They packed up, doused the coals, rowed back, and returned the boat. He drove her home in the late afternoon with the cooler riding behind them and soft jazz on the radio. At her building, he walked her up to her apartment.
"Thank you for coming out with me today, Reese," he said. "Spending time with you means a lot to me. Have a good evening."
He started to turn away, and she reached out and caught his sleeve.
She grabbed his arm, and he turned back to her. She went up on her toes and kissed him. He went still for a second, then cupped her cheek and kissed her back. He tasted like peaches and woodsmoke and safety. She broke the kiss before it went any further.
"Thank you, Axel," she whispered, her hands fisted in his T-shirt. "For everything."
They held each other for a moment longer before she stepped through the door and closed it behind her.
Chapter
Eleven
After the picnic,Reese washed her work shirt in the bathroom sink, wrung it out, and hung it over the shower rod. Then she sat on the end of the bed with her notebook and checked her budget. Rent, paid through the end of the month. Gas. Groceries. The phone. At the bottom of the page, she underlined the prenatal visit and the clinic number.
She hadn't ignored the pregnancy. She'd been taking prenatal vitamins since the week she found out, reading what she could at the library, eating as well as her budget allowed, and doing the math over and over.
The doctor was different.
The first visit cost money she didn't have. So would the labs, the follow-ups, and whatever else came after she finally got through the door. Her insurance was still Wade's plan, and using it would tell him where she was. Paying cash kept him out of it, but she still could barely afford to feed herself.
She'd been thinking about it since Axel mentioned it at the lake. He knew about Wade. He knew she was pregnant. He'd learnedthe things she'd spent months hiding from everyone, and he hadn't pushed, judged, or tried to take control. He'd rowed her across the lake, helped her catch a fish, cooked for her, kissed her at her door, and left like nothing about her situation changed how he felt.
It felt like a relief, but it was a feeling she couldn't let herself trust. Wade had also made her feel safe, just long enough to trap her.
But Axel wasn't Wade. He was a shifter, and she was his fated mate.
She looked at the clinic number again. The pregnancy had lived inside her for months, private and half-hidden under loose shirts. At the appointment, it would become real in a different way, with a heartbeat, measurements, and maybe an image of the baby on a screen.
She wanted Axel there, and that scared her more than anything.
If he only liked the idea of her, or if the baby made him hesitate, she would see it there. She'd spent four years learning how to read a man's expressions. She'd be able to read Axel's. Reese picked up her phone before she could talk herself out of it.
I'm going to call the clinic tomorrow,she typed.For the prenatal appointment.
She stared at the message. Then she added the harder part.
Would you come with me?
Yes.No hesitation.
She plugged the phone in and lay in the dark. The lightness in her chest made her uneasy, because relief had never come without a cost before.
The women'sclinic was located on the ground floor of Fate Mountain General. Reese had called on her break the day before and taken the first appointment they could give her. She arrived early with the cash in her wallet, and Axel was already in the waiting room when she got there, holding a pamphlet about infant car seats.
"There's more to car seats than I thought," he said as she sat beside him. "The chest clip is supposed to sit higher than most people put it. Apparently, a lot of people get that wrong."
"Good to know," she said, feeling nervous.
He turned it over and kept reading, while Reese completed the intake form the receptionist had handed her. Name, Reese Walker. Address, P.O. Box 214. Insurance, none, self-pay. She ticked the box, her hand tightening on the pen.
"Walker?" the nurse said from the doorway.
Reese stood at the sound of her name, and the nurse looked past her shoulder. "Dad coming back too?"
She watched him for the flinch. He set the pamphlet on the side table and stood, his face calm and focused. Reese said, "Yes."
