Page 82 of Mating of Convenience
As much as I’d been excited to be pregnant the first few weeks after the discovery, once I reached the third trimester, I pretty much only wanted it to be over. I wanted my baby to be born happy and healthy like yesterday, or better yet, the day before yesterday.
Pregnancysucked.
I’d been lucky not to feel any nausea during the first trimester, but now that we were nearing the end, I felt like I was getting payback for that.
“I want this baby out already. Can you get a kitchen knife and perform a C-section?” I asked Nathan one night as he crept into bed next to me. At this point, I was only a week away from my due date, but it might as well have been seven months instead of seven days when every day felt like it was never going to end.
“I don’t think I’m qualified to perform a C-section,” Nathan replied with a blank expression. I’d been moaning so much these past few days it hardly registered with him anymore.
“Why are you studying medicine if you can’t even deliver your own baby?”
“You’re not talking about delivering you’re talking about surgery. Besides, I’m studying animals, not humans.”
“So if I want you to help me I need to bark at you? Or moo like a cow? ‘Cause I’m not above doing either right now. My back hurts and my feet are swollen and--“
“And you get heartburn and you have to pee all the time, I know,” Nathan took the words out of my mouth before I could finish. “I’m sorry you’re having a hard time, but it won’t be much longer now.”
“Yeah, and then we’ll be parents and we’ll both forget what sleeping through the night even means.” I rolled on my back and sighed, feeling like a stranded whale.
“Are you having second thoughts?”
“No. I’m only mentally preparing for the future.”
“That’s not a bad idea, but you can’t think only of the negatives.” Nathan sat up and scooted over to the foot of the bed. “For one, you won’t ever have to do this parenting thing on your own because I’m never leaving your side. I got your back. And your feet.” That said, he reached under the blanket and started rubbing my left foot with his hand.
I gave a deep sigh. A foot rub wasexactlywhat I wanted now. “I know I’m not alone. I couldn’t have conceived on my own after all.” I winked at Nathan.
“Yeah, but just because there’s two parents doesn’t always mean they’ll both be in the picture. Or that one of them isn’t a total asshole.”
“I get that.” I’d only worked at the shelter for a couple of months, but what I’d seen there was enough to convince me that some parents didn’t deserve the title. “I wouldn’t have wanted to have a baby with anyone else.” And I wasn’t just saying that because my mate was rubbing my aching feet.
Nathan looked at me with a question that he didn’t voice in his eyes.
“What is it?”
“You’re not just doing this for my sake, right? Having the baby, I mean.”
I shook my head at my mate. Was he seriously asking me this now, when we were mere days away from an event that would change our lives forever?
“Don’t look at me like that,” Nathan said when I didn’t say anything. “I don’t want to feel like I pressured you into anything.”
“We’ve had this conversation before,” I reminded him.
“Yeah, but still… it all feels like…” Nathan’s hands stilled on my foot as he searched for the words. “It feels like it’s too good to be true,” he said finally.
“It is true, though.” I sat up to give my silly alpha a kiss. “I’m here, I’m married to you, we’re about to have a child that we both wanted and I’m not leaving you.”
“Okay.” A tentative smile spread on Nathan’s face. I wished he didn’t feel so insecure, but I knew there was only one thing I could do to combat that--never again be stupid enough to break up with the best thing that ever happened to me.
Which didn’t mean that I couldn’t tease him, though.
“You know what would really prove your love to me, though?” I asked.
Nathan cocked his head at me. “What?”
“If you got this baby out of me like I’ve been asking.” I stroked my belly. “I mean, it wasyouwho put it in here.”
In response, my mate regarded me with a blank stare. “I didn’t.... I mean... You can’t mean that!”
