Page 89 of The I Do Over

“You’re not a bad daughter and it’s something we should talk to her doctors and Nora about. Whatever everyone thinks is best, that’s what we’ll do. We know it’s not going to happen right away. There are too many moving parts right now—your clinic, your house, my house, finding a new house…” Just thinking about it was enough to make his head spin a bit. “The good news is we have plenty of friends who can help us out and nothing has to be decided today, right?”

She nodded.

“How about for today—well, tonight—we focus on crawling back into that silly bed and letting me hold you all night long. How does that sound?”

“The bed isn’t silly…”

“My feet hang off of it, Maddie,” he reminded her. “Part of me wants you to pack your stuff so we can go to a hotel and get a room with a king size bed, but…”

“We wouldn’t be forced to cuddle in a king bed,” she said sassily. “And I truly love the way we cuddle.”

“Keep that up and I’ll promise to cuddle the hell out of you until neither of us can keep our eyes open.”

With a soft gasp, she scrambled out of his lap and giggled. “I really like the sound of that!” she said before running back to the bedroom.

Chasing after her was almost comical—he reached her in five strides—but she looked so happy and was laughing and smiling that he decided to give in and have fun with it.

Scooping her up in his arms, he carefully tossed her onto the bed. “Brace yourself. I’m about to give you the cuddling of your life.”

“And by cuddling, you mean…”

Leaning in close, Knox whispered all the dirty, sexy things he wanted to do with her. “And after we’re done, then we’ll do the Webster’s version of cuddling.”

And with the sweet sound of laughter all around him, Knox made good on his promise.

Late Monday afternoon, Knox sat down in Maddie’s office at the clinic to video chat with Daniel and Xander. He had texted them when he found Maddie last week and checked in throughout the weekend, but now they needed to actually talk, and this was the best way to do it.

His two friends were sitting side by side and smirking.

Fuckers.

“So…where do I need to begin?” he asked them wearily because he was certain they had a lot to say about his absence. “Do I need to apologize? Work all the weekends from here to eternity? Re-shingle someone’s roof? Go ahead and lay it on me.”

They looked at each other before Daniel spoke. “I am offended that you think so little of us.”

“Uh-huh…”

“First, how is Maddie? All you said was that she was fine when you found her and it was a matter of poor cell service.” He shook his head. “How is that even a thing in this day and age?”

“She’s got a crappy phone,” he replied. “Or…she did have a crappy phone. She got a new one this morning.” Then he shrugged. “She was sunburned and had a few scratches because she got a little lost on the hiking trail, plus she was dehydrated, so…”

“You really need to convince her to go to a doctor,” Xander said. “If she’s still sick after a week, something’s up.”

And there was his opening.

“Actually, somethingisup,” he said slowly. “Maddie’s pregnant.”

“I knew it!” Xander said with a big grin.

“No, your fiancée knew it,” Daniel corrected before looking at Knox. “And how are you doing with this news? Is Maddie okay? Are you guys freaking out?”

“You know…I took her to an urgent care Thursday after I found her and a pregnancy test is one of the first things they did. When the doctor came in and said the test was positive, I swear Maddie and I just looked at each other like, ‘Huh. Okay.’ And neither of us reacted in any way—good or bad. When we left, we agreed that we’d wait until after dinner to talk about it and even then it was just…I don’t know how to explain it. She felt like the timing sucked because she didn’t want to pressure me—us, really—into being together if that wasn’t where we were going.” With a grin, he shrugged. “But it was where we were going, baby or not.”

“Okay,” Xander said slowly. “So what happens now? You’re obviously still in Virginia, but…are you going to stay there?”

It was weird to hear his always confident friend sound so wary, but that just showed how much they all meant to one another.

“At first, yeah. That was totally going to be my plan,” he admitted. “I thought Maddie’s hang up about moving in with me was about her clinic and not wanting to leave it. But we talked about it and she’s coming to Raleigh with me. I mean…not right away. There’s a lot that has to happen first, but we’re taking it one day at a time.”

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