“West—”
“I swear!” he laughs, then goes back to rubbing my stomach.
The plan is to do a gender reveal during the shower in the coming months, but we’re keeping the results of the ultrasound under wraps until then.
No matter how badly we want to tell everyone.
I run my fingers through West’s hair as my eyes start to close. Today was perfect. The center, our friends, seeing the future we’ve been fighting so hard to build finally coming into existence.
West presses a soft kiss to my stomach, then shifts slightly to look up at me.
“So, what do you think the odds are that we’ll get a star athlete? The sport doesn’t even matter,” he adds.
I laugh quietly. “You’re already recruiting?”
“Just planning ahead.”
My fingers trace the line of his jaw.
Three months ago, I was sitting in a hospital waiting room, terrified of what surgery might mean for his future. Now he’s here. Happy, healthy, and whole. I couldn’t ask for more than that.
And in a few months, we’ll be bringing a life into the world. At the thought of it, my chest tightens with the kind of happiness that still feels unreal sometimes. After everything we went through, everything we thought would never be, we’ve suddenly got it all.
West’s phone vibrates on the nightstand, and he ignores it. But then it vibrates again.
This time, he sighs and reaches for it, and I move my hand away from his face as he sits up.
“Who the hell’s calling this late?” he grumbles, then glances at the screen, and his entire expression changes.
“What is it?”
West sits up slowly. “It’s Sterling.”
Something in the way he says it makes my stomach drop.
“Hey,” he answers.
Then, a pause.
West’s posture stiffens instantly, and that weird feeling twists in my stomach again.
“What do you mean there was a fire?”
I can’t hear Sterling’s voice through the phone, but whatever he’s saying drains the color from West’s face.
“Slow down,” West says, already swinging his legs over the side of the bed. “Where are you right now?”
Another pause, and my pulse begins to pound. West drags a hand through his hair.
“Sterling… what hospital?”
My stomach drops. “Who?” I whisper.
West looks at me, his expression tight in a way I haven’t seen in months. “Lexi,” he says quietly.
My head spins, and I sit up, piecing together the bits and pieces I’ve overheard—fire, hospital… Lexi.
Another stretch of silence passes while Sterling talks, and West’s jaw clenches.
