“You need to pee?” Theo’s brows raised when I winced, pressing a hand to my lower stomach.
“So freakin’ bad,” I whispered.
He huffed a quiet laugh, reaching for my hand. “I told you that you didn’t need to force down those last few ounces.”
“But the paper said thirty-two,” I whined. “I was just following the rules.”
Theo squeezed my fingers, eyes amused. “Well, hopefully we’ll get in there quick and they’ll let you pee after getting the first few images.”
“If I pee my pants in the hospital parking lot, I’m blaming you.”
I mean… him and his secret seducing skills were what got me pregnant in the first place.
Not to mention the fact that if I hadn’t already seen how cute his babies could be… I might’ve pretended to have a little more self-control.
“You can blame me all you want,” he said, guiding me toward the entrance. “Just don’t pee on my shoes.”
I glared at him.
He just grinned back.
Theo handled the kiosk check-in, tapping through the screens like a pro.
“Just sit,” he said softly, nodding to the chairs.
But instead of dropping into the seat like I usually did, Icarefully lowered myself because yeah, any extra jostling was going to make me burst.
Theo sat beside me a moment later, his knee touching mine, his hand warm on my thigh.
And even though I knew he’d done this before with another woman, it still amazed me how special he’d made every milestone with me feel. Like I hadn’t stepped into a life that already existed. Like I hadn’t walked in late and been handed someone else’s place.
In the beginning, there were times when the doubts tried to creep in. Little whisperings that told me I was second best.
The consolation prize.
That if Alisha were still here, Theo would’ve never even looked twice at me.
But in the two years we’d been together, Theo had never once made me feel like a backup plan.
He never compared me to Alisha. Never saidshe did thisorwe did that, like I was supposed to measure myself against a ghost. He just made room for me to have my own place.
Making me feel like our love story was its own kind of miracle.
Which, as someone who’d grown up in the shadow of her famous brother and had never been the “best” on my gymnastics team, it was something I’d needed more than I could have known. To feel certain Theo loved me with his whole heart. To have him look me in the eyes and tell me that while he never would’ve chosen to lose Alisha so young… it was still a gift to get to fall in love twice.
And if anything, I was the one benefiting from marrying a man with experience. Because instead of everything being brand new and terrifying, Theo was steady. Prepared. The calm in the storm.
He knew what questions to ask, what appointmentsmattered, what symptoms to take seriously, and how to make me feel like I wasn’t failing just because my body was struggling.
And during the months of hyperemesis that nearly took me out, he’d been my rock.
He’d recognized what it was before I did. Gotten me meds. Saltines. Ginger candy. Cold washcloths at two in the morning. He’d held my hair back and rubbed my back and still kissed my forehead like I wasn’t a disaster.
I had never felt so cared for in my entire life.
I was also deeply grateful I finished my master’s degree before the nausea took over my world, because if I had to write a single paper while dry-heaving into a trash can, I would’ve simply given up and moved into the bathtub permanently.
“You still feeling okay?” Theo leaned closer. “Is your bladder gonna survive?”