the tear comes, and I wipe it away. “It’s still his right to be there if he wants to.”
“I want to,” he says, coming to me and putting his hand on my back. “I want to be there as much as she’ll let me.”
“You better not fuck this up,” my father tells him. “This isn’t a game.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” he says, and then he looks at me. “I will not fuck this up.”
I nod at him, and when we leave my father’s, I sigh in relief. “I’m happy that is over,” I tell him, and he opens the car door for me. He doesn’t say anything, and right now, I’m so tired I can’t even think. When he gets in the car, he looks at me. “What?” I ask him.
“You’re beautiful,” he tells me, and I don’t answer him. I just look out the window and stop myself from overthinking it. I’m the mother of his child; that is the only thing I am to him right now. It’s really the only thing I have left to give him.
Chapter Thirty-One
Carter
“Are you nervous?” I ask her, looking over at her. It’s been ten days since she told me she’s pregnant with my child. Ten days since I realized I loved her even more than I did before. Ten days since I’ve started to breathe again.
“A little,” she says, and she flips through the pages of the magazine. I’ve been with her every single day. I am trying not to get her so annoyed she tells me not to come back or stops seeing me.
Every morning, I take off from the set and drive over to her house with a ginger tea to help with her morning sickness. Then I rush back, and we go through things. I set up to have food delivered to her work and also snacks during the day. The minute I’m done on set, I call her and show up with dinner. Every night when I get home, I sit in bed wishing she was with me and that I could hold her in my arms. So far, she hasn’t pushed me away and told me not to come back, so I’m going back.
“Erin Crest.” The nurse calls her name, and she gets up, and I follow her into the examine room. An examine table sits in the middle of the room. “You can change into this.” She hands her a hospital gown. “But first, I need a urine sample.” She hands her a plastic cup. “I will be in shortly.” She nods at us and then turns to walk out of the room. Erin goes into the bathroom and comes back with the gown on and holding the back closed.
After a knock on the door, the nurse comes back in. “You can sit on the table,” she tells Erin. She walks to the little stool and then steps up to sit in the middle of the table, leaving her feet hanging. “I’m going to ask you a couple of questions. When was your last menstrual cycle?”
“Eight weeks ago,” Erin answers, and I just wait at the side as she asks all sorts of questions. She grabs the urine sample, going over to the counter and dipping something inside. She waits three minutes and writes down something.
“You are officially pregnant,” she says and then smiles at us. “The doctor will be right in,” she says, walking out and then after another knock on the door, the doctor comes in.
“Hello there,” he says, smiling to Erin. “I’m Dr. Graves.” He turns to look at me. “Nice to meet you.” I shake his hand, and he comes over and grabs the chart, reading it. “Okay, let’s get you checked out,” he says and walks over to the stool in the middle of the room and asks her to lie back. He raises the stirrup and tells her to put her feet in them.
“Carter.” She calls my name, and I walk over to her. “Stay on this side.” She points behind her head, and I don’t understand it until I see the doctor put on gloves, then grab what looks like a long beige stick. He grabs a condom and puts it on this thing and then squeezes some lube on it.
“What are you doing with that?” I ask him, ready to grab Erin and run out. Nothing I read online about pregnancy mentioned something that looks like a gigantic fucking condom-wearing dildo with lube on it