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“And bring her to the wedding,” Mom adds. “I need to meet her.”

I wince. “She’s working and can’t get the time off.” I sigh. “She’s a workaholic, and this whole baby thing has left her reeling.”

Mom smiles empathetically. “You’ve got your work cut out for you if you want to start dating her and upgrade from a co-parent.”

Shaking my head, I raise a hand to attract a server’s attention. “Dating is just a steppingstone to being my wife.”

KATE

“Katherine Monroe,” the sonographer calls out across the empty waiting room.

Jensen leaps out of his seat and smiles down at me, holding out his hand for me to take. “I can walk by myself. You do know that, right?”

“Sure, Princess, but this is the best part. The first time we get to hear our baby’s heartbeat. So,” he waggles his fingers to invite me once again, “take my hand.”

Sliding mine into his, I can’t deny that the nerves I’ve been feeling since the moment this appointment was confirmed die down almost completely.

I look up at him. “You do know you can start using my real name whenever you’re ready.”

We begin walking toward the scan room when Jensen leans into me. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll stop calling you Princess when you start calling me JJ.”

I scoff. “Why is that so important to you?”

He goes to answer but doesn’t get time to reply before the sonographer speaks. “So nice to meet you both. I’m Jayne, and I’ll be conducting your prenatal ultrasound.” She looks over at me and smiles. “If you can hop onto the bed here, we need to get everything ready so you can meet your baby for the first time.” She then looks at Jensen, but I’m certain she doesn’t recognize who he is, clearly not a hockey fan. “Is this dad?”

“Yes indeed,” he replies without hesitation.

I kick off my heels and lie on the bed, getting myself comfortable. As I stare up at the poster of the stages of pregnancy, the nerves that Jensen seemed to calm come racing back to me. I can’t be a mom. I wasn’t built to be a mom. Moms think about their babies years before they’re born, and here’s me, lying here with no plan or fucking clue what I’m doing.

“Hey.” Jensen pulls his chair closer to my bed and reaches out, taking hold of my hand. “All okay?”

“Yep,” I reply, still staring straight up at the poster, totally overwhelmed.

“Okay.” Jayne tucks a sheet into the top of my work pants and rolls my white blouse up to just below my bra. Holding a bottle of jelly substance, she squeezes some onto the probe.“Let’s meet your bundle of joy. This might feel a little cold at first.”

She isn’t wrong. As soon as the jelly and probe hit my warm skin, I shudder. Jensen squeezes my hand tighter.

“Okay. Let’s find that heartbeat.”

Moving the probe around, silence falls across the room. Jensen continues squeezing my hand while we both stare expectantly at the screen.

“Where are you, little one?” I ask.

“Oh, don’t worry, it can take a moment to find them, especially at this early stage.”

I look to Jensen. “Yeah, it’ll be fine.”

He looks back at me. “I know. Jayne was responding to you, Princess.”

Wait, did I say that?

“Oh right, okay,” Jayne says in a surprised way.

Jensen’s eyes flash to the screen, as do mine.

“What is it?” he asks, his tone less relaxed than before.

“Well, we don’t have a ‘little one.’” She smiles at us both warmly. “Rather a little two!”