“I’d say so.” She read the description below the title. “Oh, look. Week-by-week look at your baby.”
“Check it out.” Chase leaned back and opened his arm in invitation. “Let’s see what the little monster is doing in there.”
Zahara had mixed feelings about learning all the details. But she was also intensely curious. And she had to figure it out sometime.
She slipped beneath Chase’s arm, but instead of opening the book, she asked him a question she’d been mulling over all night. “How does your mom do it all?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, she’s got so much going on, but she’s so together.” She looked at Chase. “I don’t know if I can do it.”
“Baby, you are more than capable. You are one of the strongest women I’ve ever met. Did I ever tell you I’m an oops baby?”
“A what?”
“A mistake. Unplanned. She and my dad were in college when mom got pregnant with me.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “They both worked their way through college with a toddler underfoot. Once they graduated and got jobs, they had Jen and Cleo. Tabitha was another oops.”
“Wow,” she said. “You’d never know it.”
“Both my parents agree each one of us was a blessing all our own. They wouldn’t do anything different. So if you’re worried about how my parents will feel about you when they find out you’re pregnant, don’t be. They’ve been there.” He grinned and held his arms wide. “And look how great I turned out. Tabitha still remains to be seen.”
“Not true,” Zahara said. “She’s adorable.”
He nodded. “Can’t argue there. That kid is a freaking ray of sunshine.”
“Dr. Cardinally wants me to have an ultrasound at the hospital at the end of the week. An official one to look at everything and give me a solid due date.” She exhaled. “Do you want to come? See the baby?”
“Seriously?” His face lit up. “Hell, yes.”
“Okay.” She nodded and turned her attention to the book. Chase made her believe she might just be able to go all in with him. “Should we see what I’m in for?”
“What we’re in for.” He kissed her temple. “I’m one hundred percent here for you, Z.”
Zahara tilted her head to look up a
t him. She’d never had a man stand by her this way, and realized in that moment, she never believed she ever would. She kissed him. “That means so much to me. To us. More than you can know.”
13
Chase whirled in a circle of strangers, frantically searching for Despina. “Greta!” he yelled, stretching to see over the heads of the extras milling along the streets of downtown Vancouver. “Greta!”
Despina cut through the crowd twenty feet away. Mark, one of the bad guys in the film, pushed extras aside, on a deliberate path toward Despina.
“Greta!” Chase hurried forward, turning sideways and pushing people aside to reach Despina before Mark did.
When he came within reach of her, Chase clutched Despina’s hand and jerked her in the direction of a nearby storefront, and ran until they were out of sight.
“And cut,” Andy yelled in the street. “That’s lunch. Everyone back here in thirty.”
Chase bumped fists with Despina. Then he glanced at his watch. He wouldn’t be back in thirty. He’d be at the hospital with Zahara for the ultrasound.
“Excited?” Despina asked.
Zahara had told Despina that Chase knew. Now they held this secret between them. “Really excited. Even more than I expected. Makes it so real, you know?”