Page 72 of Baby By my Best Friend's Daddy

“You can take her home, then?” the doctor said.

I nodded and thanked the doctor. She left the room, and Rebecca’s face crumpled.

“I can’t ask you to do this, Landon,” she said. “I can’t ask you to be a part of this picture. You don’t have to feel like you should—”

“I don’t feel like I should do anything,” I said, cupping Rebecca’s cheek. “I want to do this. You have no idea how much I love you. I want this life with you, Rebecca. The love, the marriage, the baby in the golden carriage. All of it.”

Tears rolled down Rebecca’s cheeks.

“I didn’t think you’d want to do all of this again.” She took a deep breath and let it out in a shudder. “After everything with Brad and how angry he was, and your circles and friends and our age gap, being pregnant on top of it all just felt like too much.”

“If I didn’t want it, I would have told you so from the start. I’ve wanted you since the moment I drove you home from the wedding over a year ago.”

“Really?” Rebecca asked.

I nodded. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you, and when you came to my house that morning to check up on me, you were like an answer to a prayer, an apparition. I love you, Beck, and I want you in my life. I want to build a future with you—a home, a family.”

Tears rolled over Rebecca’s cheeks freely now, and she sniveled.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you, either,” she said. “I thought you didn’t want a life with me, that I wasn’t good enough.”

“You’re everything I could ever want and more.” I leaned forward and kissed her—carefully, though, just to be sure she was okay.

“I can’t wait to have a family with you. I’m so excited about this baby.”

“Really?”

“Really,” I said. “Come, my sweetheart. Let’s go home.”

I helped her off the bed and waited for her to fill out the discharge forms before I led her out of the hospital and to my car.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“I’m okay. The pills are already helping, and knowing we’re okay… I guess it was a lot of stress that added up.”

I put my hand on her leg, and she put her hand on mine.

“Well, that’s one less thing you’ll have to worry about. I’m not going anywhere, and I’m not letting you go without a fight, either. We’re in this together.”

“I don’t want it any other way.”

I smiled at her and took her hand, pressing her knuckles against my mouth.

“Where are we going?” Rebecca asked when I didn’t take the turnoff to her apartment.

“I told you, we’re going home,” I said.

She nodded.

“I want you to move in with me,” I said.

Rebecca’s jaw dropped. “Right away?”

“The sooner the better,” I said. “If that’s what you want, of course.”

“What about Brad? What about everyone else?”

“Brad will come around,” I said. “And fuck everyone else.”

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