Never to Keep (Accepting Fate #1) (27 page)

“I’ll be pissed if this baby inherits your lack of athletic ability,” I hollered across the field.

“Hey, I’m good at other sports. Besides, this matchup isn’t fair. I don’t think anyone could win against Team Miller. You guys are freaks of nature.”

“Fine, we’ll change up the teams. You can even pick, so you can’t say it isn’t fair when you lose.” I couldn’t help but taunt him.

“Just for that, you’re on my team.” He crossed the distance between us and wrapped his arms around my waist from behind.

I leaned back into his shoulder and whispered, “Okay, but I have one condition.”

“And what might that be?” I nearly forgot what I was going to say when he discreetly rubbed his growing erection against my ass. I looked around for Peyton and found her strategizing with Marina on the other side of the field. Turning in his arms, so I could look into his gorgeous blue eyes, I gave him my playful ultimatum.

“If we don’t win, you’ll be playing by yourself tonight.”

“When we win, I want one orgasm per touchdown. We can share the winnings, of course.”

“In that case, we’d better kick their little asses.”

The plays were designed to get the ball out of his hands as quickly as possible. The ball was snapped, and then I turned around to catch a short shovel pass from him. Even he couldn’t mess that up.

The wind was knocked out of me when I unexpectedly hit the ground. “That was freaking awesome, Pey!” I was so proud of her. She grinned at me with her tiny arms still tightly wrapped around my legs.

“Madison! Are you okay?” Sawyer was at my side before Peyton had a chance to let go. He frantically looked me over as if I’d been hit by a semi.

“Calm down. I’m fine.” I jumped up to my feet.

“Peyton, we are playing touch football, remember?” Sawyer said in his teacher voice.

“Sorry, I forgot.” I didn’t miss her sheepish grin when she turned away from him.

“You can’t blame her. She’s never heard of touch football before,” I defended. Touch football wasn’t even a sport as far as we were concerned. “Peyton’s been tackling me since she was old enough to walk.”

“I’m not upset with her. I’m just worried about you and the baby.” He laid his hand on my stomach. “You should go to the hospital and get checked out.”

“You’re overreacting. I feel fine. Spending all week in that place is enough. No need to go back on my day off.”

“Please, for me?” Damned pouty lip again. How had I not noticed it before?

I knew he would bug the shit out of me until I gave in. “Fine. Ethan’s working, so I’ll just have him take a quick look.” I hoped the mention of Ethan’s name would get him to reconsider. Of course, luck wasn’t with me.

“I’ll take whatever I can get.” He lifted me in his arms and carried me to the car.

*

Sawyer dropped Peyton and Marina off at the house and then drove me straight to the hospital. “I need to talk to Dr. Madden,” I told the receptionist whom I’d never met before.

“He’s not on duty tonight,” she replied casually as she twisted a lock of honey-blonde hair around her finger.

“That can’t be right. He said he was working evenings all week.”

“I think he’s off this week.”

I pulled out my cell.

“Hello?” he answered. He sounded a little out of breath.

“Hey, where are you?”

“Working, why?” It wasn’t like him to be so vague with me. Usually he would answer with something like, “In trauma bay three,” or “In the middle stall of the second floor men’s room.”

“I’m at the hospital, and they say you’re off tonight. Are you at the clinic?”

“Why are you at the hospital? Are you okay?” He was still as overprotective as ever.

“I’m fine.” I explained the minor football incident.

“Sawyer’s right; you can never be too careful. I’m in the city tonight.” That was news to me. It was a bit disorienting to not know about everything that went on in Ethan’s life. “I think Parsons is on duty at the clinic. Go over there and have her take a look. I trust her.”

I trusted her, too. She had done an excellent job with my nerve block. I looked over at Sawyer and could tell by the stupid smirk on his face he’d heard Ethan’s side of the conversation. “Fine. I’ll talk to you later.” I made a face at my phone and shoved it in my pocket.

“Ethan might not be so bad after all,” Sawyer mumbled.

*

“How far along are you?” Dr. Parsons asked as I climbed onto the exam table.

“A little over eleven weeks,” I answered.

“We should be able to get a good look with a transabdominal ultrasound.” She adjusted some of the settings on the machine and then turned towards me. “How are your ribs feeling?”

“The block lasted almost three weeks,” I said as she squirted cold gel onto my non-existent baby bump. “I’m a little sore. It’s more of an annoyance than anything.”

“That’s great news.” She studied the screen intently as she slid the smooth probe around on my stomach. “The baby looks just fine,” Dr. Parsons said to Sawyer as the ultrasound machine printed a fuzzy picture of our little one.

“See, I told you she was okay.” I rolled my eyes like a juvenile. I loved how much he cared, even though it was extremely annoying at times.

“It’s a girl?” he asked with wonder on his face.

“I don’t know. It’s too early to tell,” I admitted.

“Then why do you keep referring to the baby as a girl?”

I smiled at my silly reasoning. “Ryan always wanted a son, so when Olivia was pregnant with Peyton, he always referred to the baby as a boy. I figured I’d try the opposite. Maybe if I call the baby a girl, I’ll have a boy. Besides, I don’t like referring to our child as ‘it’.”

“So, you want a boy?” he asked while he pondered the question for himself.

“I don’t care; I just hope she’s safe.” It was the truth, although I secretly hoped I didn’t have a girly girl. Playing with makeup and princess dolls would be torture for me, although I was sure her Aunt Olivia would be more than happy to indulge her. Either way, I was madly in love with my baby, and no amount of pink lacy crap could change that.

The doctor wiped the gel off of my stomach and sent us on our way.

As we were leaving the clinic, Sawyer said, “You know, it really turns me on when you say ‘our child’ or ‘our baby’.”

“Is that so?”

“I love knowing that I put our baby in your belly.” He rubbed the proof of his arousal against my ass. “I want to put another one in there as soon as possible.”

The reality of his statement sunk in. “I don’t know how we’d afford another one. You’ll probably change your tune when we’re woken up every two hours. We can certainly practice, though.”

He pulled away suddenly. “Are you saying you want to live together?” He didn’t seem happy at the prospect. “You know our relationship isn’t like that.”

“Are you crazy? You want to have more kids, but you don’t want to live together? You spend almost every night at my house when things are going well between us. I just thought…” It wasn’t worth it. I’d had a great day, and I wasn’t going to let his fear ruin it. “Never mind, let’s just go home.”

“I’ll drop you off and then pick you and Peyton up in the morning to go see Olivia.” He carefully avoided eye contact as we climbed into his car.

“You don’t want to have sex tonight?” I asked.

“I guess I could stay for a quick fuck.”

“Forget it; I’m not in the mood anymore.”

“You’re always in the mood.”

“Just drop me off at home. In the morning, we can pretend like the last five minutes never happened.”

Madison

“I hope Olivia doesn’t go all fan-girl on you.” I was a shoe-in for the Best Sister Ever award for bringing Marina along for our weekly visit. I probably should have warned my sister-in-law, so she wouldn’t have a heart attack, but seeing her reaction was going to be worth it. “Maybe meeting you will lift her spirits and help her recovery.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting her. She must be amazing if she made this little munchkin.” Marina ruffled Peyton’s unruly curls. “Besides, I want to spend as much time with you two as possible, since I’m going home tomorrow.”

“What do you mean ‘you two’? What about me?” Sawyer pouted the best he could while staying focused on the road.

“I’ve spent the past couple of weeks looking at your ugly face.” She reached over the driver’s seat and patted Sawyer’s cheek as he pulled into a parking space. “I’ve had enough of you to last a long time.”

Peyton was the first one out of the tall black vehicle. She ran around to the other side to wait by Marina’s door. I was the last one out, because it took me a minute to dig through my messy bag in search of my brush. I ran it through my hair, shoved my purse under the seat, and reached for the door handle.

Like a true gentleman, Sawyer opened my door and took my hand to help me out. I would reward his excellent manners later.

Last night, I decided to forget about the unpleasant conversation I’d had with Sawyer. It wasn’t worth investing energy into stressing over his fear. Only time could tell what would happen with our relationship, and I was prepared to raise the baby alone if I had to.

I spotted Olivia across the garden a second after we stepped through the door. She looked much better and had lost nearly all the weight she’d put on after Ryan’s death. Since she’d found out about the baby, we’d talked on the phone more in the past few weeks than we had in months. She was so excited when I told her that Sawyer knew about the baby and didn’t run screaming.

Peyton scampered down the path and vaulted into her mother’s open arms. Sawyer and I had to jog to keep up while Marina lagged behind.

“I missed you so much, little girl.” Olivia covered Peyton’s laughing face with kisses while she arranged her on her lap. Olivia started in on her new favorite topic of conversation once Peyton was snuggled tightly in to her body. “Have you thought about names for the baby yet?”

“We haven’t talked about it, but I have a couple in mind.” I’d had names picked out for years.

“What are they?” Sawyer asked with a gentle smile.

“Reginald for a boy, and Regina for a girl.”

“I’m sorry, will you repeat that? I don’t think I heard you right.” He studied my face with a tilted brow.

“The name Peyton is already taken, so I have to go with Reggie.”

“You would seriously call our daughter Reggie?”

“Of course, it’s an awesome name.”

“Do you really like that name or just the gimmick of it? Would you name our kid Asshat if that was the name of your favorite athlete?” He had a valid point, damn him.

“Got something better in mind?” It would take something really good to get me to give up on Reggie.

“How about Ariel for a girl?”

Maybe I should have Ethan check Sawyer’s testosterone levels. “Like the mermaid? No, thank you. We have six or seven months to figure this out.” It would likely take every single minute to come up with something we would agree on.

Peyton wiggled in Olivia’s lap, drawing her mother’s attention. “What have you been up to?” she asked her daughter.

“I have a new friend,” Peyton proudly announced as she pointed to Marina.

“It’s not polite to point.” Olivia’s eyes followed Peyton’s finger as she tried to tug her arm down. “Oh. My. God.” Olivia’s jaw nearly scraped the floor. “You’re Marina Alexander!” Olivia virtually tossed Peyton into my lap and leapt to her feet. She jumped up and down for a solid minute before she winced and pressed a hand to her stomach. Olivia had told me the week before that she had developed ulcers. It must not have bothered her too much, because she enveloped Sawyer’s sister in an embrace too massive to refer to as a hug a few seconds later.

“How did you know it was her?” Sawyer was utterly astonished that Olivia saw straight through Marina’s disguise.

“How could anyone not tell?” The implied ‘duh’ in Olivia’s answer caused me to choke on a laugh, which I lost control of when I heard the sound of Marina trying to hold one back also. I squeezed Peyton tightly as I tried to get myself under control, so I wouldn’t come down with a nasty case of hiccups. “What’s so funny?” Olivia asked.

“You’re going to love this one,” I said conspiratorially to Olivia as I watched Sawyer’s cheeks flush.