I nod, shaking her hand as she holds it out. “Wyatt.”
“You must be Piper, then,” she says, turning to my wife and glancing down at the chart in her hand. “I see you came in yesterday for the official pregnancy test so we’re just going to run over a few things and take a look at your little one today. That sound good?”
Piper and I both nod as Dr. Ward sits down at the desk and starts flipping through pages, asking Piper questions about how she’s feeling, her last cycle, and her medical history. When she’s finally finished, she turns to us with a smile.
“Okay. Should we take a look at your little peanut? Dad, you go stand up there and hold Mom’s hand.”
I do as I’m instructed, positioning myself near Piper’s head and grabbing her hand as her words crash down on me.
Holy shit.
I’m a dad…
Logically, I knew that and I’ve thought about the baby a bunch but when I think of a dad, I always think of my dad. It hasn’t occurred to me yet that I am the dad now. My heart hammers in my chest and a flutter runs through my stomach as the doctor pulls the ultrasound machine to Piper’s bedside and grabs a long wand. I scowl, watching her as she slips a piece of plastic over it and squirts some lube on the tip. My eyes widen and I glance down at Piper as her teeth sink into bottom lip to keep herself from laughing.
Jesus Christ…
I thought they would just move that little thing on her belly to see the baby.
Piper turns her head to the other side and covers her mouth with her free hand as her chest shakes with laughter. Dr. Ward looks up at us, takes in my expression before glancing down at Piper, and starts laughing, too.
“Oh, I know that look. When the baby is this small, we have to do a transvaginal ultrasound.”
I nod, trying not to think about her shoving that wand up between my wife’s legs. “Uh-huh.”
“The look on your face,” she says, laughing as she turns back to the ultrasound machine and Piper joins her, giving my hand a squeeze. I meet her gaze and she smiles, reaching up to pat my cheek.
“Just look at me if it bugs you.”
“If you’re going to pass out, pull a seat up,” Dr. Ward says, pointing to the chair behind me and I scoff.
“I’m not going to pass out.”
“Famous last words. Let me tell ya, I’ve seen it all.” She turns to Piper. “Let your knees fall to the sides, honey.”
Piper does as instructed and Dr. Ward inserts the wand as I glance up at Piper’s face. She grimaces for a second, her muscles tensing as the probe goes in but then she sighs and smiles up at me. A grainy image appears on the screen and both of us turn to stare at it, trying to decipher the images but it honestly just looks like white noise to me.
What the hell am I supposed to be seeing here?
“Ah, there is the little one,” Dr. Ward says, pointing to a tiny little blob on the screen. She moves the wand, getting a few more angles before taking a few quick measurements. “Now, we may not be able to hear a heartbeat…”
A whooshing sound fills the room and my heart seizes in my chest as I stare at the little blob she pointed out to us and the flickering motion in the center.
“There is your baby.”
Tears sting my eyes as I stare at the little blob, unable to wrap my head around how it will become our son or daughter but filled with so much love that I don’t even know what to do with it. I glance down and meet Piper’s gaze as she smiles up at me with a few tears slipping from her eyes.
“Looks like you are at four weeks and one day,” Dr. Ward says as she takes a few more measurements and hits a couple of buttons on the machine. “Which makes your due date… April twenty-seventh.”
The doctor pulls the probe out and I help Piper sit up and swing her legs over the edge of the bed as Dr. Ward presses a few more buttons and the machine starts printing out pictures of our baby. When they’re finished, she hands them to us with a grin.
“Congrats, you two. You’ll need to head downstairs and get your blood drawn, Piper, and then I want to see you back here in a month, okay?”
Piper nods, cradling the photos in her hand. “Okay.”
Dr. Ward tells us to have a good day before walking out of the room and Piper looks up at me again, fear and sadness in her eyes as a tear slips down her cheek, racing to her trembling lip. My heart seems to stop for a moment as I wrap my arms around her and pull her closer.
“Hey, what’s wrong, baby?”
Her lip trembles. “I don’t want to lose this, Wyatt, and everyday it feels like you’re drifting further and further from me.”
“No, baby,” I whisper, pressing my lips to her forehead as my chest aches and my stomach twists. In my obsession to keep her safe, I’ve been failing her and it has to end now. “I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”
Chapter Thirty
Piper
“Hey, I’ve got an idea,” Wyatt says as we pull into the driveway after our doctor’s appointment. I pull my gaze away from the ultrasound pictures to peek over at him, arching a brow.
“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”
He grins and I see a tiny little glimpse of my Wyatt looking back at me, which has been rare these days. “Let’s go out on a date to celebrate our new little life changer.”
“Okay.” I flash him a smile as butterflies flutter through my belly. It’s been a while since we went out on a real date and I don’t need any excuse to soak up time with my man - especially when he is actually acting like my man.
He turns to back the truck up again. “What the hell?”
“What?” I ask, glancing behind us as a man with sandy brown hair in a button up shirt and a bow-tie steps out of a little four door sedan. “Do you know him?”
“No.” Wyatt turns off the truck and opens the door, stepping down before turning back to me with a serious expression on his face. “Stay in the truck.”
He walks away like that is the end of the conversation and I shake my head.
Oh, hell no.
Jumping out of the truck, I set the ultrasound picture on the seat and follow behind Wyatt as he walks up to the man.
“Can I help you?” Wyatt asks as he stops right in front of the man, a little close for the other man’s comfort if the look on his face is any indication, and crosses his arms over his chest. I decide to hang back, just a little, in case this visit isn’t a friendly one. The guy jerks his head back before his gaze snaps to the numbers nailed to the side of the house and back to Wyatt. He scowls, looking down at his phone.
“Uh… I think I might have the wrong address. I’m looking for Piper…”
What?
“Why?” Wyatt snaps, somehow making himself seem more threatening as he stares down at him. Not that he needs it. This guy is almost a foot shorter than him and he looks like he weighs a hundred and fifty pounds on his best day. Honestly, with the clothes he’s wearing, he looks like some kind of door-to-door salesman and the black framed glasses really complete the look. He can’t be more than twenty-one either and with how stressed Wyatt has been, I know it will only take a tiny thing to push him over the edge.
“Is this her house? Are you her roommate?”