That hot son of a bitch wants me to have his baby.
I don't feel duped. I believe what I told Gina. I think he did want the timing to be my choice. I place the socks back in the drawer and slide it shut with a thump.
I look at the six-hundred-page book in front of me and, feeling overwhelmed by everything I don't know, snap it shut and place it back on the shelf. Returning to Luke's chair, I tuck my feet up beside me and wrap my arms around my bent knees.
I'm wondering how much longer I'll be able to sit like this before my stomach prevents such a configuration when Luke walks in. He pauses with his hand on the doorknob, taking me in, sitting behind his desk.
"Sophie," he says, looking relieved to see me, yet wary at the same time. He shuts the door behind him with a click and takes a seat across from me.
"You bought a car that will accommodate car seats?"
"Yes," he replies, his face giving away nothing at my random conversation starter. I expected some kind of denial, so I'm not sure what to do with this.
"You got a baby car before telling me"—I point to myself—"that we're having a baby. That’s wrong, don’t you think?" I say with a hint of ire. "You're ridiculous. We won't even need it for another eight months."
He smiles then, the biggest smile I think I've ever seen on this face. "Seven, actually."
I pause and drop my hand. I don't even know how pregnant I am. I shake my head at him and turn my gaze away from him as Luke moves around to sit on the edge of the desk in front of me.
"Why are you mad?" he asks, caressing my cheek with his thumb. "I know it's scary, Sophie, but everything's going to be fine. Perfect, even."
"You're laughing at me," I protest.
"I'm not." He shakes his head to emphasize it.
"Then why are you smiling?"
"Because you said we're having a baby."
"Well, yeah," I answer, confused. "You already knew that."
"I knew you were pregnant." He pauses, searching my eyes. "I didn't know if you'd want it."
"I do want it. But I'm scared. This isn't what I'd planned."
"I know you have plans that don't include a baby just yet, and I'm sorry I put you in this position. But if this is what you want, we can make it work." He stops and searches my face again. "I want it, Sophie. You, the baby, all of it."
I nod. "We'll figure it out."
"Together?"
He holds out his hand and I take it.
Epilogue
Luke
Sophie doesn’t know it, but today is our fifth anniversary. Five years ago today I took a wrong turn that changed my life. There was construction on Walnut. I detoured and missed my normal stop at Starbucks. I spotted Grind Me and stopped on a whim, desperate for a jolt of caffeine before the clinic.
I had no reason to go back the next week. Or the week after that. Weeks of detours for no reason other than a glance at a barista named Sophie. I had to finish the coffee in my damn car every day since I wasn’t about to walk into a student clinic holding a cup stamped Grind Me.
I never intended to start up anything with her. I knew she was young. I assumed she was a grad student at the very least, but that was still too young for me. It was nothing more than a harmless ego boost at first - watching her pupils dilate when I spoke, her cheeks flush when she handed me coffee. Seeing her eyes follow me in the reflection of the glass every morning as I strode out of the cafe.
Slowly I began to question, Why not her? I could take her out to dinner. Fuck her. Get her out of my system. But hell, she looked like the kind of girl who’d need to be called the next day. She looked like the kind of girl who had baby names picked out and would practice writing Mrs. Miller on scraps of paper. She looked terrifying.
But I didn’t have any idea what terrifying actually felt like until I realized that I was the one who wanted all those things, and I wasn’t sure she did. That maybe the past was repeating itself. That maybe Sophie might be more interested in a career than a husband and children, with no faith that she could have both.
I glance at her, sleeping next to me. She’s stirring with the morning sun filtering in. We don’t have long before the girls will be awake and the day begins. I reach over and trace kisses down her jaw to her chest.
"Mmm, good morning to you too, Dr. Miller. Tell me you locked the door?" she pleads.
I release a nipple from my teeth before replying. "Locked, and they’re both still asleep." I part her legs and move between them as I kiss her stomach. "Based on the time we should have at least twenty minutes."
She laughs. "Remember when we had all day?"
"I do." I grin at her.
"I miss the marathons, but I do enjoy seeing how creative you can be on a deadline."
"Do you?" I ask and drop her ankles over my shoulders.
"Uh-huh."
"I enjoy it when you visit me at work after dropping the girls off at the hospital daycare."
"Do you think we're bad parents? Are the other parents using daycare to slip in a middle-of-the-day fuck?"
"If they're not, they should be."
"It was one thing when they couldn't walk, but they're little terrors now."
I pause and raise my head. "You don't want another one?"
"We have two!" she exclaims. "Under five! I just got Christine off to pre-school and I finally have Alessandra out of diapers."
"Well, maybe you'll change your mind?" I raise an eyebrow at her.
"Wait a minute." She sits up and scoots away from me. "Wait, wait, wait." She eyes me, scowling. "Do you think I'm pregnant now?"
"You're three days late."
"You're three days annoying."
"I love the way your insults don't even make sense when you're flustered." I reach for her calf to pull her back to me, but she dodges me and grabs her phone from the nightstand.
I wait patiently while she thumbs through looking for her period-tracker app.
“How do you do that?” She scowls. “You don’t even have the app!”
"Pregnancy tests under the sink," I call out as she stomps off to the bathroom. "I can get a blood draw this week when you stop in for office sex."