Dr. Pepper sighed a melted-butter sigh.
“I mean, I was there for the exciting part at the beginning,” he said like an eager Labrador retriever. “But you’re doing the heavy lifting now. I only did it the one time.”
She tilted her head to the side.
“I mean, not heavy lifting, just a little lifting.” He turned to Dr. Pepper. “The shower, you know how it goes?”
Oh hell, Dr. Pepper did not need to have that vision of Bax. Courtney rolled her eyes and went back to watching theswish, swish, swishon the screen.
“Everything looks great,” Dr. Pepper finally said. A few more button pushes and she removed the probe so it could go back to being just a wand for Bax to sing into. “Questions so far?”
Oh, all the questions. None that could likely be answered at the moment.
Dr. Pepper handed over a few prints of the little bean growing in Courtney’s stomach. She said something else before leaving, but Courtney didn’t really hear, because she was staring at the image. This little blip was everything all wrapped up in a mistake.
“We made a cute kid,” Bax said, pressing a kiss to her temple.
No, that wasn’t Bax. This was Brennan. Brennan with the softness and the tenderness, and maybe there would be more Brennan in this baby than Bax. Maybe that was what she’d end up with. She couldn’t complain about that.
Bax’s phone buzzed in his pocket.
“Do you need to get that?” she asked, still not pulling her gaze from the image.
He checked the phone. Then clicked it on.
“Hey, Hans,” he said. “What’s up?”
He paused. She glanced from the pictures to him. His eyebrows furrowed, and he’d gone from Labrador retriever to scared puppy in the blink of an eye.
“Yeah. I’ll be there.” He paused. “Yeah. She’s good. Really good.”
Courtney sat up from the exam table. This time the paper hadn’t ripped.
She moved to grab her clothes and head to the little bathroom off to the right. Once she finished dressing, she came back out to Bax staring at the images.
“Can I keep one?” he asked, tracing his finger along the edge.
“Of course.” Courtney shook off any residual feelings from the temple kiss. “What’s going on with Hans?” She picked up her purse and slung it over her shoulder.
Bax paled a little. “He asked me to stop at a studio to meet with the guys.”
Oh, well, that could be good. Or it could be bad.
“It might not be over,” she assured. “I’ve been talking to Knox and Hans. They’re thinking about moving to Denver. Knox has been over at the house. He’s cool with Linx. And Hans works magic, you know that.”
And yet did any of them really know? Linx hadn’t ever wanted to walk away before, but now…
“Hans won’t let me down.” Bax nodded. “Do you mind if Chet takes you back?”
“I don’t mind.” She reached for his arm and gave it a squeeze. It didn’t feel weird this time. “Are you okay?”
“Uh-huh,” he said.
Call it her newly minted mother’s intuition, but she wasn’t buying it. Bax was terrified.
Chapter Eleven
Courtney
