Page 86 of Love You Like This

My stomach drops. I highly doubt the kid is mine, but there is a slim chance of failure after a vasectomy. I tear open the box and pull the directions out. The last thing I want to do is fuck up taking the sample.

If she’s my baby, I’d want to know. To be a part of her life. Not that I know a single fucking thing about kids being an only child. Obviously, no one I’m close to has a baby. None of us even have pets. Jade is probably the closest to caring for living things, and she just has houseplants.

Fuck.

Jade.

I scrub a hand over my face. Blood roars in my ears as I begin to spiral. The words on the page blur together. I feel a hand squeeze my shoulder, but it doesn’t stop the downward trajectory of my thoughts.

The scent of jasmine fills my nostrils, and a blurry figure crouches in front of me. Red hair and soft hands that cover mine and squeeze. I blink until Jade’s face comes clearly into view.

“There you are,” she says while her thumbs run in soothing strokes along my palms. “I’ve got him,” she tells Darren.

He says something, but I tune it out. She’s all I can focus on. She’s all that I need.

“Yeah, I’ll bring it down to you,” she reassures him. Once the door thuds closed, she turns her attention back to me. “Look at me.”

My eyes move to her face.

“It’s going to be okay.” She pushes to her feet and sits beside me, lifting the directions. “Let’s see how to do this.”

“She can’t be mine.”

“I believe you.”

My head snaps to the side. “You do?”

She nods without looking up from the paper in her hands. “I do. This seems simple enough. All we have to do is swab both cheeks with both swabs for twenty seconds. You need to sign the consent form.”

I take the form from her and sit down, noticing she’s already filled out all the information for me. She must have done that while I was panicking. It’s comforting to know that, regardless of what’s happening between us, she has my back like this. I read through everything and sign my name.

She walks over to me with the two cotton swabs and a small envelope. “Set the time on your phone for twenty seconds.”

I do as she says.

“Open wide.” She hits the start button as soon as I open my mouth, and she starts swabbing.

I feel her twirling the swabs on my right cheek. We repeat the process on the other side. The entire time I don’t take my gaze from her face. She’s focused on collecting the sample, a slight line formed between her eyebrows. I wish I knew what she was thinking.

She pulls the swabs from my mouth when the timer goes off. My eyes drift to her hands as she seals it up.

“Good boy.” She pats my cheek like a dog.

I grab her hand before she can pull it away. The set of her shoulders eases as she looks down at me. I turn my head and press my lips to her palm.

“Thank you.”

Her thumb sweeps over my cheekbone. “You’re welcome.”

She tries to pull away, but I wrap my arms around waist and pull her down into my lap. She stiffens at first but then melts into me. Her arms come around my shoulders as I relax back in the chair.

Neither of us say anything as we sit in each other’s arms. Stone texts me, but I ignore it. Darren texts her. She ignores it.

We both need this moment. Regardless of everything else happening in our lives, at the end of the day, she’s my person. I won’t stop until I’m hers.

“Freckles?”

“Yeah?”