Page 135 of Heartbeats & Highways

I reached under the table and grabbed Savage’s finger, wrenching it back, which made him wince in pain.

“Do we have time to order dessert?” Sutton asked.

“Something chocolate,” I voiced.

“Let’s get one of everything and share!” Sutton suggested.

I looked at Savage and grinned.

He grinned back. Savage tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and leaned down to whisper, “I told you you’d like them.”

Savage kissed my stomach as we lazed in bed that night. “You’ve got a little belly now.”

“Yeah,” I said with a laugh. “Still a few more weeks before I have the belly pop, but then it will be pretty obvious. According to the baby books I’ve been reading anyway.”

He rested his head on me and took a deep breath. “I’m gonna read them, too.”

My heart warmed. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I want to know everything there is to know about the babies and your body changing.” He traced his fingers across my hip. “Have you thought of baby names yet?”

I chuckled. “It’s a little early for that, don’t you think?”

“No. Don’t think so.”

“We won’t know the sex of the babies until our twenty-week appointment.”

“Doesn’t hurt to get a head start,” he said.

I raked my hand through his mussed hair. “Okay. We can talk baby names. But if we settle on names, we can’t share them with anyone.”

“Why not?”

“I’m superstitious,” I said. “My parents always said not to share the baby’s name before it’s born because it protects the baby from evil spirits.”

“I’ve never heard that,” Savage murmured. “But if it’s important to you, we won’t tell anyone.”

“Thank you.”

“So, your parents were superstitious, huh?”

“Yeah.” I shifted my body to get more comfortable.

“You never talk about them.”

“They weren’t just superstitious; they weredeeplyreligious. And as I got older, they grew more . . . fanatical.”

“You said they died when you were eighteen?”

I took a deep breath. “Yeah.”

“How? Was it a car accident?”

“No,” I murmured.

Savage propped his head up and rested his chin on my sternum so he could look at me. The light from the lamp bathed him in a soft hue, but the contours of his jaw looked like stone.

“I told you they were fanatical, right?” I took a deep breath. “They took their own lives—joint suicide. They believed their lives were meant to be sacrifices so their souls could ascend to a different plane of existence, and they could be with God.”

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