Fortunately, I’d gotten crackers in my stomach in time, and now I was anxiously awaiting to steal a piece of bacon off his plate before he could get to it.
“Film this afternoon and workouts, after, but I won’t be gone longer than a few hours. Why?” He glanced at me over his shoulder, giving me a view of his full back, trim hips as he moved comfortably around his space.
I had yet to find, all the years I’d known him, something Garrett didn’t excel at. I figured some of that came from losing his dad so young. He’d had to learn so he could help out his mom.
He pointed his spatula at me. “Lizzie? Get distracted?”
“Yeah.” I twirled my finger in the air at him. “You’re just so… you.”
I wasn’t ashamed about it either.
“I’m so… me?” His grin appeared, along with a rare shot of a dimple on his right cheek.
I nodded. “Yeah. Awesome at everything. Skilled. Sexy. You know… you.”
I sipped my coffee, enjoying the slight shake of his head, the curls that flipped over his ears and at the base of his neck. “Goofy. Back to my question.”
“Oh. I have an appointment scheduled for today. It’s just a consult, to see if I like them, but I was wondering if you wanted to come with me?”
His spatula froze in his hold and his face paled. “An OB appointment?”
“Yeah. I was able to get a hold of a couple on Monday.” I tossed the rest of the cracker into my mouth.
“Yeah. I’d like that. A lot.”
“Good.” The bacon popped, regaining his attention, but that was okay.
I got to stare at his body some more while he finished cooking, and everything about Garrett was just as delicious as whatever breakfast he’d make.
19
Garrett
This entire appointment was a mindfuck. As soon as we arrived, my palms started getting sweaty. All around me were women, all shapes and sizes and colors, and all of them looked as though they’d swallowed a watermelon or basketball. And this was going to be Lizzie. I kept glancing at her stomach, still mostly flat, slightly rounded at night, and tried to imagine how in the hell she was going to manage to grow like these other women. Yeah, she’d still be beautiful.
But would she be hurt?
In the pregnancy book for dads I’d downloaded, I hadn’t had much time to read, but I kept imagining her hip bones stretching out. A living, breathing human shoved up beneath her ribs. How in the hell did babies come out of women like that, and how did they survive it? And hell… some didn’t, right? I mean, it had to happen. Rare, sure because of modern medicine but Lizzie and I were just now finally figuring everything out. We were together, in all the ways I’d wanted to be for so damn long and what if the worst happened?
“Oh shit,” I whispered, shoved my palms down my denim-covered thighs. Lizzie’s hands settled on one of mine and curled around mine.
And just like that, her touch, calm and cool, gripping me because she could most likely read my mind, settled some of that.
We’d figure it out.
Her head fell to my shoulder and she squeezed my hands, whispering, “More sympathy pains?”
I chuckled and turned, kissed her temple. “More like terror. I’m imagining you and all the worst possible cases and it’s fucking with me.” I could tell her anything. She’d been my friend, held my hand through being drafted, possible trades early on in my career, tough losses, wins… everything. I had no reason to hide anything from this woman.
“I’ll be just fine, honey.”
“You’ll be hurt.”
She snickered. “Yeah because, assuming everything goes well, I’ll be shoving something the size of a watermelon out the size of an orange, so…”
My brows arched. “That’s the good picture?” Horror. Oh my God. And what would it do to that part of her I liked so much.
She shrugged and patted my hand. “Better than being sliced opened, I guess. At least in my opinion.”
“This just keeps getting better.” I rubbed my forehead. Sweat clung to my hairline and I wiped my clammy palms on my jeans again.
Her shoulders shook with quiet laughter and she grabbed my hand again. “Stop worrying. Everything will be fine.”
When I managed to take a deep breath, I looked at her, eyes shining, amusement making her eyes glimmer, biting her lip to keep her laughter in, I had a feeling she was right. Somehow. Someway.
Everything was going to be fine. “I don’t want to see you in pain, not even for a second or for a good reason. And especially not in any way because of me.”
“I know. That’s why I love you so much.”
I brushed my lips over hers right as her name was called.
Standing, it took a second for my legs to work right. More than the nerves, there was still the overwhelming, undeniable urge I had to drop to my knees and propose right there. In an obstetrician’s waiting room, basketball-belly-carrying strangers the only ones in our midst.
“What’d you think of him?”
Lizzie tucked hair behind her ear and shrugged. “He was okay. Good. I like the idea of those hot tubs, being able to soak. I hear that’s nice for some women. I don’t know how I like the idea of so many doctors in the practice, though. My midwives in Chicago only have three of them, so I feel like I’d get to know them. Trust them. But twelve? I mean, I only have like fifteen more appointments or something. I could end up with strangers delivering my baby. But the facility was nice.”
She was rambling again.
Nervous.
Probably scared.
It was the last thing I wanted for her. So I said the last thing I wanted to, but for her, we’d make it work. “If you want, once off-season hits we can go back to Chicago.”
The words stuck in my throat like I’d swallowed a puck. I could figure it out. I’d still have to travel. Miss some time with her, but then she’d have her parents at least. Maybe that’d be better.
“What? No.” Lizzie grabbed my hand from the steering wheel and clasped it in hers on the console. “No, Garrett. I don’t want that.”
“Are you sure?” I glanced at her quick.
“Of course. There are dozens of offices. I have time. It might be fine, it’s just, I liked the small office I had, but that doesn’t mean I can’t find it here. But no, your life is here. Our life is going to start here. I don’t need to go back to Chicago just to have to move everything with a newborn later while you’re starting the season. I want to be here. Settled.”
She was adamant. She stunned me. This woman. The reasons why I loved her grew every day.
I nodded. “Okay. Then we’ll keep looking.”
“I have another appointment set up for later this week, anyway. It’s all women, which, no offense to men… I just think I might be more comfortable with a woman when the time comes.”
I could see that. If I had an issue with my dick or my balls, I wanted a doc who had the same parts. Not that women couldn’t be or weren’t excellent doctors. But there were certain areas I’d rather have a man be there for. “Then we’ll find you what you need.”