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A nna walked back into the doctor’s office waiting room from the bathroom and rejoined Iron in the seat next to him. “Mandatory urine sample before the appointment. Think of it like the coming attractions to a movie. They’ll call me in soon.”

“Call us in.”

Iron snatched her hand up and settled it on top of his thigh. It was a possessive gesture that thrilled Anna to no end, especially when the three other men in the waiting room sitting with their partners had all developed unexplained ants in their pants.

And Iron wasn’t even wearing the bloody bandage on his neck anymore.

While Anna had been checking in, Iron had stood behind her, so they were back to back, with him facing the rest of the room. She didn’t know what happened and could only offer up half an ear lest she pull out the wrong credit card to cover her copay, but when she accepted the urine sample cup from the receptionist and looked back, it was quite a different scene than she was used to.

The three female patients waiting for their appointments all had annoyed looks on their faces, which Anna enjoyed immensely since none of those glares were directed at her for a change. No, they were all aimed at significant others showing the damn near dingiest true colors Anna had ever seen. One man kept trying to desperately hush his partner while she was going on about why Anna was told she’d be seen first, despite the woman arriving before her. Another guy, who was probably only a few inches taller than Anna but was decked out in all sorts of designer finery that made him act two feet taller, immediately vacated his chair and abandoned his wife to examine something suddenly fascinating inside the hallway elevator. And the last man had picked up a magazine off an end table and buried his nose between the pages instead of sweeping another judgmental pass over Anna’s lounge attire.

She didn’t have the heart to tell the guy he was reading a Highlights magazine. Wouldn’t want to insult the little kids who came there with their mothers and have them think their favorite doctor’s office time-killing material was favored by manboys as well.

A medical assistant opened the door to the waiting room. “Anna Malone?”

“That’s me.”

“Oh, is this your partner?”

“He’s my . . . uh . . .”

“Yes.” Iron’s declaration slammed down like an asteroid in the small waiting room, casting out ripples strong enough to bring every woman in the vicinity to their knees.

Except the medical assistant, who seemed pleased as punch at the opportunity to escort Iron behind the curtain, so to speak. “Wonderful! Follow me.”

As Anna followed behind the woman, with Iron bringing up the rear, she overheard a sharp slap echo from the waiting room along with the words “Why don’t you ever pipe up like that for me?”

“Here we are. The doctor will be in shortly. Anna, you know the drill.”

“Sure do.”

Once the door closed, Iron asked, “What’s the drill?”

Anna kicked off her shoes and hopped back onto the examination table. “Weight and blood pressure, to start. Lots of poking and prodding around my belly. Some abdominal measurements, and I believe they’ll do an ultrasound this time around. It won’t take long, but hopefully, I’ll get sent home with some pictures.”

She said that last part with a smile, but Iron’s far-off look had her second-guessing the whole outing. His cheeks had taken on a slightly redder complexion, and his gaze bounced around the modest exam room as he took in the cherubic artwork of mothers and their newborns right alongside an anatomy chart that made her embarrassed on his behalf.

Was it too much? Had it been a mistake to drag him to this? There was decidedly very little that was sexy about pregnancy, especially considering what was brought up during these appointments. The topics du jour tended toward fluids. Lots and lots of fluids. Fluids they took out of her body, fluids that left her body (some without her say so), fluids above the belt, and fluids below the belt . . . just a whole lot of talk about liquid matter in general. It was as unsexy as a wet diaper, which, yeah, oddly enough, had also been brought up at one point.

For the first time since Anna had been coming there, she finally understood why all the guys in the waiting room always seemed more interested in the post-appointment lunch reservation than the appointment itself.

Why in all that was holy had she thought Iron, who had already acknowledged the temporary nature of whatever the hell their attraction was garnering, would want to come with her to her OB-frickin’-GYN appointment? Would he see her differently if he knew what was in store for her over the next several months?

“You know, it’s not too late to bail if this is making you uncomfortable. You can wait outside, if you prefer. It’s honestly not that interesting. The doctor just?—”

The door to her exam room was halfway open before Dr. Li started knocking on it to announce her arrival. Anna bristled and bit back a curse. Why the hell did they always do that?

“Hi, Anna.”

“Hi, Dr. Li.”

“I heard you brought a guest today. So exciting. Quite a few of my patients bring loved ones to their sixteen-week appointments. Well, any time between sixteen and twenty weeks, really. What can I say? Family photos tend to bring out the crowd.” Dr. Li walked over to a dispenser on the wall and shot a dollop of hand sanitizer into her palm before rubbing it in, then gestured toward the scale. “All right. Let’s get you measured, chat a bit about how you’re feeling, what to expect over the next few weeks, and then we’ll take a look at our little lemon.”

“I thought it was an avocado.”

Anna had just put her second socked foot on the scale when the sound of Iron’s gruff voice debating the fruit-shaped merits of her baby nearly sent the scale into full tilt. She smiled and, after Dr. Li jotted down her weight, returned to the table, laid back, and lifted her sweater over her belly. “Maybe it’s the size of a navel orange or something.”

Iron scooted his chair closer to her. “Not sure what kind of navel oranges you’re eating. Some of those things are the size of small rodents.”

“A persimmon, then?”

“Nah,” he said, taking her hand and twining his fingers with hers. “A few varieties of persimmon can be weirdly flat, like if an animal sat on it or something. I don’t like the idea of your baby being so misshapen.”

“True,” she said, nodding seriously while Dr. Li measured her. “Although, I can’t think of a fruit more misshapen than an avocado, to be frank. Maybe a strawberry, but we’ve already passed that stage of fruit development.”

“Damn. And here I thought I was being original.” Iron winked at her, sending an entire meadow’s worth of butterflies alight in her abdomen. The baby even seemed to get a kick—ha!—out of Iron’s teasing. Now that Anna knew what to look for, she smiled every time a school of fish swam through her lower belly, as it did just then.

“You two are a riot,” Dr. Li said. “I hope he can make it to your appointments more often.”

“Me, too,” Anna said, stunned by just how much she meant it.

Anna and Dr. Li chatted more about how the past few weeks had been going for her. Yes, she was mostly out of the morning sickness loop. No, she didn’t have any sciatica pain flare-ups. Yes, she was eating well and paying attention to the nutrients her body needed. (Yes, Anna occasionally considered the sugar in her cereal a nutrient. No, she did not tell Dr. Li that, and thankfully, neither did Iron, who just arched a brow when that particular topic entered the conversation.)

Then Dr. Li pulled out the tube of ultrasound gel. “Are we ready to see your baby?”

“Definitely.”

After what had to be a punch-bowl-sized amount of goop was applied to her belly, Anna squeezed Iron’s hand as they waited for Dr. Li to lift the curtain on the star of the show. There was a fair amount of hunting and pecking on the doctor’s part, owing to the little one’s size, and then it was front and center in all its black-and-white grainy glory.

“Now,” Dr. Li cut in. “Before I go any further, you’ve previously indicated that you don’t want to know the gender, Anna. Is that still the case?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Iron rubbed his thumb over hers, drawing her attention back to him. “Why not?” he whispered.

She shrugged. “No reason.”

He eyed her warily and gave her a look that told her they’d be circling back to that conversation, but he thankfully dropped it for the time being and returned his attention to the monitor.

“Heart rate is going strong, and I’m happy to report that all arms, legs, fingers, and toes seem to be accounted for. Bones are a nice bright white, which tells me they’re forming nicely. Ears aren’t quite in the final position yet, so you still have some time to continue debating what fruit you think the baby’s most likely to resemble before it could hear you and possibly take offense.” Dr. Li winked and actually managed to get a chuckle out of Iron.

But when Anna looked back at the angel, all she got was the strong profile of his jaw. So engrossed was he in what was filling the screen that he’d even let his grip on her hand loosen a bit, to the point where she’d begun tickling the underside of his palm to see whether he’d notice.

He hadn’t.

Oh, no. This was dangerous. Anna knew better than to drink in the sight of Iron this way. She’d grown used to his attention, however uncomfortable it’d made her at first. But now that another beautiful little life seemed intent on stealing it away from her, she wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Hers was a path of just-enoughs and right-under-the-wires. She had a house and could support herself, but the word barely tended to rear its ugly head most months where that was concerned. She wasn’t old by society’s standards, nor was she considered young enough to be a young mother. She was good at what she did and had built a satisfying career she could do from anywhere. But unfortunately, because she could do it from anywhere, she more often than not chose to do it from her hole-in-the-wall office, where sunlight and vitamin D were optional because the only doctor she saw regularly wasn’t checking her vitamin D (provided all was well with the baby, which it seemed to be).

And here was Iron, holding her hand, meeting her baby, and welcoming her into a family that didn’t usually take well to outsiders. He may otherwise leave her once the soul bond was fully enacted and he could finally return to wherever he came from. He was a man of responsibility, regardless of emotions. She knew that now. If she asked for it, she suspected he’d likely go anywhere with her, whether or not he wanted to.

The realization was enough to dim the cheery glow that had cocooned them ever since they’d been shut into the exam room together.

Dr. Li continued her docent’s tour of Anna’s uterus, touching on relevant phrases like stretch mark prevention and staying hydrated . But it all turned into dull background noise, like the constant roar of plane engines—necessary to fill the silence so Anna’s other senses could focus on what rose to the surface.

Duty was etched on Iron’s features, in the proud slope of his brow and the taut lines of his jaw. But conflict lived there, too. It was in the dusty shadows beneath his eyes, the ones that were often overpowered by his distracting gaze and rich beard.

His presence in the dinky chair next to her broke her heart as much as it held it together, painting whatever future visions that occasionally flashed through her mind with a skim coat of sludge.

She feared she could either be right or happy, but not both.

“Here’s your souvenir. Enjoy, you two, and I’ll see you in four weeks.”

A square slip of photo paper danced in Anna’s periphery, held out between Dr. Li’s fingertips, but before Anna cleared her thoughts enough to realize what it was and take it, Iron had already accepted the offering.

“We’ll be back,” he said, never lifting his eyes from the image of her baby.

That image, the one she mentally snapped and stored of Iron holding what he could of their unlikely future together, would have to be enough to last her for however long until his conviction finally caught up with his character.

Until then, she was happy living in a fantasy, the one that all started with whimsical dreams and wings.