Page 40 of Tangled Up With You

She drew a circle with her finger. “Right here. That’s your baby.”

“Wow.” At the wonder in Connor’s voice, I turned my head to look up at him. His gaze was glued to the screen, his lips partially separated, and I could have sworn his eyes grew damp. “That’s our baby,” he whispered softly.

Bam! Hit number three.

“And that flutter right there is the heartbeat.”

My head whipped back around to the screen to see where she was pointing. “You can see the heartbeat?”

The doctor smiled. “Yep. And you can hear it too if you want.”

“Please,” I answered quickly.

She pushed a few buttons, and a second later the room filled with a sound similar to rushing water. It was a softwhom, whom, whomthat was, hands down, the most beautiful thing I had ever heard.

“Oh my God,” I breathed as I looked back up at Connor with a watery laugh. “That’s our baby’s heartbeat.”

“Sure is, and it sounds strong. Everything with your little one is absolutely perfect.”

Connor closed his eyes and pulled in a breath before taking my hand in his and leaning in to press his forehead against mine. “Absolutely perfect,” he repeated in a hushed voice full of relief.

Bam. Hit number four.

Chapter Twenty-One

Connor

Ivy was flitting around the first floor of her house like a butterfly, but this time, instead of being wild and fun, she was more... hyperactive and anxious.

“You really need to relax, sweetheart. You’re stressed about nothin’.”

I knew from the murderous scowl she shot in my direction I’d just said the wrong thing, but I didn’t know what else to say or do to help calm her down. It had been a week since the ultrasound. For most of those few days we’d been riding a high. I knew I was. I mean, how could I not. I heard my baby’s freakingheartbeat.

It had to have been the coolest experience of my life. I got to hear the heartbeat of a life I helped create. A little chickpea that was half mine and half the woman I was steadily falling for on a daily basis. There was no other person on the planet I would have wanted to experience that with. The moment the room filled with that echo-y whooshing sound I knew what true, unfiltered happiness was.

I wished it had been something I could have talked about with my parents in person. After all, it had taken a while to guide them through the shell shock at discovering they were going to be grandparents. It was something my mom had harped on me about for quite some time now, but in her head it was with a woman I was in a loving, committed relationship with. Marriage or not, she didn’t care as long as we were happy. But learning over the phone it was the result of a drunken night after a wedding had been a bit of a blow. It had helped a bit when she learned I had real feelings for Ivy and that, despite the stupid agreement we had to co-parent as friends—I was really starting to hate that word—I was secretly trying win her back. I just had to be sly about it. I couldn’t let on that I woke every morning with the sole purpose of worming my way beneath her skin and back into her heart.

When we talked about the baby, I’d actually choked up as I tried to put into words how I felt at seeing that little flutter on the screen. Hearing that had set off my mother’s waterworks and she spent the rest of that phone call in happy tears. I’d promised them both they would get to meet Ivy soon enough, and there wasn’t a doubt in my mind they were going to love her. She was exactly the type of crazy my tattoo artist mother would connect with, and her business savvy and work ethic were something my attorney father would respect.

Now, after a week of great, she was, once again, a nervous wreck.

She pushed her chin out and blew a puff of air upward to try and blow a lock of hair out of her face. “I really think it would be for the best if you let me break the news to them alone.”

I placed the basket of dinner rolls in the center of the dining room table and turned to her to tuck the hair behind her ears so it would quit bothering her. “I told you, that’s not gonna happen.”

She was finally going to tell her mom and stepdad about the pregnancy, and she decided the best way to do that was over a homecooked family dinner. When I informed her that I planned on being there when she told them, she’d cracked up for a solid minute and a half. When she realized I wasn’t kidding, she panicked. She spent the better part of the day trying to convince me it was a bad idea, and her list of reasons was substantial. Starting with her cop stepdad killing me and ending with the likelihood of my body never being found.

I wasn’t worried.

My resolve to fight for the woman I wanted hadn’t lessened. If anything, after that doctor’s appointment it had grown that much stronger. I was in this to win, and I wouldn’t be scared off by anyone.

I took the linen napkin she’d been folding and re-folding for the past five minutes and set it aside. Reaching up, I placed my hands on either side of her neck and used my thumbs to tilt her face up as I crouched to bring myself eye-level with her. I wasn’t making a conscious effort to touch her any chance I could get, it was just something I couldn’t help. I did it without thinking, my body drawn to hers whenever she was around. If she was close enough, my hands sought her out in some way.

“I promise, tonight is going to be great.”

She let out an indelicate snort. “You can’t possibly promise something like that.”

“I can. I told you already that I’ve got you, I’ll make sure everything is fine, and I mean it.” I wasn’t going to let anyone stress Ivy out more than she already was. I wouldn’t let anyone make her feel bad or ashamed about the situation we were in. Not even her own family.

---