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Epilogue
Doe
I grabbed my purse off the passenger seat and made a run for the medical plaza entrance. It was pouring with rain outside, and even with my jacket on and the hood up over my head, I was soaked all the way through by the time I got to the door.
Tossing back the hood, I started to wring out my hair before walking into the building, not wanting to cause a puddle that someone might slip in and fall on the tiled floor. The blast of the AC as I hurried toward Dr. Contreras’s office made me shiver, but I ignored it as I practically sprinted down the corridor.
I was late, and this was definitely one visit I didn’t want to miss.
It had been eighteen months to the day since I’d donated bone marrow to Pixie, and she was in remission. But it wasn’t the worry of her illness returning that made me not want to miss the doctor’s visit. Dr. Contreras had had a long conversation with Jenner the week before, so I was well aware of what was going to happen today, and I wanted to be front and center when he popped the question.
Tomas. I had to remember to start calling him Tomas now. The man couldn’t be the equivalent of my brother-in-law and I still called him Dr. Contreras.
Jenner and I always accompanied Pixie to every doctor’s appointment, but I’d woken up feeling off that morning. I hadn’t told Jenner about it, but I had made a quick excuse about Mom needing my help with something. I’d promised I would meet them at the appointment.
After he’d left to pick up Pixie, I’d made a quick stop at the pharmacy and then spent the next hour staring at the two pink lines on the pregnancy test in wonder. Jenner and I had been married for six months, but we’d only decided to start trying to get pregnant the month before. I knew how hard it was for some people to get pregnant, taking years for them to conceive. Having a positive pregnancy test so soon didn’t seem like it should be possible. I was scared that it was false, so I’d taken another, and then another after that once it had been positive as well.
All three tests had said the same thing, but my fear that it was all a dream still lingered.
But my anxiety over being pregnant or not had to be pushed to the back of my mind as I opened the door to the hematologist’s office. The receptionist behind the desk saw me as soon as I walked in and quickly waved me back. I shot her a grin and opened the door that led to the exam rooms. A nurse stood outside a door, and she urged me over. With a wink, she opened the door for me.
Slightly out of breath, I stepped inside. Thankfully, it was just Pixie and Jenner so far. Pixie, with her baby-fine blond hair cut in a chic bob, gave me a wide-eyed greeting. Jenner jumped to his feet and pulled my jacket off before shrugging out of his own and wrapping it around me. His huge hands rubbed over my chilled arms. “Baby, you’re freezing.”
“I’m okay,” I murmured, leaning in for a kiss. My trembling wasn’t completely from the cold, but I didn’t want to spoil this for Pixie with my own news.
I barely had time to sit and pull out my phone, pretending to send a text. Opening the camera, I hit record and waited…
The knock on the door was loud, but the door didn’t open. Pixie huffed. “We’re all decent in here, Doc!” she yelled.
Another knock came, but still, it didn’t open. Muttering expletives under her breath that made Jenner snicker, she got off the exam table and stomped to the door. She pulled it open with ten times more strength than she would have had eighteen months before, a snarky retort on her lips, only to stop in her tracks when she came face-to-face with the man on his knees before her.
“Doc?” she whispered with a catch in her voice.
“You can argue with me until you’re blue in the face, woman, but I’m never going to give up. Not on you and especially not on us.” He held up the ring box, but Pixie only had eyes for her “Doc.”
“I don’t care that you can’t have babies. If you want them so damn bad, we can adopt. But I’m one-hundred-percent okay if it’s just you and me for the rest of our lives. It’s you I love, Pixie. I can’t live without you. I’m dying inside without you.”
“No, Doc, no!” she sobbed, throwing her arms around his neck. “Don’t say things like that. You know I can’t handle it.”
“Then say yes,” he growled, his arms practically folding around her twice, she was so small. “Tell me you’ll marry me and put me out of my misery.”
Another sob left her, but this time, she nodded over and over again. “Y-yes,” she cried. “Yes, Doc!”
Behind him, all of his staff cheered and started clapping, and I kept recording. Beside me, Jenner sniffled, and I laid my head on his arm, rubbing his back soothingly with my free hand. “It’s okay, babe,” I murmured softly so the others couldn’t hear me. “I think you’ll be too busy with other things to even worry about Pixie getting married.”
“Yeah?” he choked out, and I felt him kiss the top of my head. “Like what?”
“Like being a daddy?” I whispered, tilting my head back to look up at him.
The tears already in his eyes glittered like diamonds. He stared down at me with that look of wonder on his face that was there more often than not whenever he gazed at me. “Little lamb?”
“I mean, it could be a total false alarm, but I took three tests, and they were all positive.” I glanced over to where Pixie and Tomas were lost in their own little world as the doctor put the ring on her finger. “But it might not be…”
“Three?” Jenner wheezed out. “You took three tests, and they were all positive?”
“Uh-huh,” I nodded as I kept recording his sister and her new fiancé. “Are you happy?”
Suddenly, my phone was on the floor, and I was being spun around and around in Jenner’s arms. “You make me the happiest man every damn day just by existing. I’m fucking ecstatic right now, little lamb.”
Laughing, I clung to him, not even caring that I might have just broken another phone.
The moment I first saw Jenner Carling, my life changed forever, in all the best ways. Now I got to spend the rest of my life loving a man who’d dedicated his days to cherishing me as only he could.
