Down Fall (Fallen Duet 2)

She lifted her hand, covering mine as a chuckle slipped from between her lips. “Who doesn’t like pancakes?”

“Wanna come get some with me?”

She leaned forward and pressed her lips against mine. “I’d get pancakes with you every day for the rest of my life,” she whispered.

And that was good enough for me.

Chapter Sixteen

LOLA

I bounced my foot as I bit the side of my thumb and glanced around. I was on edge, the nerves running rampant throughout my body. The last time I was sitting in this office I had Jan next to me and I didn’t know how I was going to pay to see the doctor. This time I had—

“Will you stop?” Brody said, his voice low as he placed his hand on my knee to stop me bouncing it. “You’re making me more nervous.”

“I can’t help it,” I rushed out. I turned to face him, hating he exuded calm while I was over here falling apart. “I haven’t seen the baby since it was just a blob. And, according to the internet, it’s the size of a bell pepper now.” I placed my hand on my small bump.

“So it’s no longer called blob?” Brody asked, his brow rising. “We gotta call it bell pepper?”

“Bell for short,” I told him.

He chuckled and moved his hand up to my thigh, squeezing once. “Like the princess?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Like the rich people use to call their butlers.”

“Lola Martin?”

My stomach dipped, and my eyes widened. I’d done way too much research on pregnancy and all the things that could happen. I was scared of what we’d see at this ultrasound, but I knew if anything happened, we’d deal with it—together.

Brody stood first and held his hand out to me. I placed mine in his, letting him lead me to the door where the nurse stood. The bright lights in the hallway flashed around me as we followed the nurse into a room. She reeled off what would happen at this appointment: blood tests, an ultrasound, and then the doctor coming to talk to us, but all I could do was nod until she left the room.

Brody held up the gown thing I had to change into and waited as I pulled most of my clothes off. My boobs were bursting out of my bra, and if the flash in his eyes was anything to go by, he liked it. I couldn’t think about that right now, though. All I could do was concentrate on getting dressed and waiting for the nurse to return.

She whooshed back into the room when I was on the bed, a tray of some kind in her hand, and then she was poking at me, drawing blood from my veins with a smile on her face.

“Are you excited to see baby again?” she asked, her blond hair covering half of her face as she looked down at the blood filling the tube.

“Yeah,” I croaked out, my voice apparently having given up.

“You’ll be able to find the sex out today if luck is on your side,” she commented, and I darted my attention to Brody. We hadn’t spoken about finding out early, but now that the option was on the table…

“Do you want to find out?” I asked him, wincing as the nurse pulled the needle from my arm and pressed some gauze against the pinprick wound.

“It’s up to you,” he replied.

“No.” I shook my head. “I’m not making this decision. You decide.”

“Let’s find out.” He grinned. “That way we’ll know what color to paint the nursery at home.”

The nursery.

It had been just over a week since he asked if I’d move in with him, and he hadn’t dropped a hint since. Part of me wondered if he didn’t want me to anymore, but the word “home” made me realize he was still waiting for my answer.

My apartment was on a three-month rolling lease, so technically, I only had a couple of weeks until it rolled into the next three months. I had to make a decision, but it wasn’t really a decision, was it? I knew the answer to his question when he first asked. I just didn’t want to rush into it.

The nurse left the room, leaving only the two of us in here, and I opened my mouth, about to tell him I’d move in, but the door opened again, and the same sonographer from last time walked in.

“Nice to see you again, Lola.” She flicked her gaze over at Brody as she shut the door. “Is this the baby’s dad?”