She hands me the ultrasound pictures, and points and explains what I’m looking at, while my throat closes up again. A baby. Holy shit. She has been a little bloated lately, but it’s always something with the female body. Bloating, bleeding, fucking ovulating. I don’t question it anymore.
“A baby,” I whisper, setting my hands on her stomach. “We’re going to have a baby.”
“I know.” She smiles wide. “Did you like my sign, Daddy Duke?”
I lift her into my arms again and start walking. “It’s my new favorite.”
“Now, everyone’s going to take my idea and call you that,” she says against my ear.
“But only you’re going to call me that when I fuck you,” I respond, smiling when I hear her gasp.
“I like that idea,” she whispers.
“A baby,” I say again. “When did you find out?”
“Remember when I thought I had food poisoning?”
“In Phoenix?” I ask, frowning as I set her down.
She nods. “I took a test while I was there.”
“That was two weeks ago.” My brows pull tighter.
The moment she told me she had food poisoning, I told her to fly home immediately. Why would she keep this from me for two weeks? How could I not have known? I bet she texted Marissa about it. I wonder if she had it on her calendar. It’s not like I’d know. I don’t go through her things. Marriage has changed me a lot. I still don’t like men checking her out for too long, but I don’t go through her phone or emails. I don’t have to. She tells me everything. At least, I thought she did.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me,” I say quietly, looking at the pictures again.
“I wanted to tell you so bad,” she says, “But it took a week for the doctor to see me, and I didn’t want to get your hopes up.” She bites her lip and looks at the ground. “I know how much you want this.”
“Hey.” I lift her chin. My chest tightens when I see the uncertainty in her eyes. “I wantyou. Of course, I want to start a family with you, but you’re my priority. You’re the only thing I need. You know that.”
“I know,” she whispers, visibly swallowing and blinking back tears.
“Is this why you’ve been crying during commercials?” I ask.
“Stupid fucking hormones,” she mutters, wiping her face.
I laugh. “Are you going soft on me, Lyla James?”
“I hate you,” she says, her lips twitching into her ghost of a smile.
“Yeah, you hate me so much that you announced to everyone in this arena that you’re pregnant with my baby.” I raise an eyebrow.
“I know,” she says, laughing as she shakes her head. “That was Marissa’s idea. It was worth it, though. The look on your face was priceless.”
“I can fucking imagine.” I kiss her quickly. “I’ll shower fast, and then we’ll have dinner somewhere.”
“Pizza,” she says, eyes lighting up.
I’ll get her pizza from every fucking pizza parlor in the country, if that’s what she wants. I grin as I walk into the locker room. Holy shit. I have to text my brother and my parents. I wonder if she already told her dad. He practically lives at our house when either of us is home. He bought a place a few blocks from us and recently started dating a lovely woman Lyla loves.
My face hurts from smiling so much when I make it back to the hall, but Lyla’s no longer standing where I left her. I look down the hall and see her walking back over, as she types something on her phone. My chest squeezes when she looks up and smiles at me. I take her hand as we start walking toward the parking lot. A baby. Fuck, I can’t believe it.
“When can we tell people?” I ask, as we sit in my car and pull our seatbelts on.
“I mean, my sign kind of told everyone.” She laughs. “I found out pretty late. I’ll be twelve weeks in a few days, which means a lower chance for complications.”
Complications.God, I don’t even want to think about anything going wrong.
