Page 98 of Her Christmas Wish

Extremely so.

Would Gray freak out on her? He was the scientist. Seeing the proof of life on the screen would make everything real to him.

And...she was living a dream she’d had so many times. Getting ready for the first glimpse of her baby with the man she loved.

“Okay, ready?”

Sage nodded as the technician looked her way. Took a deep breath. And felt Gray take hold of her hand. She didn’t glance away from the screen they’d been told to watch.

But she started to breathe again.

And listened as Gray and the technician threw around some technical terms, talked about fetal fluid balance and aquaporins. Both seemed pleased with what they were seeing.

“There,” Gray said first, his tone still sounding doctor-like. Professional. “Right there.” He pointed to the peanut-looking shape in the center of the screen, while the technician pushed buttons to record images and continued to move the radar device on Sage’s stomach.

When the tattooing sound first started, she’d thought it was some kind of digestive gurgle inside her. Was embarrassed. Until she recognized the evenness of the sound. It was way more rapid than she’d expected before arriving at the office that morning.

“We have a heartbeat!” the technician’s voice announced with obvious pleasure.

As enthralled as Sage was, she’d already heard the sound, though at a slightly different pitch, through her doctor’s stethoscope.

What she was most of aware in those first seconds of steady beat was Gray’s total and complete silence.

Afraid, suddenly, dreading what might be happening to him, preparing for him to walk out on her, she kept a smile on her face and glanced up at him.

The look of utter awe on his face made her heart skip a beat.

But the moisture around the rims of his eyes...that right there...most definitely a dream come true.

She’d seriously imagined, back in the day, that he’d cry when he heard their baby’s heartbeat.

And knew, without a doubt, that, as odd a family as they were, they were meant to be.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Gray was like a man on fire the rest of that day. He went from appointment to appointment, made decisions with precise, on-the-spot thought, and moved on. He knew his stuff.

And somewhere midafternoon, he stopped everything to send a text.

The earrings themselves didn’t matter to me any more than the surfboard did. I like them both, by the way. What mattered to me was that they meant something to you. The giving of them, and having the gift valued, meant a great deal.

There was no marriage proposal in the offing.

But a father taught his children by living authentically. It was something he’d heard on television somewhere along the way. That had just popped into his head out of nowhere.

A lot of things were doing that recently.

Like the fact that he hadn’t been jumping for joy with relief when Sage had first told him she wasn’t pregnant.

If anything...there’d been a tinge of disappointment. He hadn’t dwelled on it at the time. But looking back...

More and more, he was growing confident in his ability to fulfill his responsibilities to Sage and the kids.

The kids.

Like he really was some family man.

Try as he might, he still couldn’t see himself that way. And couldn’t really even say why. He didn’t doubt his ability to learn how to be a good father. Or his ability to stick around.