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Despite her obvious nerves, he grinned. “I seem to remember you liking that thing I do with my tongue.”
“I do.” She twisted a lock of blue hair around her finger. “I know it’s last minute and I completely understand if you can’t come. It’s at one at a clinic close to my apartment.”
He stepped closer and framed her face with his hands, guiding her to meet his gaze. “Of course I’ll be there. I have a meeting, but I can reschedule. One of the perks of being the boss.” She looked so unsure that he smoothed his thumbs over her cheekbones. “Unless you don’t want me to go?” Aaron wanted to be in that room with her more than anything, especially since he’d missed her appointment last month. He’d only known about it because Becka mentioned it in passing, giving him a rundown as if it hadn’t occurred to her to bring him and his presence there was no big deal.
It had stung. Fuck yes, it’d stung.
But ultimately having him there was her choice. If he’d learned anything in his time with Becka, it was that he couldn’t badger his way into anything when it came to her. She’d just dig in her heels and set her jaw in that way that would be adorable if it didn’t signal the start of a knock-down, drag-out fight.
She pressed her lips together. “I’d like you to be there. It just feels like a big step.”
He laughed. He couldn’t help it. “I hate to be the one to break it to you, minx, but having a baby is about as big a step as two people can take. We’re already there.”
“Correction—we’ll be there in just over five months.”
He bit back a sharp response to that. Her insistence at holding off talking about anything resembling the future was the one black spot on their time together. “I’ll be at the appointment. Do you want me to pick you up or meet you there?”
“Might as well meet me there.” She huffed out a breath. “This is silly, right? I shouldn’t be so stressed out over a doctor’s appointment.”
It was a big deal. This would be the appointment with the ultrasound, the halfway point through the pregnancy. It was also the appointment when they’d get a good idea if the baby was progressing as it should—or if there were glaring problems.
Aaron pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. “No matter what happens, I’m there.” Maybe if he said it enough times, she’d actually start to believe him. Maybe. He didn’t know what the right words were. Hell, he didn’t seem to have right words when it came to Becka. He wasn’t walking on eggshells, but he was aware that one wrong step might fracture the careful peace they’d formed around themselves.
Not for the first time, it registered that things couldn’t last as they stood now.
But as he looked down into her worried expression, he couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger. Not yet. Tomorrow after the doctor’s appointment would be more than soon enough. They could have tonight. The real world—the future—had waited this long. It could wait another eighteen hours or so.
Aaron smoothed back her hair. “Are you hungry?”
She gave him a half smile. “Is that a trick question?”
If the baby books he’d read had taught him anything, it was that every pregnancy was different. Becka didn’t seem to be suffering many of the ill effects that often showed up, but her appetite was unrelenting. It amused him even as he worried that she wasn’t getting enough. With her job, she burned a significant number of calories every day, and even with her near-constant snacking and meals, it was possible she was in deficit.
He took her hand and led her into the kitchen. “Protein, veggie, carb.”
“Chicken, spinach, rice.” She didn’t miss a beat. “Preferably with some kind of cheese on top.”
Aaron laughed and dug through his fridge to find the chicken and spinach and then pulled a bag of rice from the pantry. He loved these moments with Becka. She dictated dinner, and he put it together while she sipped what had become her customary cranberry juice and they chatted about their respective days.
This is what it could be.
This is what it should be.
She propped her chin in her hands and watched him. “I think I have a solution to your Cameron problem. I mean, at least in theory it’s a good option.”
He covered the chicken breasts in wax paper and pounded them with a meat tenderizer to flatten them. “At this point, I’m about to start praying to some ancient god for patience.” They’d managed to hire a secretary...and the guy lasted exactly forty-eight hours before he quit in a huff after a snarling conversation with Cameron about their differing methods of filing.
“He’s the best damn security-tech expert in the country, but he is just as good at alienating people. It was never an issue when we were a different kind of company, but our workload grew and our clients changed—and Cameron didn’t.” It wasn’t that he expected his friend to change. Cameron was Cameron, and that was one of the things Aaron had always liked about him. But something had to give, and it had to happen fast. He hadn’t talked to Becka about it yet, but he fully intended to take some time off after she had the baby so he could be there to help.
So she wouldn’t be alone.
So he could spend time with his new baby.
The only way he’d be able to pull that off, though, was to find the time to hire someone to handle the client-facing aspect of the company so Cameron wouldn’t drive off every client they had with his inability to tolerate corporate bullshit while he was gone. He was belatedly realizing that a secretary wouldn’t cut it. He needed someone with a wider skill set.
Becka laughed. “I don’t think that will be necessary. Didn’t you say that your little sister was looking for a job? That she was tired of living with your very wonderful parents?”
He had mentioned Trish more than few times over the last month. His little sister had been badgering him to let her come visit. He’d eventually told her about Becka and the pregnancy, and Trish had been asking to come check out the future mother of his child. Aaron had barely held her off. He fully expected to turn around one day in the near future and find her at his front doorstep with her sunny smile and determination.
