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“Do you want to go back in and ask him?”
“I hate barging back in. It would throw off their schedule. I’ll call them tomorrow.”
“He mentioned that Southwestern Medical Center specializes in high-risk deliveries. I can check into it for you—for us.”
Nearly normal pregnancy. High-risk delivery. Just hearing the words made her head swim.
She was so glad Nick had come to the appointment with her, and good grief, how would she be feeling right now if he’d left her to go this alone?
She needed to at least pretend as if she was in control of her emotions. But her body still tingled where he’d touched her, and a tear had leaked out of the corner of one eye and was meandering down her cheek, and then another one followed. She tried to take a deep breath, but it sounded so shuddering and pathetic.
She attempted to turn away before Nick could see how ridiculous she was being, but before she could, he’d caught her and had drawn her back into his arms.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said. “Let’s just take this one step at a time. I promise I will do everything in my power to make sure you don’t have to worry about anything.”
His words were soothing, and she stayed in his arms until she had regained her composure. She pulled back a little to wipe her eyes, but first she looked up at him. His gaze snared hers, and then he was looking at her mouth, and she was leaning into him.
When he took her chin in his hand and drew her closer, she felt his warm, mint-scented breath so near that every feeling—every dream and desire she’d had since the first moment she’d set eyes on him that night at the hospital—played out before her eyes. Since then, since learning she was pregnant, since finding him again, one of the things she tried not to think about was the way his arms would feel around her, protective and strong. The way his lips would taste... That taste that was so uniquely Nick.
Then he kissed her. Despite everything, the kiss surprised her. The tentative touch and softness of his lips were a sexy contrast to his masculinity—even better than she remembered from that night at Bentleys. The warmth lingered, melting the chill in the air. His mouth was so inviting, and even though a voice of reason sounded in a distant fog in the back of her mind, saying she really shouldn’t be doing this, she couldn’t quite make herself stop.
He pulled her closer, enveloping her in his arms.
Again, he dusted her lips with a featherlight kiss, as if he were trying to kiss away all of her doubt and insecurity. When his mouth finally covered hers, he kissed her with such an astonishing passion, she was sure it had to have come from his soul.
It was a deep, demanding kiss, and it sent all of her senses reeling and let loose a yearning that consumed her entire body. The way he touched her—one hand in her hair, holding her protectively in place, while the other slid down, caressing her back, edging its way underneath the hem of her blouse until the skin-on-skin contact made it too hard for her to catch her breath.
A low groan of desire broke through the sounds of the cars whooshing by on the highway and a horn honking in the distance. She realized the moan had come from her. If she knew what was good for her, she’d stop now before she got too attached to this man who might or might not choose to be in her life—and even if he did stick around, he might want things to be strictly platonic. Unlike this very not platonic kiss.
She pulled back, muttering something about it being late and needing to go and not wanting to keep him from the hospital.
She knew the contrast was jarring, and she saw the confusion on Nick’s face as she drove away. When she looked in her rearview mirror, he was still standing there watching her.
Chapter Five
Nick paid for their football tickets, and they entered the gates at Denison Field. She hadn’t been to many football games lately, but the field looked exactly the same as when Becca had gone to Celebration High School.
It was hard to believe it had been seven years since she’d graduated. Yet stepping through those gates it felt as if she were transported back in time. She had gone away to college at the University of Florida, and yet she’d chosen to return to her hometown.
Celebration was a place like no other. Even though everybody knew everything about everyone in town—for the most part, though she’d managed to keep her pregnancy a secret, for now, anyway—it was nice to be part of something bigger than she was, something exactly like this town.
