Things had been okay lately. A part of her thought maybe he was actually enjoying living with her. When he wasn’t playing video games, he came out to sit on the dock with her. They never talked about anything important, but at least they were together. They had a routine, and she was almost happy.

Tears threatened to fall as she glanced back down at her phone, seeing that he had three minutes to get there before it was time for her appointment. She wasn’t going to call him. She knew that if she did, he would confirm that he was nowhere near her and didn’t plan on coming. Closing her eyes, she took in a deep breath as her baby moved around inside her. She wanted to know so badly if it was a boy or girl. She was ready to start decorating and was ready to pick out a name. She was ready to call the baby a he or she, instead of an “it.”

She was ready, but obviously Erik wasn’t.

“Piper Allen?”

Piper glanced up to see a nurse waiting with her chart. Standing up, she said, “Just a second, please, I need to call my husband and see where he is.”

The nurse nodded and turned to go back inside as Piper dialed Erik’s number. He answered on the third ring.

“Hey.”

“Hey, what are you doing?” she asked as calmly as she could.

“Playing COD. Why, what’s up?”

She knew it. Shaking her head as the tears started to rush down her face, she said, “Nothing. I was just wondering if you can turn down my chicken that’s in the Crock-Pot.”

“Ten-four, no problem.”

“Thanks, I’ll talk to you later,” she muttered as she hung up the phone.

She looked down at the ground as her blood started to boil. How was it no problem to turn down some chicken, but it was a problem to be here to find out the sex of their child? Did he not care at all? What had happened since yesterday that he totally forgot? Piper scheduled the appointment so he could come, so that he could be here!

And he doesn’t f**king show up!

Fuck him! She’ll find out herself and be happy. She was done waiting around for Erik Titov. If he didn’t want to be a part of their child’s life, then f**k him. She’d do it on her own. She was more than capable of being the baby’s everything; she was a jack-of-all-trades, for f**k sakes. Piper started to march toward the receptionist, but right as she reached the desk, she stopped.

She couldn’t find out without him.

That was her plan from the beginning and if he wasn’t going to be here, then she wasn’t going to find out. It was stupid and she might be setting herself up for failure, but she had promised the baby she would wait for him, plus she knew it was a moment he would want to be there for. He had wanted to feel the baby. She knew deep down he did care. He was just forgetful, right? She would wait for him, but first she was going to cuss him seven ways to Sunday for making her miss this appointment.

* * *

Setting his phone down, Erik got up to go to the kitchen to turn down the chicken. As he entered the kitchen he wondered where Piper was. She had been gone all morning and he had no clue what she was doing, which was weird. She always made a point to tell him where she was going. He liked that, too. He found himself worrying about her and what she was doing a lot.

Turning down the dial, he lifted the top to the Crock-Pot thinking about how good things had been between them the last couple of weeks. When she wasn’t drawing or reading, she was usually on the dock, so most of the time he would go out and sit with her. They would talk about pointless things, like the weather, or how her neighbors were extremely nosy. He wanted to ask her other things but never knew if he should. If he did, he knew she would want to know things about him, and that made him nervous. They had to keep things light.

Things had gotten a little crazy while they were in Las Vegas. He had started to forget that this was a sham and had started to want things he had no right to want. Piper was off-limits and as long as he didn’t touch her or look into her eyes, he would be okay. It was more difficult to do that, though, with every passing day, especially when she would get in the pool in her little strappy bikini.

When a knock came at the front door, Erik returned the cover to the delicious-smelling chicken and went to answer it. To his surprise on the other side was Phillip. He hadn’t talked to Phillip in two weeks and it was for good reason after that shit he pulled in Vegas.

“Phone broke?”

Erik shook his head. “Nope, I have nothing to say to you.”

Phillip’s face broke into a big grin as he tossed his blond hair out of his eyes. “Is that right?”

“Yup.”

“Why is that?”

“You know why.”

He rolled his eyes as he said, “Can I come in and we can discuss it? ’Cause I really don’t remember.”

Erik moved out of the way and let Phillip in, then followed him down the hall. Stanley came running toward the door. “Stanley!” Phillip said. “I’ve missed you, bud, how you doing? How’s a good dog? I know, good God, what are they feeding you around here?”

“Piper cooks a lot,” Erik muttered as he walked by, kicking his hockey gear out of the way before he dropped down on the couch.

“That’s cool. Is that what you are mad about? What I said about Piper?”

Erik gave him with a dirty look and shrugged his shoulders. “Wouldn’t you be mad if your best friend was saying things about getting with your wife and kid once you left?”

Phillip laughed. “Last I checked, she wasn’t your real wife.”