Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
When I looked at her, understanding suddenly dawned in my eyes.
“Folsom…”
She giggled and took a seat, lifting up her dress to reveal shorts and her stomach.
“Take a seat and the sonographer will be in shortly,” the nurse chirped, then she was gone.
“Something you’d like to tell me?” I asked, feeling my heartbeat pound.
“Come sit down, Daddy.” She pointed at the seat.
That’s when things suddenly clicked.
She’d been calling me that for months.
Other things started to make sense, too.
The frequent bathroom breaks.
The way her clothes were starting to fit tighter.
The way she always seemed so emotional—though at first, I’d thought that was due to my accident.
Oh, and the way she wanted sex. All the fucking time.
Not that I would ever complain about that, but she’d gone from wanting me, to needing me, to having to have me or she’d die.
“What the fuck, Folsom?” I asked. “You couldn’t have told me when I didn’t catch on?”
I shuffled to the chair and all but collapsed into it.
She giggled as she said, “And miss this look on your face?”
I would’ve replied, but the sonographer came into the room after a short knock and said, “Y’all ready to see the baby?”
“Yes!” Folsom said, sounding as eager as I now felt.
A baby.
Holy crap.
My baby.
With Folsom.
I was going to be a father.
“You’re marrying me,” I said out of the blue as the sonographer got to work.
Folsom snorted. “That wasn’t a question.”
“I didn’t ask one,” I pointed out.
Then we didn’t say anything more as our baby came onto the screen.
I didn’t have time to freak out until we were walking outside.
“What about your disorder?” I asked. “Are you high risk?”
“I technically am,” she said as she walked beside me, looking at the photos that the lady had given us. “But not until delivery.”
I felt my heart stutter at that.
Delivery.
With a blood-clotting disorder.
If I didn’t die by getting shot in the face, I wouldn’t die with having to worry about my soon-to-be wife.
I could do this.
I could do this.
“You’ll let me go to every appointment from now on,” I told her.
She snorted. “Appointments are boring. I did tell you to come to the fun one, anyway. But yes, if you want to go, I’ll make sure that you can. I have one next week if you want to go ahead and ask the questions I can see in your eyes.”
“You’re not even looking at me,” I pointed out.
She rolled her eyes my way. “I didn’t need to.”
We got into the car, and I reclined it to ease the stress on my stupid brain.
We drove straight to a restaurant that I hadn’t realized we were going to.
Instead of asking her why we were here, I decided to just go with the flow because my brain was already processing plenty of information right now. If she wanted to go eat, I’d let her and accompany her gladly.
I walked into the restaurant on my own steam.
Right into chaos.
“Surprise!”
“Happy birthday, Kobe.” My fiancé kissed my cheek.
I narrowed my eye and glared at her. “Don’t you think you’ve given me enough surprises today?” I asked.
Her eyes twinkled as she said, “Never.”
I pulled her into my side and kissed her.
When she pulled away, breathless, she said, “I still haven’t said yes.”
My remaining eye glittered with anticipation as I said, “You will.”
“Happy birthday, Kobe.” She narrowed her eyes. “I can’t believe you thought I’d forget your birthday.”
“Not thinking you’d forget. Hoping,” I pointed out.
Birthdays had never really been my favorite things, but I had a feeling that now they would be.
JP made her way to me with balloons and said, “Happy birthday, Kobe!”
I took the balloons just as she thrust another present into my other hand.
“Should I open it now?” I asked.
She shrugged. “It’s an iPad. Yours is old as dirt. You’re welcome.”
Then she was gone, joining the mass of kids that were now playing in the large open room beyond the restaurant itself.
“Wow,” I said as I shook the box at Folsom. “I think she just told me I needed to upgrade my tech.”
Folsom wrapped her arm around mine as she said, “My kid tells it like it is.”
I snorted. “Just like her mother.”
And soon, I would have yet another one just like her.
God help me.
EPILOGUE
What wine pairs best with finding out your in-laws are staying over a day longer than you thought?
-Kobe to Folsom
KOBE
6 years later
My gaze took everything in at once.
Or tried to.
But it was a lot.
The Singh Circus was always a lot.
But every time it rolled into the town closest to us, we would go. Sometimes it would be within an hour. Other times, it would be within six.
No matter where it landed, we went.
We even went when it wasn’t anywhere close to us.
And I would always drive my family there, even if I didn’t really have any interest in a circus.
Why? Because for a year, one of Folsom’s most vulnerable, she’d needed that circus and those people. The Singh family. And I would go out of my way to make sure that I always took her to see that family. The one that she made herself when she needed them most.