“Thank you,” she whispered. He wanted to smash his lips to hers, take over her body with his own, but before he could even move, talk, or breathe, she screamed, “Shit!”

“What?” he asked as she wiggled out of his arms and moved behind him. He turned to find her bending down and fishing his phone out of the water.

“I dropped your phone. I’m so sorry.” she told him, as she tried to shake it dry. He wanted to be mad, he wanted to shake her because she had ruined everything he owned—but when she looked up at him with worry, all he could do was smile.

“Ah, it’s no big deal,” he said, taking his soaked phone from her. “I’ll just add it to the list of things you have destroyed over the course of our marriage.”

And the list was as follows:

TV.

Xbox.

iPhone 5.

And, the walls around his heart.

Yup, Erik Titov was in trouble.

* * *

Erik was sitting on the couch when Piper came out to sit by him, her Kindle in one hand and a blanket in the other. She was wearing those naughty little black shorts and his old high school hockey shirt. He loved the way the shirt fit her, stretching over her belly and her swollen br**sts. His hands shook from the mere need to touch her. Slouched, and leaning back on the couch, he had been setting up the new iPhone and lost his grip on it as it hit him in the face.

“Ah!” he yelped, picking up the phone, rubbing his nose.

“What?”

He looked over to see that she was now cuddled up with her Kindle on her blanketed knees.

“I smacked myself with my phone.”

She giggled. “Way to go, genius.”

“I’ve seen you do the same thing plenty of times,” he pointed out.

She stuck her tongue out at him, a playful grin on her face. “Leave me alone. I’m trying to read.”

Erik sat up and stretched his arms above his head. “I guess I gotta read, too, since someone destroyed my TV.”

“She had a good reason, I’m sure you remember,” Piper said as he went down the hall.

Falling back onto the couch with his book and reading glasses, he tucked his toes under her blanket. She drove him insane with the temperature in the house. Piper kept the house as cold as Siberia and then she would cover up with a blanket. How did that make sense?

Putting his glasses on, he opened his book just as Piper said, “I didn’t know you wore glasses.”

He looked up and shrugged his shoulders. “Only when I read.”

“Probably because you’ve messed up your eyes playing Xbox.”

He blinked a few times and then looked down at his book. “Whatever.”

Suddenly he looked up when she reached over, lifting his book to see what he was reading.

“Nuh-uh!”

Figuring she was balking at his reading Harry Potter, he said, “Don’t hate.”

Erik had been reading the Harry Potter series for the past year. Ever since he went over to hang out with Lucas and found himself fighting hippogriffs with Lucas’s son, Aiden, he had been hooked on the series.

“No! I said that because I’m reading the same book!” she said, holding up her Kindle to reveal Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. “I love this book. It’s my favorite. I’ve read it like a hundred times!”

“Yeah, it’s pretty awesome. This is my first time.”

She smiled, moving closer to him and looking down at his book before doing something to her Kindle. She looked back up at him and grinned before looking back down at her Kindle. She was leaning against his leg, her knees pulled up to hold her Kindle, and then her sweet mouth began reading the book out loud. She was reading to him. Erik looked down as warmth filled him. He followed along, until the chapter was over and she glanced up at him. “Your turn.”

He smiled. “I used to do this with Cooper.”

“I did it with my dad, too.”

He saw her whole heart in her eyes as that beautiful kiss-me smile came across her lips.

“Hopefully, you’ll do it with the baby, too. It will be like a tradition.”

Erik couldn’t look away if he tried; his heart was in his throat as he held her gaze. He swallowed loudly and with a slow nod he said, “I’d love to do that.”

“Good,” she said, flashing him a bright smile. “Now your turn.”

Erik couldn’t take his eyes off her. She glanced up at him expectantly, and he started to read the next chapter. They spent the whole night reading to each other, and Erik knew then there was no other place he’d rather be.

Chapter 14

“Ready?”

Piper nodded quickly. “So excited.”

She could not believe Erik did this for her.

“Me, too,” Erik said as a cute blonde came toward them with a bright happy smile on her face.

“Welcome! Do y’all have an appointment?”

Erik nodded. “Yes, for Piper Titov.”

Man, Piper loved that name.

“Yes, I have you down for twelve. Y’all are a tad bit early, so take a look around while we get everything ready.”

“Thank you,” he said and then he turned to look at Piper. “Let’s sit down?”

“Sure.” She sat down, crossed her legs, and relaxed, taking out her phone to check on her Facebook and other social media as they waited. Erik was doing the same, but he looked calm, cool, and collected while she felt crazed. What if they did the ultrasound and the baby grew eight legs like Mrs. Octopus? What if it wasn’t breathing, or had another baby coming out of its belly? What if her wish to have a dog was true and the baby had a tail? Okay, it was all really silly, but she was beginning to worry. What if the baby was not normal?