I like kids, don’t get me wrong. It’s the pregnancy part I hate. I’ve hated every minute of all my sister-in-law’s pregnancies. And they’ve been popping them out like there’s no tomorrow. And they stole my food along the way.
Pregnant women are scary as fuck when they want something.
Now I’m scared I’ll push the love of my life away from me because she’ll eat my food. I know she will. She never gave a shit when she stole it before, so why would it be any different now?
I tug at the strands of my hair. I’m going to fuck up, and she’ll leave me. She’ll leave me and I’ll never find love again. I might joke, and fuck around, and piss her off, but she is my life. I’ve already gone without her once before, and I felt dead inside.
“Max, you’re making me feel sick,” Lake groans, pressing her hand down on my leg, and I cease the bouncing.
I scrub a hand down my face, letting out a heavy breath. “I swear, I’ll share all my food with you, just please don’t attack me, or steal the last of the garlic bread when we order pizza. Don’t leave me because I’ve pissed you off.”
Her gaze softens slightly. “Max, what on earth are you going on about?”
“I love you, Lake. I really, really love you. You’re my whole world. But now you’re pregnant, and we know how people change during that transition.”
“It’s not a transition,” she scolds.
I wave her off. “It doesn’t matter. I just need you to know now that I love you, and please—I’m begging here—don’t leave me.”
“Max, where has this come from?”
“You saw how the last pregnancy went,” I mope, my shoulders dropping. “She nearly left.”
Lake laughs, unable to hold it back, and I scoff, offended. “She wanted to leave you because you were being insufferable. She didn’t want to leave Myles.”
“Exactly. We’re twins. You’re going to want to leave too, just like she threatened to.”
“Kayla isn’t your girlfriend, or your wife,” she reminds me, like that makes a bit of difference. “If I was going to leave you, I would have done it the day you tried to build the treehouse in the garden and ended up smashing my laptop.”
“In all fairness, I didn’t know it was unstable,” I defend.
“Or the time you got us kicked out of Disney World.”
“They kept pushing in front of the queue,” I argue.
She grabs my hand. “My point is, you give me thousands of reasons to leave you, but I don’t. Because all those reasons make you who you are, and I love you for them.”
I rest my forehead against hers. “It’s just one baby. I can handle nine months of the food situation.” I glance up, meeting her gaze. “On one condition.”
“What condition? Because you really don’t have room to negotiate with a pregnant woman. This baby is coming whether you like it or not, and I don’t care if you can handle it or not. It’s a bit late now. I mean—”
“Marry me,” I ask softly, my hands shaking as I grip the box in my pocket.
She laughs, shaking her head. “Max, really? This isn’t a movie. We aren’t religious. We don’t need to get married just because I’m pregnant.”
I turn to her, letting her see how fucking serious I am. “Marry me,” I repeat, and pull out the box.
She presses her lips together and glances away. “Max, we aren’t getting married just because I’m pregnant. That’s silly.”
“I knew you’d say that, so I brought this,” I tell her, handing her the receipt. “Look at the date.”
Her hands shake as she reaches for it, and then she gasps. “This is from before you found out I was pregnant; heck, this is from before I even knew I was pregnant.”
“I’ve been trying to find the right moment to ask, but I keep getting nervous,” I admit, then quickly add, “And no one else needs to know that last part, okay?”
She glances up from the ring, her eyes welling up with tears. “I-I don’t know what to say.”
“Please say fucking yes, because people are staring,” I tell her from the side of my mouth, giving the patients the side eye.
“You are serious about this?”
“As serious as the baby in your stomach.”
Her laugh is mingled with a sob as she throws her arms around me. “Yes, yes, yes, yes.”
I squeeze her tight to my chest, breathing out a sigh of relief. “Never forget you said yes and that you won’t leave me.”
She pulls back, pressing her lips to mine. “I promise to always put up with your insufferable behaviour.”
I grin. “Good, because they just called your name.”
She jerks back and beams. “Let’s go see our baby.”
She said yes.
I pump my fist into the air and turn to the others in the waiting room. “She said yes!”
They cheer and clap, and I grin wider. Lake smacks me in the chest. “I’m not wearing the ring though.”
I nearly trip over my feet as I follow her, pulling the ring out of the box. I’m sure I read somewhere that it’s only cemented once they have the ring on their finger. I don’t want to take any chances.
The lady in blue scrubs smiles as she opens the door for us. “Just lie down on the bed for me. A doctor will be in shortly to do the ultrasound.”
“Put it on,” I fuss, grabbing her hand. She tries to shake me off. “Woman, we are getting married now. Do as you’re told.”
She tenses, turning to me, her expression like thunder. “You did not just say that.”
“Just put it on so it’s for real and you can’t take it back,” I demand, keeping my voice low. “I’m not taking any chances that you’ll back out and leave me. You remember what happened the day I found out you were pregnant. I’m not sure how I’ll react at actually seeing the nugget.”
“This has to be the sweetest worst proposal ever,” she retorts as her lips twitch.
I slide the ring on her finger before lifting her hand up and kissing it. “Love you. And I love the food stealing baby inside of you.”
“I love you too,” she rasps, leaning up to kiss me briefly.
A slim, white-haired man steps into the room. “You ready to see your baby?”
Lake lies back on the bed, smiling. “Yes.”
He glances up from his notes. “It says you aren’t sure how many weeks you are. Is that correct?”
“Yes. We’ve broken it down to between thirteen to fifteen weeks, but we can’t be certain.”
“Let’s take a look then.”
I sit down in the chair next to the bed as he instructs us on everything he is going to do. Lake seems to be absorbing it all, but I can’t help but freak out a little.
We are going to see our baby.
I can do this.
How hard can it be to raise one Carter? And it’s not like my brothers haven’t got experience they can pass down to me. And heck, I’m the best uncle to all their nuggets. When Charlotte had colic, I was there, rocking her to sleep every night. Well, most nights.
I can do this.
“This will be cold,” he warns gently, squirting some gel on her stomach. I sit forward, grimacing as he presses a wand on her belly.