She stands and says, “I’ll send the sonographer in.”
I hold my breath throughout the uncomfortable transvaginal ultrasound, finally letting it go with a gasp when it’s confirmed that the pregnancy is not ectopic. Though the images on the screen are nothing but blobs of gray to my untrained eye, the fastwoosh, woosh, wooshof the baby’s heartbeat is clear as day, and the tech kindly gives me time to record it on my phone. Thirty minutes later, after discussing what to expect as my pregnancy progresses with Dr. Bautista, I schedule my next prenatal appointment in two months’ time.
On my way out of the office building with the sky dark and cloudy, I stop mid-stride when I open my calendar app to input my next appointment so I don’t forget it—as if I could ever forget something so monumental. I’ve accidentally opened the work calendar I share with Forest instead of my personal calendar. Scrolling through it, I see that he’s, ridiculously, added a “past event” for each day we’ve had sex.Who does that???He’s also marked the calendar with a rough estimate of the start of each trimester, including a potential due date that is only a few days shy of the one Dr. Bautista gaveme. Since this is a calendar that Barbara and my dad can see, I hurry to delete it all.
In the parking garage, I sit in my car, staring at the ultrasound photos the sonographer printed for me, and play back the recording of the baby’s heartbeat. Too emotionally raw to return to work, I call Barbara directly, instead of Forest. There’s no way I can speak to him without breaking down, and this is not how I want to share the news that his whole life is about to change, too.
With Dad back home, making strides in his recovery, absolutely bored out of his mind and nosier than ever, I can’t go home, either. Not yet. I can’t call one of my sisters, because we’re all markedly terrible liars, as are the kids, and they’d be more likely to accidentally spill the beans to Forest than I am before I’m ready. Since I don’t want to be alone, I tap on the contact for the next person I’m closest with who doesn’t know Forest.
“Hey, Sunshine,” Bryce says with his deep Southern drawl that I’ve missed hearing since we graduated from UT and moved out of Austin. “I was just thinking about you. How ya been?”
A few hours later, in the packed Texas Roadhouse parking lot, Bryce turns his late nineties blue pickup truck into the empty spot beside me, and kills the rumbling diesel engine. I suggested we meet somewhere between here and his hometown of Wichita Falls, but he knows how much I hate driving after he saw firsthand the results of my car crash. He’s always been sweet like that.
Bryce meets me behind his tailgate, takes one look at my face, and takes his cowboy hat off before scooping me up into a bear hug. It’s exactly what Ineeded.
“You’re all sweaty,” I say, the back of his western button-down damp, as is his thick brown hair, though I hug him all the tighter.
“Yeah, damn A/C went out on the drive again. Been meaning to replace a few parts, but can’t seem to find the time.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, pulling away. Bryce is a busy man, working for his father’s land surveying company before he takes over when his father retires.
“Don’t be. You call, I’m there, you know that.” He drops his hand to my lower back, steering me inside, then to a table when the hostess calls our name. He rests his cowboy hat on the tabletop, pulls out a chair for me, then pinches his dusty blue jeans when he takes his seat across from me. Ordering two ice-cold glasses of sweet tea for us, Bryce finally clasps his hands and leans forward. “So, you wanna tell me what’s got your eyes all misty?”
Two or three inches taller than Bailey, he’s easy on the eyes, plus one of the most considerate and gentlemanly men I’ve ever known. Had he been the one, instead of Tobias, to walk me to my dorm and ask me out, I just might have said yes. If I had, I might not be in the situation I am now.
Bryce winks when he catches my stare, his bronzed skin crinkling at the corners. “Did you call me to meet up so you could confess you’re wildly in love with me and want to have all my babies?”
My giggle is on the cusp of hysterical, and I take a large gulp of tea.
“Damn, what a shame,” he says playfully, knocking twice on the table. Though he’s a terrible flirt with all the ladies, if he ever did have true feelings for me, he never let on during all our hours of studying together.
I sigh and set my tea down, then reach into my purse. “Sorry to disappoint.” I find the sonogramphotos, slightly wrinkled beneath my can of bear spray, and I smooth them out before I slide them across the table. “But I am having someone’s baby.”
“Well, butter my biscuit, Sunshine is having a baby,” he says, surprised, studying the photos closely. “Can’t say I saw this coming any time soon, after all your talk of playing the field once we graduated.”
“Neither did I.” I fold the photos more carefully when I store them back in my purse.
“Who’s the lucky man?”
I grimace. “My boss.”
Several emotions play out on his handsome face, ending with his brows lifted to his hairline. “One of your dad’s co-founders?”
“No, no, none of them.” I slouch in my chair, spreading cinnamon butter on my steamy dinner roll, suddenly starving. “He’s our new Senior Advisor and my direct supervisor.”
Bryce’s brow darkens. “Is this one of those coercion-type cases that I need to get my brother to help me confront?”
I reach across the table to grip his hand. “No, it’s nothing like that.”
Bryce lets go of a long breath, his broad shoulders relaxing. I know he would have gone through with it. When I told him what Tobias had done, he had called his older brother, who works for a sketchy trucking company closer to Dallas. His brother got some of his coworkers together and showed up in Austin to confront Tobias, who transferred to a different school shortly thereafter. It was sweet, if not more than a little terrifying.
When the server comes by to ask if we’re ready to place our order, we tell her we need a few more minutes, and she moves on to another table.
Bryce asks me, “So, what then? He none too happy about the baby?”
“He doesn’t know yet. I only just found out right before I called you.”
Bryce clicks his tongue and scratches his strong jawline. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but why are you telling me and not him?”
