Page 70 of Accidental Mile High Daddy
I didn’t let go of his hand. Just squeezed, just once. It wasn’t forgiveness, not even close, but it was something — a thread between us in the silence.
“There we go,” Dr. Hayworth murmured, shifting the wand slightly. Her brows furrowed a little as thumping heartbeats echoed out, mine and the baby’s, I assumed. “Strong heartbeats.”
I exhaled a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.Alive.Of course, I knew the baby was alive, but it was another thing entirely seeing and hearing direct proof. My eyes were locked on the screen, the swirling black and white and gray, and I knew somewhere in that grainy image was the little life I was growing.
The doctor angled the wand again, her lips forming a thin line as her eyes flicked back and forth across the screen, her fingers tapping the buttons. The room filled with the echoing beats —one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three.
Matt leaned over me, blinking quickly. “Is that?—”
“Hold on,” Dr. Hayworth said, cutting him off. “I’m just making sure.”
I blinked up at Matt, my hand tightening around his, hearing one heartbeat on the monitor kick up wildly—my own. “What’s going on?”
She made another small adjustment with the probe, just half an inch, adjusting the angle, and paused. “All right,” she said softly. “One’s tucked a little behind the other, it’s making the image a little off. But I should be able to get clear visuals on both separately.”
I blinked.
Both?
Both.
“Oh, my God,” I croaked.
“Both?” Matt whispered, eyes flicking from the screen to me.
Dr. Hayworth turned to us, her expression softening with something that felt like kindness andcautionlaced together. “Congratulations. You’re having twins.”
I stared at her like she’d just grown a second head.
My brain couldn’t catch up. The wordtwinsrattled around in it, pinging off the sides and echoing into the ether, my breath hanging.
Twins.
She pointed to the monitor, tracing over the hazy shapes. “Here’s one,” she said, highlighting the small curve of a head. She moved the wand drastically, over to the other side of my stomach, angling it back. “And here’s the other. They look a little funny right now, but that’s just because you’re, what, two and a half months along? They look a bit like bean sprouts at this stage. A little too early to tell the sex…”
She kept talking, but I couldn’t hear her.
Two. There were two.
I couldn’t move, couldn’t blink, couldn’tthink.Matt stared at the screen wide-eyed, shock and awe warring in his expression, and I saw it really hit him in real time, saw the ripple of emotion, the way his breath caught, and his eyes glassed over.
His gaze dropped to mine. His hand squeezed impossibly tight.
Chapter 22
Matt
Icouldn’t sit still.
My foot tapped restless patterns into the floorboard of my Range Rover. Every red light, every turn, everysecondfelt too slow, like the world was dragging its feet around me and all I wanted was to sprint—not away, but head-on. My chest was full, but not with panic, not even with nerves.
It was fuckinghope. The real kind, the kind I hadn’t let myself feel in years for anything other than Zach.
I was going to be a dad again. From the start this time. From the firstbreathsthey took, withher.
“I’ve already started a list.” I glanced to my right. Sienna was curled in the passenger seat after agreeing to let me drive her home instead of having her friend do it. I wanted the time with her, wanted to figure this out together. “Not names,” I clarified. “But—you know, prep schools. There’s one in Buckhead that starts at sixth grade. Zach’s on the waitlist already. It feeds right into Yale and Princeton like clockwork, it’s got a full IB curriculum, a gifted program, everything.”
She didn’t answer.
