Page 88 of Claimed By the Cowboys
“I've been better. I'm not gonna lie to you. But I also know that I'm not alone. I know that with all the evidence we have against Caroline, all the proof that she abandoned her child and her pack, we'll have a really good chance in court to have the judge see things our way. It's going to be a long and arduous process. I think that's what I'm looking forward to least of all, because it's one more thing that I have to juggle on top of the ranch and taking care of Maisie and you. You're so close to the end of your pregnancy. I just want everything to go smoothly, and the idea that I'm going to have to juggle court on top of everything else… Well, it's not something I look forward to.”
Piper nodded, understanding exactly what I was saying, judging by the look on her face. It got serious, her brows knitting together, and then she shook her head, looking up at me again.
“It's a lot, and I’m already tired all the time. But you're right; we'll get through this. We have everything that suggests Caroline abandoned her child. They're not going to take Maisie away from us.”
Dakota and Montana perked up from their spot on the floor just in front of us, raising their drinks, which they'd scampered off to get at some point during the TV show.
“Here, here!” they cheered.
Zeke chuckled from Piper's other side. He kissed her shoulder, his hand finding ours on her belly, and he smiled. “We got this. And I will do everything I can as your lawyer to ensure that the outcome is what you want it to be.
Piper sat up at that one, glancing over at Zeke with her brow cocked and her fingers gripping her chin. “About that, sir. What was that show? I didn't know that you were their lawyer,in addition to everything else. And that suit, slicked-back hair—and you were wearing glasseswithoutany trace of your typical twang, either.”
Zeke chuckled, nudging Piper away as he leaned back on the couch, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I clean up really nice when I have to. It's not my favorite thing to do, but I'm glad to have the skills right now. If you're really curious about all that, we can get into it at another date. Right now, I just want snuggles.”
He stuffed his head underneath Piper's arm to get cozy, which made her lean up against my side, my arm draped across her shoulder. It was a bit cramped, and a little hot, but I had to admit there was nowhere else in the entire world I wanted to be than right here.
Chapter 41
Dakota
“All right, Miss Piper, if you'll have a seat up on the table, and then you can lie back, and we'll get this thing going.”
The ultrasound tech smiled pleasantly at Piper as she got comfortable—or as comfortable as could be expected on the small table next to the sonogram. We were going in for one of the final looks at the baby before the big day to make sure that everything was still on track. We'd gotten pretty comfortable with this, and Piper was already rolling up her shirt to have the goo squirted onto her belly.
“I'm so glad that you guys have a warmer for the gel because, in so many offices, it's just sitting at room temperature, and that feels so cold when you squirt it on my stomach.”
The tech got her going, using the transducer to rub the gel across her skin so that we could get a clear look at the little nugget that was growing inside. It didn't take long to find them now, considering they were almost full term. And there, on the sonogram, was the image of our sweet little bean, all curled up in on themselves with their hand up by their face.
They'd assumed the correct position with their head down, nestled deep into Piper's pubic bone. Or so she told me, andwe knew that this was a time when the baby could come at any minute. Once you hit that thirty-seven-week mark, you needed to be prepared for the baby to come whenever it wanted. Due dates, after all, were just a suggestion.
Heck, according to my own mother, Montana and I been a full two weeks late, and they were getting ready to evict us forcibly since we had gotten so comfortable in there. Hopefully, that wouldn't be something Piper ran into.
“All right, so, there we have Baby. They are doing great. I'm going to take some measurements of the head to see how we are doing, and we're going to do their length as well so that I can check how big they are from the crown of their head to the end of their bottom.”
Zeke laughed to himself, looking at the screen and nodding along. “One of the other technicians said crown-to-rump measurement, which I thought was great.”
We all laughed at that one.
“Yes, that's one way to say it,” the technician giggled, clicking away on the computer as she took her measurements of the baby.
“I want to see!”
I turned, seeing that Maisie couldn’t see anything from her position on the floor.
This was the only ultrasound that we'd let her go into because it was pretty safe to take her now. She was starting to get excited about the baby, and she had actually felt them move a couple of times. It was hard to convince a four-year-old to be excited about something that she couldn't see, so it was neat to see that Maisie had started to get curious about Piper’s belly.
Leaning down, I lifted her up and pointed at the screen. “See. Look there; that's your sibling. They're inside right now, but in just a few weeks' time, they're going to come out, and you'll get to meet them with all the rest of us.”
Her little brow furrowed, like she was trying to make sense of seeing something on the TV that was also still in Piper's body but wouldn't be there forever. It was a lot to ask a four-year-old to process.
“There's a baby in there?”
Piper smiled, looking over at Maisie with warmth radiating off her. “There is, honey. Yeah, this is gonna be your sibling. This is a special machine that the doctor can use to look at the baby to make sure they're doing okay, which they are?” she asked with not a small amount of nervousness in her voice.
She was always super worked up about these visits. She had a tendency to think about the worst-case scenario.
“Yes, everything looks great,” the technician replied. “They're right on track for growth. You have a good amount of amniotic fluid, so there's nothing wrong there. And it even looks like they've dropped deep into your pelvic girdle to get ready for coming out.”
