Page 98 of While We Waited

“I have an idea.”

He blows out a breath. “Please tell me it has nothing to do with theMermaid Treasure Hunt.”

I giggle. I have tons of ideas of how to screw with my friends during the treasure hunt but those are for later. “If we find out the gender of the baby, let’s not tell anyone.”

“You want to keep it a surprise?”

I nod. “We can tell everyone together. Maybe at my baby shower.”

“Baby shower?” He curses under his breath. “I knew I was forgetting something. I’ll ask my event planner to start working on it.”

I roll my eyes. “Terri doesn’t need to plan my baby shower. I can do it myself.”

We arrive at the hospital and he parks. “Are you sure? I don’t want you straining yourself.”

“I’m a smuggler. I can plan a party for my friends and family with my eyes closed.”

He squeezes my hand. “Promise you’ll let me know if it gets to be too much.”

“I promise,” I whisper before leaning across the console to kiss him.

“My little temptress,” he mutters before thrusting his tongue into my mouth. His taste hits me and I scoot closer to him. Except I can’t touch him. The stupid console is in the way. I try to climb over it but my belly stops me.

Hudson chuckles before he pulls his lips away from mine. “Appointment.” He kisses my nose before exiting the truck and coming around to open my door.

“Maybe you should get a truck without a console in the middle,” I complain as he leads me into the hospital.

“I was thinking an SUV.”

I blink up at him. “Are you serious?”

He tweaks my nose. “The truck is safe enough but I want a family vehicle for when I drive you and Sprog around.”

“As long as it’s not a minivan. I am not driving a minivan.”

“Duly noted.”

He opens the door to Dr. Katz’s office and every woman in the place looks over at us. The pregnant women return their attention to their reading but the other women?

Every single one of them tries to catch Hudson’s attention. They cross their legs, push out their chests, flutter their lashes. They’re sexy and gorgeous. Meanwhile, I’m fat and pregnant and need to pee every five minutes. Not exactly an appealing characteristic.

Hudson helps me into a chair in the corner. “What’s wrong?”

I force a smile. “Nothing’s wrong.”

“Don’t lie to me, Sunshine. I can recognize your fake smile.”

“I don’t have a fake smile.”

“It’s the same smile you use whenever you have to speak to the sales manager at the Gourmet Corner grocery store.”

My nose wrinkles. “He’s not a nice man. He told me we need to change all of our packaging despite the CEO saying she loves it.”

A nurse enters the waiting room. “Nova Myers.”

Hudson scowls as he stands and offers me his hand. “What’s wrong? You’re not going to bully the sales manager, are you?”

“We’ll discuss this later.”

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