“Happy birthday.”

She snuggled closer to him. “Thank you.”

“Do you want to get up or am I going to have to drag you out of this bed?”

“Why on earth would you do that?” she asked in mock horror.

He laughed. “Because Stanley and I made you breakfast and you have gifts.”

Piper thought for a moment before saying, “I do like food and presents.”

“I thought so. Why don’t you crawl out of bed and come on,” he suggested as he kicked the blankets off.

“Ugh,” she complained as she sat up, looking around the room. “I look a hot mess. I don’t want to do birthday stuff, Erik. I suck, I know.”

“I think you are beautiful, even when you are bitchy,” he said with a grin on his face. “Now come on.”

With that he turned and left her alone in the room. With a huff, she scooted to the edge of the bed and let out another breath. The night before had been hell; she had been up all night with Braxton Hicks contractions and Lord, were they a doozy. After she called Dr. Richards and cried to him, the doctor reassured Piper that she was fine and would get through them easily. He gave her the warning signs, and said to go to the hospital only if they were five minutes apart or if her water broke. Neither happened, fortunately. Erik was great, holding her and rubbing her back to help ease the pain. It was a nice bonding moment.

Out of bed and down to the end of the hall she found Erik standing with a couple of wrapped boxes.

“Happy birthday!”

Piper giggled as she went around the corner, wrapping her arms around his waist. She lifted up on her tiptoes to kiss his jaw.

“You are so awesome, thank you,” she gushed.

“You are welcome, and here is your first present. Stanley got it for you,” he said, handing her a box.

She took it from him and smiled sweetly at Stanley as she opened it. It was a mittens and winter hat set. Glancing up at him, confused, she asked, “I think the high for today is ninety-nine.”

He laughed as he nodded. “Yes, but the temperature in an ice rink is forty-nine degrees, so you’ll need those.”

“What?”

“Here, open this one,” he said, ignoring her as he handed her a bigger box. She had a bad feeling that she knew what the present was. When she opened it, her feeling was confirmed. Erik had bought her a pair of hot pink ice skates.

“Ice skates,” she said with a nod of her head.

“Yup, I even got Dimitri some, too; they are already in the hockey bag in his room.”

That was so unbelievably sweet, she wanted to cry.

“That’s awesome, but I don’t need these.”

“Yes, you do, we are going skating today,” he said with a huge grin.

“No, I’m not.”

“Hush, open this one,” he said with a laugh as he handed her a smaller box.

Piper ripped the paper but paused when she saw the Tiffany blue box. Her hands shook as she opened the box and set her eyes on a little circle pendant that said “Dimitri Blake,” with the September birthstone in the middle. Looking up at him, speechless, her eyes began to cloud and she cursed her stupid emotions.

“Okay, maybe you’ll get me on the ice,” she said, causing him to laugh as he took the necklace from her and put it around her neck. She reached for the pendant, rubbing her thumb along it before placing it in the middle of her chest. Looking up at him, she whispered, “It’s perfect. I love it, thank you.”

“I’m glad you love it,” he said, leaning down to kiss the side of her mouth. “It looks beautiful on you.”

No one had ever given her a present that touched her in the most fulfilling way, but Erik had. Her heart skipped a beat every time she touched her son’s pendant, and when she thought that Erik had handpicked it for her, it made it a thousand times better. He was really coming around, really trying. And she would have to say that was the greatest present of all.

Glancing up at his gorgeous, happy face, she asked, “So when are we going ice-skating?”

* * *

Piper should have stuck to her guns and said heck no to the skating thing.

She felt like she was going to fall at any minute, but then Erik would take her in his arms and all her fears were gone. He stood behind her, his hands at her waist as he instructed her to move one foot and then the other. He was very careful, making sure she was safe. It was unbelievably sweet and romantic. When her foot slipped out from underneath her, she swore she was about to fall to her death, but Erik had her, bringing her upright and holding her against his body.

Taking in a labored breath, she said, “Eck, Erik, please don’t let me fall.”

Erik’s chuckles ran along her chest bone before he whispered, “Never, Mrs. Titov, never.”

Chills ran down her back and it wasn’t from the chill of the ice rink.

“All right, let go, left foot, right foot,” he instructed again.

Piper took in a deep breath and tried again. Finally after an hour, he accepted that she was a horrible skater and directed her to sit on the bench.

“We will come back after Dimitri’s born,” he said, unlacing her skates.

Piper was elated with his comment about coming back to skate after the baby came. That meant that he was looking toward the future. That meant he wasn’t going anywhere.

Right?

With a little grin, she let out a happy breath as she played with the pendant he had given her. Glancing over at her, he smiled as he asked, “Are you feeling okay?”