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“You blackmailing me?” I ask, my voice soft and even.
“Deke! Me?” He bellows out a deep belly laugh as if it’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard. “Come on, you know where I stand on that. I’m no better, no worse.”
“So, what then?” I ask.
“I just want to find a way we can live in the same world. That’s all.”
The nurse pops her head out of the door and catches my eye.
“Megan wanted me to hold off until your call was over?”
I nod at her and hold up a finger.
“Look, this has been… fun,” I say, pinching my nose again. “But I’m sort of in the middle of something here.”
“Hey, don’t let me hold you up,” he says. “Just think on it, and maybe we can come up with a solution.”
“I think it’s probably best we don’t,” I say.
He’s quiet for a moment as I move toward the door. “That’s what you want?” His voice is even, all the friendliness gone. As if there’s a silent threat hanging between us.
“It was good to hear from you. Best to the family,” I say.
“You too, buddy,” he says. I hang up and turn the ringer off my phone.
“You ready?” Megan asks, her eyes wide as she lies on the hard, impersonal table, her belly exposed and covered in gel.
I stare at it for a moment, realizing it’s rounder than I would have expected. Of course, Megan is slim, especially having lost weight from being so sick. But right there, centering around her belly button, is the sweetest little baby bump I could have imagined. I reach for her hand and press her knuckles to my lips as I sit next to her.
The nurse pulls out a wand and starts to search for our baby through the sound waves.
“Everything okay?” Megan asks, holding my gaze, keeping my focus.
“It’s fine,” I say. “Just work stuff.”
She nods, squeezing my hand as the most incredible sound fills the room.
“There we are,” the nurse says.
Megan grins and it’s hard not to return the smile as thethu-thump, thu-thump, thu-thumpfills the room.
“Nice and strong. Let me take some measurements.”
And just like that, all thoughts of work, recruits, or even Hirschfield are gone. All I can focus on is a grainy black-and-white image of the baby I put in Megan’s belly, the feel of her hand in mine, and the most amazing music I’ve ever heard.
CHAPTER19
MEGAN
“They said everything looks good,”I tell Derek. I hear him let out a deep shaky breath from the other end of the line, and then he’s quiet for a moment. Before he can ask if they’re sure, I stop him. “They said it would be highly unlikely for anything to slip through the cracks. They’ll keep an eye out for markers throughout the pregnancy, but the blood work, the ultrasounds, everything checks out.”
“That’s…” He trails off, and I wish I could see him.
Between the appointment and results, he had a recruitment trip to Salt Lake City. He’s currently driving to meet a family south of Provo. It’s the first time he’s been gone since we learned about the pregnancy, but it’s as if he’s still here with how much we’ve talked. He wanted me to call him as soon as I heard from the doctor, so here we are.
“It’s good,” I say, smiling. I flip through the handful of ultrasounds. It still hasn’t really sunk in that we’re having a baby together. But with each phone call, each text message, and each hour spent together, it’s sinking in and I feel better about co-parenting with him.
Not just that, but I feel myself picking up on his instincts and his moods. And right now, I can feel his relief. I can’t imagine what it’s been like for him to carry that kind of weight around for so long.
