Page 53 of Make Me Yours
My throat tightened. For all my planning and worrying, nothing could’ve prepared me for seeing that heartbeat. The sound was a rhythm I didn’t know I’d been waiting for.
Sawyer leaned closer, eyes narrowing with that same focus he must have used when reading a map. “She’s got your nose,” he murmured.
I turned my head, startled. “She?”
Paula chuckled. “Oh? You already know the gender, sir?”
He shrugged, that cocky grin slipping into place. “Call it a gut feeling. Navy SEAL instincts.”
I laughed through the lump in my throat. “The father of my child has done a lot of things,” I said proudly. “Apparently, gender prediction is one of them.”
Paula grinned. “Well, I was about to ask if you wanted to know the sex, but now the cat’s out of the bag. Congratulations—you’re having a girl.”
For a heartbeat, the world stilled. Sawyer’s thumb brushed over the back of my hand again, grounding me as emotion bubbled up in my chest. His eyes softened, and for the first time since I’d known him, there was no trace of the guarded man who once hid behind dry humor and control—just awe.
“A girl,” I whispered, smiling through tears I didn’t bother to hide. “We finally met her.”
“Hope,” Sawyer said quietly, his voice warm and sure.
I turned to him, surprised.
He smiled, eyes shining with something tender and fierce all at once. “You said you liked the name. Feels right, doesn’t it?”
It did. It felt like sunlight breaking through clouds.
“The day we officially meet Hope,” I whispered back.
And for the first time since this all began, I stopped worrying about what could go wrong—and let myself believe everything might just turn out right.
Paula handed me a few glossy printouts from the monitor. I stared down at the smudged gray shapes, tracing the outline of a tiny hand no bigger than a pea. It didn’t look like much to anyone else, but to me it was everything.
Sawyer studied the picture over my shoulder, that same grin tugging at his mouth. “Guess I’d better start brushing up on how to braid hair,” he said.
I giggled at the thought. “You? Braids?”
He lifted a brow. “Hey, I can tie a complicated knot underwater in the dark. How hard can a braid be?”
Paula chuckled as she wiped off the gel. “That’s the spirit, Dad. You’ll do just fine.”
He glanced at her, his chest lifting with a quiet pride that melted me right there. “Yeah,” he said, eyes back on the image. “I think I will.”
As he helped me sit up, I caught our reflection in the dark screen—his arm steady around my shoulders, my smile stilltrembling at the edges. This time, I saw us not as two people trying to outrun their pasts but as something solid, something real—a family in the making.
Walking out of the office, the sunlight hit us square in the face, bright and warm. Sawyer slipped the envelope with Hope’s first pictures into his shirt pocket like it was classified intel, while I held his hand and tried to steady my racing heart. I was thinking about the little girl waiting for us in the future—and the man beside me who made me believe we were ready for her.
On the drive home, I rested my hand on my belly while the sound of the truck’s engine filled the quiet. “I haven’t told my parents yet,” I said finally. “I wanted to make sure everything was okay first. But now… I want to tell them in person. Will you come with me to Show Low?”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” he said without hesitation.
His fingers brushed mine on the console, a small gesture that said more than any promise could.
After a moment, his voice softened. “I wish I could say the same for mine.”
I turned to look at him. “You never talk much about them.”
He nodded, eyes fixed on the road ahead. “They were both killed in an avalanche—backcountry skiing. I was deployed overseas when it happened.”
I sighed. “I’m so sorry, Sawyer.”
