Page 55 of Forbidden Cowboy
“Do you know who the father is?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you with him?”
I blinked back tears at that, and the sudden implications of it. Leaving Wyatt behind had been hard enough when it was just me. How could I possibly raise a child on my own?
“No,” I said quietly.
“Hey, think of it this way,” Nadia said, obviously trying to put a positive spin on things. “You’ll be able to bring them to all our games! Our very youngest fan! We’ll make sure you two get a season pass every year.”
“Yeah…” I trailed off.
Somehow the thought was both exhilarating and terrifying. Me, holding the hand of some kid, wearing Larks jerseys and sitting in VIP seating. What terrified me was that we’d be alone.
“Miss Carter,” a woman said, coming into the room, and I had flashbacks to Dr. Dearns. “I’m Dr. Jamison.”
“Hi,” I said, and heard the waiver in my own voice. “Am I okay? Is-is the baby?”
“I just wanted to check on that for myself,” she said. “But I want you to stay calm if you can. Your friend here, are you happy to have her in the room or would you like us to speak to you privately?”
I gripped Nadia’s hand tighter. I had no one else. She wasn’t going anywhere.
“You can speak with her here,” I croaked.
Nadia was looking down at her hand squeezed in my vice-like grip in alarm. I didn’t loosen my grasp. I was pregnant and something was wrong with the baby I hadn’t known existed until today. I was going to squeeze as hard as I wanted to.
Even if it was on the hand of a future WNBA star.
“Alrighty,” Dr. Jamison said with a bright voice. “Let’s see what we’ve got here, then.”
The ultrasound device was placed back on my stomach, and the doctor began palpating my abdomen with it like the ultrasound technician had done. Her face changed from a look of concentration, to one of surprise.
“What?”
The device was removed from my stomach, and Dr. Jamison took a deep breath.
“Your technician, Selena, called me in here because she was initially concerned that you might be carrying multiples.”
“But she was wrong, right?”
I couldn’t afford twins. I probably couldn’t afford one baby, buttwo? Out of the question.
“No, Miss Carter, you are carrying multiples, and by the looks of the ultrasound, you’re carrying triplets.”
Chapter Eighteen
Wyatt
Iwas a wreck.
The house was a mess, and I hadn’t found the will to interview a new cleaner. Anna, Eliana, and I had eaten nothing but takeout or easy things like omelets and cereal for weeks, and it was starting to show around my waist. I felt sick most of the time as well, but I had a sneaking suspicion that it had more to do with the constant heartbreak I was carrying around than anything else.
Sierra was a constant presence, even if she was physically absent. Her room was a living reminder of everything I’d lost, the bed still unmade from the last time she’d slept there, some clothes she’d forgotten growing musty in the drawers. I had looked in her closet once, and found the green dress hanging there.
What had she meant, she couldn’t pretend? Had everything between us been a lie? Had she only been pretending to feel the way I did?
It hurt me so much to consider. If she had truly only been pretending, it had been a damn good act. When did it become one? That first few days in the hospital, when she had given me the cold shoulder? Or had it been before that, even? Did I lose Sierra the moment I rejected her after her graduation?