picture of you, Ally. But I meant, do you have one from the doctor of our baby?”

Our baby.Shit. Pretty sure that was the first time I’d said that out loud.

Fuck. This was really happening.

“Um. Sure. Hold on,” she said.

Then my phone pinged with a text.

I opened it. It was black and white and fuzzy.

“Uh. What am I looking at?”

She laughed. “Hold on. I’m sending a more recent one. That was the first one, so you can’t see much.”

I tapped on the next image that came through, and yeah, the outline of a baby was clearer. She looked like she was just lying there, chilling out on her side, her hand up.

“It’s like she’s waving.” I forced the words around the lump in my throat.

“She’s saying hi. In between fluttering and flipping around. Oh, and she started hiccupping a few weeks ago. It’s super weird,” Ally said, pure joy in her tone.

“Really? She hiccups? That’s normal?” I had no clue about any of this. I really needed to get a book or something.

“Totally normal.”

“Thank you for these.” I paused. “And for everything else. I’m sorry for my reaction, Ally. I truly am. It’s just… it’s a lot to process,” I said honestly. “Not that that’s an excuse.”

“It is. And I understand,” she said. “So, what’s your favorite movie snack?”

“Peanut M&M’s and any kind of gummy candy,” I said.

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