“Yeah. I just… I told him I’d stop by. Is he busy? I can come back.”
“No. He’s not busy. He was just out here pacing around like a caged animal. Makes sense now that I know he was waiting on you.”
Hawk forced himself to take a breath, relaxing his shoulders before he walked out of the kitchen into the reception area.
“Hey, Pretty Girl.” He searched her face. It was pale, and her eyes were red-rimmed. What the fuck happened? “Everything go okay at your appointment?”
Her eyes bounced over to Mae, who, to her credit, was looking awfully involved in a random stack of paperwork.
“Yeah. It did.”
“Do you want to talk in my office?”
Shenodded.
“Come here.” Hawk slipped his hand around Jessie’s shoulders and brought her down to his office. He had half a mind to haul her into his arms. “I was just about to leave to pick you up.”
“I told you I was driving here,” she said.
“And I told you I didn’t love that idea. When you didn’t show up ten minutes after I was expecting you, I started to worry.”
“I’m sorry. I had to stop and…” Her voice trailed off.
Hawk sat down next to her. “And what? Were you not feeling well?” His eyes searched hers. “I was reading online that you should take it easy for the next few days. I’m going to grab my laptop and we’ll go upstairs. I’ll get you all situated in bed. I ordered one of those super soft fuzzy blankets the other day, we can climb into bed and ignore all our responsibilities and cuddle.”
“That sounds nice.”
Her voice was so damn quiet and he just wanted her to tell him what the hell was wrong. “I know you and Lacy have that book club you do together. She told me the name of the next book you're reading, so I made sure I had a copy up there for you.”
“You didn’t need to do all that. I’m fine, really. I just felt sick for a minute on the drive over. It’s over now.” She swallowed, her hand slipping into the pocket of her jacket. “But I owe you an apology. I didn’t know. And they didn’t tell me before. You asked to go with me and I didn’t think you’d be missing anything.”
“What did I miss?” he asked.
“They did an ultrasound,” she whispered.
Shit. He forced himself to not react, but from the tears in Jessie’s eyes, he clearly wasn’t doing a good job of hiding his disappointment.
“Are you okay? Is everything okay with the baby?”
“Oh, god, yes. I’m not upset because something is wrong. I’m just so sorry you missed it. I would have asked you to be there. They weren’t even going to give me any pictures, but I begged. I wanted you to be able to have them.”
She handed the small squares of paper to him.
“Where’s the baby?” he chuckled. “It all just looks like static to me.”
Jessie moved closer on the sofa. “Right here.” Her hand grazed over his as she pointed to the center of the picture.
He nodded, his heart squeezing in his chest at the little spot right under her finger.
“And this?” There was a long rectangle at the bottom, filled with a wave that looked like sound of some sort.
“His heartbeat.”
Hawk’s fingers traced over the small shadow.
“His? Did they?—”
“No. They can’t tell anything when the baby’s that small. Still just my gut feeling. Which is silly because I think the old wives’ tale is that girls make you really sick.” She shrugged. “His heartbeat was perfect though. And the doctor said everything looks great. I need to go back in a few weeks for my next appointment. You can go with me then if you want.”
