Page 44 of Bidding For Her Curves

Will be perfect, once we fix it up.

My reflex was to either build new or just pay people to come fix it, but Jules is trying to keep me away from the office, retraining me to be a homebody, which is fine by me too.

Calling her up around noon to see how her day is so far, she only works a couple of days a week, but I get antsy not having her around. She doesn’t answer.

Nothing too unusual about that, last time I went down there she was dishing out hot meals and re-educating the architects about where the best place really is for the ladies bathrooms.

But something isn’t sitting right.

Something’s off. I can feel it in my bones.

I try to laugh at the memory of our favorite saying when I feel things in my bones, but this time I really do.

My phone chirps, and picking up I figure its Jules returning my call.

“I’m not checking up on you baby. I was just-”

But it’s not Jules.

“Mr. Thorne. Doctor Briggs, at the hospital…”

My stomach drops, the hospital.

Before he can even speak I’m rushing for the door, snatching up my keys. I know that tone doctors get. I know the calls they have to make.

Life and death calls, I used to make them every day… financial ones anyway.

“Now, don’t panic. It’s just a fainting spell. We have Jules in the best hands right now. I’m just calling to let you know-”

I hang up. I need both hands and all my senses to drive.

The hospital’s about forty minutes away. I get there in twenty, skidding to a halt out front and rushing straight into the emergency room.

Dr. Briggs knows me better than I think or at least understands my reputation. Maybe he reads the newspapers. He’s waiting not too far from the door, shaking his head with a grave look.

“How bad is she, Doc? Give it to me straight, don’t lie to me,” I stammer, rushing up to him, annoyed by his sudden smile.

“You really shouldn’t have driven like a maniac to get here, Mr. Thorne. As I was trying to explain to you…”

But I won’t hear it, I want my Jules and I want her now.

“Where is she?” I demand, practically grabbing his collar.

He’s a big guy, but I’m bigger, but both his hands are up in a calm and professional way, like when he has to deal with lunatics.

Or over-excited, newly engaged millionaire hospital owners.

And hopeful fathers to be.

“Slow down, Mason,” he says firmly, still smiling.

“I believe congratulations are in order, not hysterics. You can save that for when she goes into labor. And I don’t want you speeding in your car then either,” he smiles, patting me on the shoulder.

“She’s…? I mean… Are we?” I ask, still stammering.

“Now, she’s about six months pregnant, Mason. But there is no need to worry the new dad,” he adds seriously.

I feel the color draining from my face.

“Dad… Daddy?” I murmur absently, and I think the doc knows it’s me. He takes me by the arm, and like leading someone in a trance, he takes me through to Jules, who’s having an ultrasound.

Seeing her brings me to my sense and I rush to her side, stroking her hair back, kissing her so much she can’t speak for a few minutes.

The doctor and a nurse wait patiently, the whooshing sound of a strange electronic pulse filling the space between us as I realize Jules is holding something to her belly.

“Can you hear that?” she asks, her eyes shining with tears. “That’s our baby’s heartbeat.”

“Our baby,” I say softly, touching her stomach so gently, suddenly afraid she’ll break if things aren’t just right from now on.

“Baby’s a little small for our liking but healthy as a lamb,” the doctor says, coming over and adjusting the equipment slightly.

“Would you like to know the sex?” he asks, and we both shake our heads in the negative.

“No,” Jules says, speaking for us both as I take her hand in mine. “We want it to be a surprise… like today was.”

“You didn’t know?” I ask her, still in shock.

“Did you?” she says in her best tell me off voice. “Geez, Mason, I’ve been saying for months how I’m packing on the pounds and you’re all just like ‘Duh, more of you to love baby,’” she says in her best impression of me.

Doc Briggs backs away, trying not to laugh. “I’ll give you two a moment,” and he steps out with the nurse.

I don’t mind if she’s making fun of me. I don’t mind at all.

“We’ll move the wedding up,” I tell her. “I’m not having a child out of wedlock.” She laughs at me, thinking I’m being funny still, but I mean it.

“I said Jules, when I asked you to marry me, our kids were gonna have a real mommy and a daddy, right from day one. No, if’s, and, or but’s.”

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