Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 142976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 477(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 477(@300wpm)
“In the end it was easy to love our baby, Fern. Because he’s a part of you. And I quite simply adore every single part of you. When I first heard his heartbeat, I felt like I was going to pass out. I didn’t like it, I was panicking and wanted to get out of there with every fiber of my being. And when it stopped, after Dr. Khan switched off the machine, I should have been relieved… but I panicked. I thought something had happened to him. And in that moment, even before I loved him, I would’ve moved mountains just to hear that heartbeat again. Just to know that he was okay. I may not have loved him immediately, the way you did, Fern… but I do love him now. He’s yours. And mine. Ours. And I want what’s best for him. I want him to be okay.”
His hand stopped stroking and applied gentle pressure to her belly, as if he was trying to communicate directly with his son.
“He’ll be okay, Cade… I’m sure he’s—” She gasped as she felt the slightest of flutters directly beneath Cade’s palm. More assertive than any of the little pops she’d felt before.
Cade sat bolt upright and stared fixedly at his hand.
“Did you feel it too?” Fern asked, a hint of awe in her voice.
“He moved,” Cade said, with the same reverence. His eyes jerked up to hers. “He did, right? He moved… fuck! He’s doing it again.”
Another flutter, stronger than the one before.
“Oh God, oh my God,” Fern whispered, laughter and tears fighting for supremacy in her voice.
The tears won when Cade bent his head to her tummy, moving his hand out of the way to kiss the gentle baby bump through the hideous fabric of her hospital gown.
“Hi there,” Cade was crooning at her tummy now. “Hi there, Casper. This is your daddy. Your mum and I are so excited to meet you, little guy. We love you so much and we can’t wait to hold you in our arms.”
Fern hunched over to kiss Cade’s head as he quietly talked to their baby, and her face was wet with tears of joy. There was one more gentle flutter before the movement stopped.
They waited for a few seconds longer but it soon became apparent that the baby was done for now. Cade sat up, his eyes bright with tears and wonder.
“Do you think he heard me?”
“Of course, he did,” Fern said, her voice choked with emotion. “He heard you and he feels safe knowing his daddy is right here with us.”
Fern was kept overnight for observation and she and the baby were both given a clean bill of health the following morning and discharged from the hospital shortly thereafter.
Cade fussed over Fern all the way home.
“I need a shower,” she said as soon as they stepped over the threshold.
“Then I’ll be joining you,” he stated.
She gave him an arch little smile, and he rolled his eyes.
“Get your mind out of the gutter, woman, I’m concerned that you might get dizzy and fall.”
“Wait, so no sexy times?” She pouted—getting a kick out of teasing him—and he gaped at her.
“You literally just got out of the hospital. Definitely no sexy times.”
“Gosh you’re being an old maid about this.”
He clamped his lips shut and she made her way to their room, shedding her clothes along the way. The sexy fitted fuschia maternity dress that she’d worn to her meeting tossed aside carelessly. She’d felt so confident in it. But she never wanted to see it again.
Cade was as good as his word, stripping and stepping into the huge shower with her. He soaped her from top to toe, washed her hair, stood patiently and quietly when she insisted on returning the favor and balked only when her hand closed around his straining erection.
“Fern,” he admonished mildly, stepping out of her hold and shutting off the water.
“But it’s right there… it’s hungry, like me. Can’t we just—”
“No, Jesus, you’d drive a saint to drink. You’re going to rest today.”
Ugh.
She dug out an old T-shirt… one she hadn’t seen in a while actually, and—after donning a pair of panties and striped knee-high socks— shrugged into it.
When Cade, now dressed in a pair of charcoal cargo pants and a black T-shirt sporting Captain America’s shield on the front, turned around and saw her, his face froze.
“Where’d you find that?” he asked, his expression darkening. Fern paused in the act of combing snags out of her damp hair and stared at him in confusion.
“What?”
“That T-shirt?” She glanced down at her Night of the Living Dead T-shirt in confusion and shrugged.
“In my drawer.”
“I thought I’d gotten all of them,” he muttered under his breath.
“What do you mean?” she asked him.
“Nothing.”
“No, you clearly meant something. What happened to all of my other sleep shirts, Cade? This is the last of my original ones.”