“Dr. Hannan, you forgot your notepad,” she said, holding it out. “Oh.” Her gaze landed on Sadie sitting up in the bed and she grinned. “Well, look at that. You’re carrying it all in the front too!”
“Isn’t that how we’re supposed to carry?” Sadie joked.
Gabby smiled, resting her hand on her big belly. “Well, yeah. But wow. You’re so petite.”
“And recovering well,” Dr. Hannan said.
Sensing how confused Sadie was, I introduced and explained some more. “Dr. Hannan is the doctor I arranged for you to meet before you were taken. She’s often here because Gabby, my father’s wife”—I gestured at her—“is also a patient.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Gabriella.” She offered her hand to Sadie.
“I’d introduce myself, but it seems you’re one step ahead of me. Sadie Langer,” she said, standing and arching her back. “It’s nice to meet you too.”
“Damn.” Gabby laughed. “You look ready to go too. When is your due date?” she asked.
Upon realizing Sadie was due about a month after when Gabriella was, they were all smiles and laughing about the overlap.
“Are you nervous?” Sadie asked after Dr. Hannan saw herself out.
“Yes and no. When I had Andre, I delivered early in the middle of a freaking shootout.” Gabby furrowed her brow. “And here we were all wondering if you’d be delivering…” She made a gesture with her hand. “Wherever you were.”
“All over,” Sadie replied dryly. “I was moved so often without any clue where I was.” She shook her head but didn’t seem stuck in the moment. “Regardless, I’m nervous. It’s something I’ve never experienced before.”
Gabby smiled. “Then we can be nervous together.”
“But you’ve had a child before.”
Gabby laughed. “Yeah, I know what it’ll be like. And it’s…” She opened her eyes wide. “I’ll be grateful for drugs this time.”
“You won’t have anything to worry about,” I said, rubbing Sadie’s back.
“We’ll talk,” Gabby told her. “We will most definitely commiserate and talk, Sadie.”
“Good. Because I havenoclue about any of this. I’m winging it.”
“Aren’t we all? They say no two pregnancies are ever the same. I feel inexperienced and clueless too, despite having a firstborn toddling all over the place. But, while I’m here and you seem up and about, I should mention that my husband is very eager to speak with you.”
I shook my head. “He can wait.”
Gabby arched a brow and lifted her hands. “Hey,youcan tell him to wait. I’m not gonna.”
“I told him last night that he can wait.” My father was clearly eager to speak with Sadie. He was impatient to speak with her and question her back when he first heard the rumors that she had been with me and was carrying my child.
I didn’t care how little he wanted to wait. I was adamant that Sadie rest. That she recover and relax after the last five weeks of captivity. Her health mattered more, dammit.
“No, I get it,” Sadie said, putting her hand on my arm. “He’s going to want to talk to me before letting me stay any longer.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” I told her gruffly. My father would get over his issues with her.
He still saw her as an agent, one who could be tricking me and trying to get close to the family to screw us over. And that wasn’t a worry. He had to adjust and get used to seeing her as the woman carrying my baby. The friend I counted on to have my back. The one I loved.
Because as I gazed down at her and marveled at the zest for life that sparkled in her aqua eyes, I knew itwaslove. I loved her, and she wouldn’t ever be told to leave my life. I wouldn’t allow it.
It had taken these weeks of suffering through her absence for that fact to fully be revealed.
Love. Itwaslove that connected us. And my father wasn’t going to stand in our way.
“No.” Gabby shook her head and made a face. “Luka’s slow to trust, and rightly so, but he’s got a big heart.” She smiled. “He accepted Raisa and she was supposed to be a rival. He’ll come around and trust you, too.”
