Page 179 of SINS & Riley
“She really is okay,” he finally says.
My throat knots, and the question I’ve been choking back since I woke up finally makes its way out. “And the baby?”
He nods once, steady. “The baby’s fine.”
Relief pours out of me in a long, agonized breath.
That’s when he slips the paper into my hand.
I look down.
It’s an ultrasound.
All breathing suddenly stops.
It’s my baby.
Our baby.
I’ve never been an emotional man, but fuck if my eyes don’t sting, prickling hot.
“Allergies?” Dillon asks, smirking as he offers a box of Kleenex.
“Fuck off.” I swipe one, dab quick, and chuck it.
He chuckles. “You’re going to be so fucked if it’s a girl.”
The air leaves me in a violent rush. Am I going to be…
A girl dad?
Christ. I missed the first ultrasound. Missed that moment. And now it’s frozen on a grainy sheet of paper, glaring back at me with all kinds of tiny, unborn judgment.
A miracle I wasn’t there to witness.
I study the image harder, tilting it this way and that, trying to tell its butt from its elbow.
So hard, my eyes cross.
Seriously, I can’t even tell it’s a baby. I’d have better odds spotting an infant in a Rorschach.
My voice cracks on it. “Do they know the sex?”
He nods… and says not a goddamn word.
I hold the image high. “Well?”
“Smoke’s a vault. You know that. And your little woman’s not saying boo.”
I pin him with a hate glare. “You know, don’t you?”
His lips twitch, tight around a smile he refuses to let unlock.
Oh, goddamn it.
I huff, angry. Elated. “Can I see her?”
“When you’re ready.” He shifts in his seat, uneasy. “You know, as pissed as we were? All of us together won’t hold a candle to hers.”
