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I sighed. It was true that I had a hard time letting her out my sight. Funny enough, as soon as we were able to get Alex caught was the same exact time that my overprotectiveness ramped up to an even more extreme level. After all, she was pregnant with my baby.
But as soon as I’d started to realize how deeply I’d fallen for her, I’d realized that the rules I’d made for her safety were also serving my own insecurities, and I’d known that I needed to get ahold of myself before I started resembling the asshole whose cruelty had driven her to me in the first place.
I’d committed to myself that I wouldn’t control her actions, and as much as it grated, I watched her leave the cabin to go shopping and run errands. I’d even stopped asking her to share her location, and she’d felt my forehead, saying it was a huge step.
She met my eyes now, and I looked at her, reaching up to run my thumb along her cheekbone and then her lip.
“I’m working on it.”
“I know.”
* * *
“Do you see that flickering there?” asked the doctor, pointing at the screen in front of us. “That’s the heartbeat.”
She smiled at us as we sat in the doctor’s office, and I couldn’t stop gripping Macy’s hand throughout the examination. We’d made at the OB/GYN that Ally had recommended to us after she’d stopped crowing that she’d been right the first time I’d met Macy at the market. When I’d looked at her, confused, she’d just rolled her eyes and said we could discuss it later.
“You’re about ten weeks pregnant, Macy,” said the doctor, examining the little blob on the screen. We looked at each other, counting back, and remembered that fateful night when she’d asked me if I’d be willing to drink with her. I had, and then we’d found another way to alleviate the tension in the air.
“Is my baby healthy?” Macy asked, gripping my hand as tightly as I was gripping hers. I knew her concerns. After what had happened with Alex, she’d been unable to relax at the thought that his actions might’ve hurt our kid, and she’d been counting down to this appointment.
“From everything I can see, your baby is perfectly healthy.” Dr. Jacobs smiled reassuringly before pressing a button that took a screenshot, setting down the little fetal monitor. “Why don’t you get cleaned up and dressed, and we can go over some pregnancy care instructions.”
She got up and washed her hands before leaving the room. Macy sat up, and the two of us rested our foreheads against each other for a second, allowing the tears to flow.
“It’s okay, babe. It’s okay,” I said, leaning forward to kiss her.
“I know.”
* * *
“So what do you want to do now, babe?” I asked as I threw the truck into drive, pulling out of the doctor’s office.
“Well, I want to go home and FaceTime Mom and show her the picture,” she said, cradling the little printout of our sonogram to her chest, “and I’d like to look into getting some of the rest of my stuff shipped out here from LA. But first, I’d like to stop by Maria’s café because I could kill a man for a latte and a chocolate croissant.”
I chuckled. “You’re such a weirdo.”
“You love it.”
I looked at her, my eyes soft, and let the words come easily. “No—I love you.”
EPILOGUE
MACY - TWO YEARS LATER
As I closed up my office that night, I thought of the last few things I had to do before I got home. It was my turn to make dinner that night, and Dillon had sent me a last-minute list of things to grab before I got home, so I went to the supermarket and grabbed everything I needed as quickly as I could.
“Hey, girl,” Ally said as she checked me out. “Are we doing happy hour this week?”
“You know it,” I said, grinning. “Dillon already knows that he’s staying in for the night.”
“So what else is new?”
We both laughed at how little had changed. Even if he’d started making more friends in town and opening up more, my husband still liked to stick close to home.
“I have to go, but I’ll text you, okay?”
“Sounds good, hon.” She smiled at me, and I waved happily at my old coworkers as I left. I was a completely different person than the one they’d hired, but then again, the woman they’d hired had been a shell of the person I was.
