Page 7 of The MC’s Surprise (Bikers and Babies #4)

Vegas

W hen Sierra offered me to come with her to her scan, I had to think about it.

On the one hand, if this wasn’t my kid, then my being there was a little weird.

But if it was, I didn't want to miss it. Butch told me how hard it was knowing he missed out on all of Ellie’s scans and watching her grow.

When Skylar got pregnant with Ryder, he refused to miss a single appointment.

I decided to go along because even if it wasn’t my kid, Sierra was sort of a friend and I didn't want her to have to do it alone. And from the look on her face, she didn't want to go alone with her mom. The woman seemed nice enough when Sierra introduced me, but I wasn’t about to argue with her. I wasn’t an idiot.

Since I rode my bike, we drove separately to the hospital and I parked alongside her once she found a spot. She smirked at me when I offered her a hand to help her down from the truck, her familiar sass back in place.

“Such a gentleman,” she teased. “I thought bikers were supposed to be the opposite of a gentleman.”

I shrugged, grinning at her. “I guess I’m just special that way.”

She laughed and I felt that same gut flipping sensation I got the first time we met. She had a great laugh. Not quiet or cut off like some women tried to do. When Sierra laughed, she did it with her whole soul.

We took the elevator up to the third floor, and I followed her to the waiting room on the right.

I sat in one of the uncomfortable chairs, looking around while she checked in.

There were pictures of babies on the walls, all new and tiny, and I felt my heart clench at the reminder that this could be my kid.

I was grateful that Sierra volunteered for the paternity test on her own.

I thought that conversation would be awkward at minimum, or an all out battle at worst. Instead, she said she understood and was willing to take one to put my mind at ease.

That alone made me believe she wasn’t lying, but just in case, I figured it wouldn’t hurt.

She barely sat down next to me when her name was called out. She sighed from the depths of her soul and I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Let me help,” I offered, standing and holding out my hands. She rolled her eyes but accepted, letting me pull her to her feet.

“It’s not even like I’m that huge yet. I’m just tired. Yet another symptom I attributed to stress that should’ve clued me in.”

She mentioned more than once that she was under a lot of stress, which was why she hadn’t noticed she was pregnant.

I figured she had to be under a hell of a lot of stress to miss being pregnant, but when I thought about asking, I stopped myself.

Whenever she mentioned it, I saw her wince subtly, like she didn't like bringing it up. I didn’t want to add to her stress by bringing up something hard to swallow.

Being pregnant was hard enough. If she wanted to talk about it, I’d listen, but I wasn’t in a place to pester her into talking to me.

We were friends. Sort of. What else would you call a month long fling that showed up seven months later pregnant with your kid?

“So once you change into the gown, I’ll come back into the room and we’ll get started,” the tech said cheerily.

My brows snapped together. “Can’t she just lift up her shirt or whatever?”

The tech snickered, which made me feel dumb for asking until I noticed Sierra looked just as confused as I felt. “Nope. To get all the information we need, we’ll need to do both and internal and external scan. It doesn’t hurt, I promise.”

Sierra blanched a little, giving me an awkward look as the tech skipped out of the room. To ease the tension a little, I waved my hand at the door.

“Do you think they had sugar for breakfast?”

“That, or cocaine,” she offered with a smirk.

Sometimes her replies blew my mind and I barked out a laugh in response. When she wiggled her finger in a circle, I obligingly turned around to give her privacy to change into the gown.

“So, uh… the woman from the casino,” she began, the sound accompanied by rustling as she changed.

“Who? Charlotte?”

“Is that her name? She didn’t introduce herself.”

I pressed my lips together, debating. It felt awkward to talk to Sierra about Charlotte but I couldn’t just ignore her question either.

“She’s my floor manager. Or, one of them anyway. She works the day shift.”

Sierra hummed and I heard the paper on the table crinkle as she sat down. “Is she new?”

I peeked over my shoulder, making sure she was covered before turning around. “No, actually she’s been my manager for about two years now.”

“Huh. I never met her when I worked with you.”

She plucked at the weird paper blanket, trying to cover more of herself. I moved to help her automatically, straightening it out so she was more comfortable.

“She was actually on vacation when you worked with me. Some big European trip with her family or something. She got back not long after you left.”

Something about her face was off, but I didn’t have time to figure out why.

The tech came back in, smiling brightly as they explained what they’d be doing.

I was directed to a chair on Sierra’s other side, out of the way of the tech.

The whole situation was awkward, but it all fell away when the image appeared on the screen.

I sucked in a sharp breath, choking a little on my own spit. “Holy shit. That’s a whole ass baby.”

The image shook and for a second I freaked out until I realized Sierra was laughing at me. Even the tech looked amused, head tipped curiously. “Is this Daddy’s first ultrasound?”

My mouth fell open and Sierra started laughing harder, to the point the tech had to pull the little stick thing off her belly. “Not like that! They mean baby daddy!”

My cheeks heated and I wrinkled my nose. “Shut up. You can see how I got there.”

The tech let out a startled laugh, their cheeks turning a bright shade of pink. “Oh, god. Now I’m going to think about that every time a dad comes in for an ultrasound. I mean, you’re cute, but I don’t really see you as a Daddy.”

They gave me an elevator look, which only shocked me again and my jaw hit the floor. Sierra burst into laughter again, tears gathering in her eyes from laughing so hard. This shit was heavy and awkward, but at least she was laughing. Even if it was at my expense.

“How about we get back to business?” the tech snickered. “I’m going to take measurements, and we’ll get you lots and lots of pictures too. Do we want to know the gender?”

Sobering a little, Sierra shrugged. “I guess?” She shot me a questioning look, but I didn’t mind either way.

“Why not? The crew kids are about even on gender. Let’s find out who’s going to pull out a winner.”

“The gender wars,” Sierra said dramatically, which made me snort.

After the scan, where we didn’t get to find out the gender thanks to the baby having their legs crossed, and I spent way too long making vibrator jokes during the internal scan thing, Sierra told me we need to head downstairs for bloodwork.

While we were there, she would request a paternity test. I thought they would have to wait until the baby was born, but I guess things have changed and there was a non-invasive option that we could do right away.

In two weeks, give or take, we’d find out for sure if the kid was mine.

Internally, I had pretty much accepted that it was.

I only knew her for a short time, but Sierra wasn’t the kind of person to lie.

And when the tech gave a rough estimate on the date of conception, it was smack in the middle of when we were hooking up.

It felt stupid to pretend for another two weeks that we weren’t in this mess together.

“That’ll be four hundred dollars. How did you want to pay today?”

Yanked out of my thoughts, I swung around just in time to see the grimace flash across Sierra’s face as she offered her credit card. I lunged forward, snatching it out of her hand, and gave the nurse mine instead.

“I’ve got it.”

“You don’t have to–”

“Yes, I do,” I cut her off. “You’re not doing this alone, Sierra. That’s my kid too. It’s only right that I pay for shit since you’re doing the lion’s share of the work carrying it.”

Sierra didn’t seem to know what to say to that. The nurse eyed us both for a moment before inputting my card into the system. When she offered it back, she smiled at me before looking at Sierra.

“Good partners step up. He’s doing the right thing. There’s nothing wrong with accepting help while you’re expecting.”

A muscle in Sierra’s jaw twitched, but she forced herself to smile. “Thank you. What floor is the lab on?”

“First floor, on the left. Have a nice day.”

The awkwardness was back as we headed for the lab, the elevator ride silent as the grave. I hated it after seeing her smiling like I remembered, so I turned to face her. “Listen…”

“Don’t,” she murmured, eyes locked on the numbers as they went down. “I know I’m not in a place to argue with you. Not while I’m out of a job and living with my parents.”

She said that, but she looked like she wanted to argue anyway. When I raised an eyebrow at her, she sighed heavily.

“It just irks, you know? I’ve been trying to do things on my own since I was a teen.

I hate relying on other people. I’ve been looking for a job, but I know the possibilities are slim while I’m like this.

” She gestured to her belly with a frown.

“I’m reliant on other people right now and it kills me. Especially after–”

When she cut herself off, I could see the pain that flashed across her face. I moved past it, since I knew she wasn’t ready to talk about it yet, shuffling closer so I could put my hand on her arm.

“I get that. I’d probably feel the same way. But think of it this way. If we paid you by the hour for the work you’re doing literally creating a kid, then I’m way behind payments. You gotta give me a chance to catch up.”

A flicker of a smile flashed across her face. It felt like a win to me, so I kept pushing. “My crew’s got this thing about spoiling the crew kids too. If I don’t get a head start, I’ll lose the favorite spot for my own kid before its even born.”

That made her laugh, shaking her head like she thought I was ridiculous. But she was smiling again, and when she finally looked at me, she didn’t look close to angry tears like she had before.

“Okay. I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull it off, so… Thank you.”