Page 75 of While We Waited

“You ready?” Hudson asks when I step outside of the brewery into the parking lot.

I beam up at him. I am ready. I’ve thought about it all day and I’m just going to enjoy Hudson for now. I’m not making any big decisions until baby Sprog is born. I have nearly four months to enjoy Hudson and being pregnant.

After then…. Well, after then, I’ll figure it out.

“We don’t have to go out.”

I frown at him. “What? You promised me a date.”

“If you’re not in the mood or aren’t feeling well, we can go home. I’ll cook you some of my famous chicken noodle soup and we’ll watch a movie.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Your chicken noodle soup is famous now?”

“You moaned the entire time you ate it.”

I roll my eyes. “Because I was hungry.”

He shakes his head. “What’ll it be? Home or date? No pressure.”

“It’s hard to decide when I don’t know what the date is.”

“I’m not telling you the surprise.”

I blow out a breath. “You’re mean.”

“You’re impatient.”

I place a hand on my baby bump. “I can be patient.”

He lays his hand over mine. “I can’t wait to meet Sprog.”

I love how excited he is to meet our baby. He didn’t even want a baby to begin with. Hold on. I don’t know if he didn’t want a baby.

“Did you want children before you met me?”

He opens the truck passenger door and lifts me into my seat. He reaches across me to buckle the seatbelt but I grab his hand to stop him.

“Are you going to answer me?”

“In the truck,” he grumbles.

Uh oh. Mr. Grouchypants is back from his vacation.

“And?” I ask once he’s sitting beside me. “Did you want children before you knocked me up?”

He places a hand on my thigh and squeezes. “I never thought about having children before.”

“You’re thirty-two. You must have thought about it.”

He switches on the engine and backs out of the parking space before speaking again. “My entire focus has been on my football career.”

“But your football career ended three years ago.” He cringes. “I’m sorry. I know it’s a sore subject.”

“It’s not a sore subject.”

“Which is why you cringe or shut down every time I mention the end of your football career.”

“When I returned to Smuggler’s Hideaway, I was too busy building the resort to worry about anything else.”

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