Kiss My Boots (Coming Home #2)

“Not here for a quickie, Starch.”

He looks confused. “Then what are you here for? You just had your checkup two months ago with Russ, darlin’. I could have written a scrip if you’re low on your birth control at home.” He steps closer and trails his finger down my cheek. “You know I love playin’ doctor, Quinn, but you’re gonna have to wait until the pateints aren’t fillin’ the buildin’.”

“Not here for any of that either.”

His brows pull in even more.

“Need a checkup, Tate. One only you can give me. Figure the rest out.”

“Darlin’, it’s been a long mornin’. I just got done doin’ a checkup house call at Mark and Janie’s since she’s on bed rest until she delivers the triplets. Before that, it was patient after patient since Russ is out today with a stomach bug. My mind just isn’t firin’ on all cylinders at the moment.”

Taking pity on him, I rise from the exam table and stand, looking up at his handsome face. I bring my hand up, my diamond engagement ring winking at me as it catches light, and rub my palm against his cheek. Seeing that ring, the one I only wear when I’m not working at the shop, just makes my emotions amp up until I’m looking at him through blurry, tear-filled eyes.

“Give me a pregnancy test, Starch.”

His eyes widen, and had it not been something he could do on muscle memory alone, I’m not sure he would have been able to figure it out. He stands stock-still as I slip out of the exam room and into the bathroom across the hall to get a urine sample. He’s in the same position when I walk back in and place the cup on the counter. His hands move in slow, practiced movements as he collects a small amount and drops it into the test window of the pregnancy kit he must have gotten out while I was gone.

His harsh breathing is the only thing that I hear as we both stand, waiting for the test to tell us if I am, in fact, carrying our child. It feels like a lifetime, but when I see the two lines indicating a positive result, my heart feels near full to bursting. I look up at him to see him still staring down at the test, his cheeks wet and his jaw slack.

“I love you, Daddy,” I whisper, leaning up to kiss his jaw, tasting the salt of his tears.

I grab the purse I had tossed in the chair before walking out of the room. I smile at Gladys and thank her for fitting me in before walking on what feels like air to Homer. I don’t stick around because he wasn’t wrong when he said the exam room wasn’t the place to get in a quickie and if I know my man, he’s going to want to celebrate when the shocked happiness I left him experiencing wears off.

I make it home just twenty minutes before I hear the familiar sound of his steps on the porch. I had been standing in the middle of the living room, waiting, that confident that he wasn’t far behind me, so when he throws open the front door in a rush I’ve got a front-row seat.

“You just left me like that?” he whispers hoarsely. His eyes are red and I know he probably didn’t stop those tears from falling until well after I left.

“I knew you wouldn’t be far behind me, honey.”

He closes the distance between us. “Oh you did?”

I nod. “You wouldn’t have wanted to celebrate with an office full of patients, Starch. Just lookin’ out for my baby daddy and all.” I smirk, feeling my chin start to tremble. “You’re gonna be a daddy,” I breathe, his hands framing my face as his thumbs wipe away the tears that finally escape my eyes.

“You’re gonna be a mama.”

“God, Tate,” I choke out with a sob, smiling through the happy tears. “I love you so much I feel like I could burst.”

He presses his forehead against mine, pulling me closer. “Always knew it would be a wild and unpredictable ride with you, Grease. Not sure I could love you more than I do right now, knowin’ you’re givin’ me somethin’ as beautiful as our first child.”

The tears continue to fall down my face as he presses his lips against mine, stripping us both down before carrying me to the bedroom and showing me just how happy he is that we’ve created a life with the love we feel for each other.

It was a long road, us getting here, but when I have him holding me in his arms—skin-to-skin—and his large palm resting low on my stomach, protective over the space that will grow as our child does, I know I feel it down to my bones, that full feeling of being complete inside me tipping over the edge even more.

This, this moment right here, makes every single second that it took for us to get here worth it. We’re building our forever now, and there isn’t a damn thing that could take this from us.

I’ve got everything.

And it’s freaking beautiful.