I toss the magazine on the chair next to me and stand to help Chelcie up. She laughs but takes my hand anyway, and we make our way back to the exam room.

She was spot on when she told me what would happen. She got pissed as hell when I acted like I was looking at the scale, and I’ve been laughing about it since the nurse left the room ten minutes ago.

“I told you not to look! Oh, God…I’m going to get fat and you’re going to be so disgusted!”

Well, that sure sobered my amusement real quick. After getting up from my seat, I walk over to her. “Chelcie, I was just joking. Trust me right now, okay? There isn’t anything that could make me find you disgusting. Looking at you, with that sexy belly, those full breasts just begging for my mouth, those hot-as-hell hips begging for my fingers to dig in deep. Baby, there is nothing in the world that could ever make you disgusting.”

“Oh.” She looks up at me, and once again, she bursts into tears.

I just shake my head and pull her into my arms. “We need to work on all this damn crying,” I joke.

A brisk knock on the door has me stepping away, unsure of where I should be. An older Spanish woman walks in with a smile on her face. She introduces herself as Dr. Sosa and starts asking Chelcie a bunch of questions. She doesn’t even bat an eye at my being here. It gives me a warm sense of pride that she just knows that I’m here with my woman.

I am so lost in thought that I miss her doing half of her exam on Chelcie. I look over to see her placing a small drop of gel on her stomach and wonder if this is it. Chelcie, perceptive as always, looks over and shakes her head slowly with a smile on her face. When the doctor pulls some small box with a microphone-looking thing on it out of her lab coat, I can feel my brows turn in. Well, this wasn’t on the list of what would happen.

“Cálmate, Daddy. I’m just listening to your bebé’s heartbeat.”

My eyes widen and shoot to Chelcie when I hear her call me Daddy. We haven’t discussed my role in the baby’s life. Will I be the uncle/boyfriend, the uncle/husband, the uncle/daddy? Because every time I think I should bring it up, I feel even more confused. I know what I want—I want to raise this baby as if it were my own—but I also want him or her to know who their daddy is. I will never let a day go by that this baby doesn’t know how much their daddy wishes he could be here. But yeah—I want to be the daddy in the sense of the word.

I take a chance and look over at Chelcie. She’s looking at me with an expression of love and contentment. I take a deep breath and squeeze her hand. Whatever just happened here, we can talk about later, but right now, all I feel is peace and happiness.

Then it happens.

I look over at Dr. Sosa then down to Chelcie’s belly, where that weird microphone is pressed against her skin. The noise echoing through the room sounds like a million horses running at rapid speed. I widen my eyes when I realize what that noise is.

Holy Lord, that’s the heartbeat!

I stand there in shock, my eyes refusing to move from her stomach even after Dr. Sosa removes the microphone thing and goes to address Chelcie.

“Oh, cariño, the bebé sounds perfect. 142 beats per minute. Nice and healthy.” She smiles and moves to the computer on the desk. “Are you ready for the ultrasound? Such an exciting time, yes?”

“Yes, Dr. Sosa. I’ve been waiting for this appointment since I found out I was pregnant. Do you think that we’ll be able to find out the gender today?” Chelcie asks wistfully.

“I believe that, if you’ve got a cooperative little one, then we should have no troubles.”

I help Chelcie off the table and steady her until she can straighten her clothing. She looks up at me, questions in her eyes, and I just smile. I know she’s wondering how I’m dealing with all of this. Truth be told, this is the most astounding moment of my life. I can’t describe what that felt like. To hear the life growing inside her belly was thrilling and magical. I don’t think, until this moment, that it had really hit me that this is real.

Dr. Sosa leads us down the hall into a room that is dimly lit. There’s an exam table that looks more comfortable than the last one she was in and a big machine with all sorts of knobs and shit on it next to the table. And then there’s the screen. A large projector type screen sits opposite her table.

I take another deep breath, help Chelcie back onto the table, and move to stand out of the way. Before I can get too far, her hand shoots out and grabs my arm.

She looks at me shyly for a second before speaking. “Please? You belong right next to me, baby.”