Page 41 of Inked Devotion

I walked into my room, where the nurse had laid out my gown.

“Keep your socks on. I know you get cold feet.”

I smiled at her. “That is the truth. Although I always find it odd that we tend to hide our underwear when we’re in here.”

“I do it too, so I don’t blame you. It just doesn’t seem right to have my underwear thrown about the room like that.” She winked, and I laughed, grateful that she was there to ease some of my nerves.

I was so stressed out, but this is what I wanted. And I didn’t even have to tell myself this is what I wanted. I knew it deep down into my soul. This was the path for me.

I was making a stand, making my choices.

I changed into my gown and sat at the edge of the bed, my socked feet dangling as they waited for the doctor. I found as time kept going, I wished I’d left my phone on so I could play a game or pretend not to look at Benjamin’s name on my text.

I didn’t know it would take this long for them to come in and speak to me, because I knew that they had a few things to go over before the insemination process.

However, minutes kept going by, and worries started to creep in.

Maybe the donor that I had chosen didn’t work out? Or maybe today wasn’t the right day. Could they tell that from urine?

These are the things I should have known beforehand. Maybe if I had told Paige, she would have helped me create an entire three-ring binder worth of notes with essential parts of the process. No, instead, I had kept this from her, and now I was here all alone, naked under a gown wearing only my socks.

I was making a mistake, not with getting pregnant, or at least hopefully getting pregnant, but not telling the Montgomerys.

There wasn’t time now. I knew it, but damn it, why was I so stubborn?

The door opened, and my doctor walked in, a small smile on her face. There was something in her eyes I couldn’t quite place.

“Is there something wrong?

“No, Brenna. But let us talk.”

My toes curled into my socks, and I froze before I swallowed hard. “Is something wrong? What happened? What did I do?”

“Brenna, I’m going to say this quickly, and then we’re going to talk about a few things. I want you to breathe and know that I’m here.”

This couldn’t be happening. Something was wrong. “You’re just going to tell me something horrible, and I have no one here because I hid this from my friends because I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do.” I was rambling, but I couldn’t help it. I should have told Benjamin to be here. I should have toldanyoneto be here.

“Brenna, we’re not going to do the insemination today.”

“Why?” I gasped. My heart raced.

“Because you’re already pregnant.”

I wasn’t quite sure what she said after that, as the ringing in my ears intensified, and then she was reaching out for me and then…nothing.

Chapter 11

Benjamin

Ilooked down at the notebook in front of me and nearly crossed my eyes. Nothing looked right. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was supposed to do to fix that problem. The angles were all off, and I knew it had to be me. My client knew what they wanted. However, they also were open to change depending on what was suitable for the property itself. My family was building this custom home for new clients. My job was the massive grounds, only something was off about it. There were far too many angles and not enough levels. I’d already scrapped one set of designs, and they didn’t even touch on what the original plans had been when we had gotten the bid.

The house had changed remarkably during Beckett’s time with it, as well as Annabelle’s architectural plans, so it only made sense my plans would change as well. I needed to go out and get my hands dirty or just let myself clear my head, but today was not about being onsite. Today was getting paperwork done, meeting with different clients, and just getting through our business’s paperwork.

“Knock, knock,” Paige said from the doorway, and I looked up as my little sister walked in, a bottled iced tea in her hand.

“I thought you could use something.”

“Please tell me that’s caffeinated,” I grumbled as I held out my hand.

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