Page 41 of The Grumpy Doc's Surprise Delivery

I have ambitions, and I’m not letting some man’s idea of what I should be stop me from achieving them. And Liam doesn’t. He wants me to succeed, too.

As I always do, that night I report to Phoebe.

She’s really waddling around now, her belly huge and round as her baby kicks and rolls inside her, ready to be released into the world. I’m so excited for it to happen. I’m so excited to be with her every step of the way.

As for Phoebe, she’s excited for it to be over. Well, the pregnancy part, anyway. She’s exhausted all the time and constantly complains that she aches. I’m doing everything I can to ease her pains, but the only thing that will really work is to birth this baby.

“I just can’t believe it’s still going this well,” I say, sinking back into her sofa. “It feels like one of those things that only happens to people in stories. Oh, I met this guy on a vacation and now we’re going steady!”

“Are you going steady?” Phoebe asks. She’s got her lawyer look on, the one that pierces through everything I say to try and trip me up into confessing the truth.

“I think so. We’ve met a couple of times a week ever since we got back, at least for a coffee, and I’ve been over to his a few times. You know this, though, don’t you?”

“I do. I just want to make sure that everything really is going well. It’s great for you to sit here and say that it’s a whirlwind, but all I want is for you to be happy.”

I smile and exhale, leaning over to take Phoebe’s hand and squeeze it. “You really are the best friend in the world.”

She grins. “I told you I’d find you a man, didn’t I? If we had bet on it, you’d owe me a fortune now.”

“Assuming I’d ever bet against you.”

She throws up her hands, conceding to my point. Then I sigh. I do have something to confess to her.

“The only thing I’m… I don’t know. I guess, worried about, is he doesn’t seem to want to commit.”

“That’s men for you,” scoffs Phoebe. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

I’m still thinking about that first night, the one where Liam told me he didn’t want anything serious. We haven’t revisited that chat yet, and I haven’t wanted to be the one to bring it up.

“You think he is serious about us, then?”

Phoebe fixes me with a probing look. “If he wasn’t, do you think he’d keep on saying yes to meeting you?”

“Maybe he’s bored, or lonely,” I say.

“If he was bored or lonely, he wouldn’t be doing lunch dates with you. You’d be skipping right to the go to his place part.”

I lean over to smack her playfully in the arm. “Phoebe! You can’t say things like that!”

She shakes her head and pulls me into her arms, or at least tries to. “Damn belly getting in the way all the time.” She sighs.

“You’ll pop soon enough,” I say. “Then you’ll just have to deal with screaming and diapers and insomnia.”

“I can’t wait,” she says through gritted teeth. “At least I’ll have your wedding bells to look forward to.”

“We arenotgetting married,” I say firmly, despite the wavering inside my heart.

Again, Phoebe fixes me with a look. “Not yet, but maybe one day…?”

I sigh. What can I say to that? That I’ve been thinking about it? That I have had dreams about it?

Because I have. And I know that Liam doesn’t want that. At least, he’s never shown any interest in it. Phoebe may be right that it’s early days, that our meetings have been fun and our nights have been fantastic, but now that we’re a couple months in, I’m afraid to ask him for more. I’d rather keep what we have than ruin it by trying to pressure him into something he doesn’t want.

Except, I’ll never know what he wants if he won’t tell me.

“Maybe one day,” I concede. “Not yet, maybe not even soon. But I like him. I really like him. And we just click, you know? We shouldn’t because we’re pretty different, but our work ethic is the same and that matters.”

“Yes, I remember Chris, not to be confused with Matt or Damien,” laughs Phoebe.

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