“Are you nervous, hon?” I reached over and grabbed Kyle’s hand to stop him from fidgeting with the hem of his paper gown while the doctor made notes. My brother had recommended Dr. Hunt to us. Apparently the omega physician had been the same one who’d delivered Lukas and Gideon’s little ones.

I didn’t care whether he was an alpha or omega, or even whether he was old enough to shave—which the jury was still out on, despite the fact that Beau swore that he was in his mid-thirties. No, all I cared about was whether or not he could deliver a healthy baby for me and Kyle. But after he’d done such a good job of making sure that the twins survived Lukas’ pregnancy, Beau couldn’t stop singing his praises.

After he’d finished writing in Kyle’s chart, he glanced up with a friendly smile. “All right, time for the moment we’ve all been waiting for—the big reveal.” He squirted some gel onto Kyle’s baby bump, then ran his little wand over it that fed information back to the machine. At any other time I’d have been entranced by the gadgets, but right now I only had eyes for what, or rather who, was on the screen.

Kyle squeezed my hand as our baby came into view. Dr. Hunt paused to take measurements while Kyle and I watched in rapt attention. “Oh, I almost forgot. I think we need a little ambient noise, don’t you?” The doctor tapped a button on his keyboard and the whooshing, thump-thump-thump of our baby’s heartbeat blasted through the speakers. Dr. Hunt winced and adjusted the volume. “Sorry about that, I didn’t realize that it was set so high. But hey, at least we know the little guy has a strong heartbeat.”

“Guy?” Kyle asked, his eyes searching the monitor for some sign of what the doctor had mentioned.

Dr. Hunt chuckled. “Sorry about that, I misspoke. I haven’t actually looked under the hood yet, so to speak. I gather from your reactions that you want to know the gender of the baby?”

Kyle smiled shyly while eagerly nodding his head. “Yes, please. If you can see it, I’d like that.”

“Not to beat a dead horse, but as I said at the beginning of our appointment today—if you hadn’t needed to reschedule your appointment last month, you could have found this out then.” Dr. Hunt winked, taking the sting out of his chiding. At five months along, Kyle was way overdue for this appointment.

“I’m sorry, Dr. Hunt. I won’t reschedule again. Things at work have been so busy that I lost track of the time passing by. I’ll do better now, I’ve finally learned how to sync my Google calendar with my phone so I can get alerts. Between my nutrition classes at our gym and my growing catering business, I’ve been a little overwhelmed.”

Dr. Hunt smiled with commiseration at Kyle’s honesty regarding work. “It’s easy to do, especially when you’re building a business. I was at that last event you catered at the TAB foundation for Beau. Your food was impressive, to say the least. Gideon made sure that I got one of your cards, in fact. Rest assured, if I ever need a caterer, you’ll be my first choice. Especially if you make those mini empanadas.” He stopped when he saw what he was looking for on the screen and held the wand in place on Kyle’s stomach while he tapped at the keyboard with his other hand and zoomed in for a better look.

He stopped to take a few more measurements before turning back to us with a smile. “Congratulations, gentlemen. You’re having a girl.”

Kyle and I both turned to each other, our eyes filled with tears as we melted. I grinned excitedly. “I have to admit, I love the idea of having a little princess to spoil.”

Dr. Hunt shook his head with a wry laugh. “You say that now. Be careful, papa. They’re awfully cute and easy to spoil when they’re tiny, but then they become tyrants when they’re toddlers. Take it from a guy with three kids of his own at home.”

“Three kids, and you’re a doctor?” Kyle asked in a voice filled with awe. “Hopefully your kids’ other dad is a lot of help.”

The doctor rolled his eyes and blew out a breath. “If only. Troy is a great guy, don’t get me wrong. Unfortunately, he’s also career military. He spends more time across the world in The Sandbox, as they call it, than he does playing with our kids in their sandboxes. That’s why I was at your brother’s event for the foundation. I’m a big supporter of what they’re doing over there. Not only do I have more than one friend who’s been unexpectedly widowed, but it’s a very real threat to me personally. Enough about me, though; let’s get your pictures printed out and this gel cleaned off your stomach.”

By the time we left the doctor’s office, we had several prints of our baby girl. As he got in the car, Kyle surprised me. “I feel guilty for suggesting I indulge, but I’ve got a horrible craving for ice cream—rocky road, to be exact.”

I grinned over at him. “In what world is a craving for rocky road ever a bad thing?”

Kyle rolled his eyes. “In a world where I was already battling the bulge before I got pregnant? I don’t need to put on a bunch of fluff and use the baby as an excuse, Dallas.”

As I stopped at a red light, I looked over at Kyle. Speaking firmly, I made sure that he knew that I was serious. “Hon, you are your own worst critic. You’ve got to give yourself a break. Sometimes you need to just eat the damn ice cream when you crave it and enjoy your fucking life. I don’t know how many more ways to tell you that, but I mean it, you know?”

He gave me a tremulous smile and jerked out a nod. “Okay, then let’s go to the ice cream parlor. You win, I’m going to walk in there and order a big ol’ bowl of rocky road, okay?”

I grinned as the light changed and I was able to pull forward. “Okay, as long as you promise that you’ll enjoy yourself while you’re doing it. Otherwise, it doesn’t count and I’ll have to insist on a do-over.”

Kyle’s mood was dramatically lighter as we walked into the ice cream parlor. We ordered our treats and took a table near the window.

“So how’s the menu coming for that rich dude that Houston referred to you? His party is next Saturday, right?” I tried to keep up with Kyle’s growing business, but he’d really started doing more and more. The networking that my brothers were doing for him had paid off.

“Get this,” Kyle said with a dramatic eye roll. “Not only does the meal have to be gluten-free, now they want an entirely vegan menu with locally sourced produce only.”

“That sounds like a huge pain in the damn ass.” I shuddered at the thought of just how much work a menu like that would entail.

Kyle just shrugged. “It’s okay, and you know me—I do love a good challenge. I’m just glad that Gideon finally agreed to work with me. I know he’s hesitated to work while the kids are still little, but I promised I’d only ask him to work a party per week.”

I quirked a brow. “Aren’t you only doing a party per week right now?” I was glad that Kyle was limiting his calendar. Between the catering, his continuing nutrition classes at the gym, and the pregnancy, he was pretty busy. Luckily, he’d finally agreed to step down and let me hire another receptionist to replace him.

“Hush,” Kyle laughed. “Gid doesn’t need to know that.”

“I just remembered something,” I said suddenly. “Was I imagining things, or did I hear you correctly back at Dr. Hunt’s office when you referred to the gym as ours?”

“Well, I guess I kind of think of it as ours. I mean, obviously it’s your business—but I’m so involved there…” His voice trailed off when I waved a hand that it was fine.

“Don’t feel like you need to explain, I liked hearing you lay claim. I figure if you’re considering the business to be yours, then you’re probably on the same track with its legal owner.” I winked and took a bite of ice cream.

“Maybe,” Kyle said flirtatiously. “I mean, have you seen the guy that owns the gym? He’s kind of a hottie.”

We were having a great time, and I was almost sad when Kyle scraped the last bit of ice cream from his bowl and gasped when he saw the time. “We need to go, Dallas. Class starts in less than an hour and I’m pretty sure that it doesn’t look great when the instructor is late.”

I chuckled as he corralled me out the door. Now that he was coming into his own, I’d seen more and more of take-charge Kyle—and I really liked it. As we left the shop, a nasally voice called out from a few parking spots over.

“Big boy’s getting bigger, I see. What’s up with your new alpha, Kyle? Is he a tubby chaser or something? You know that I never let you eat crap like that.”

Kyle tensed as we looked over and saw Fred leaning against his police cruiser. His arms were crossed over his chest as he smirked in our direction. I wanted to walk over there and punch him in his little rat face, but I restrained myself for Kyle’s sake.

He doesn’t need to see any more violence.

He doesn’t need to see any more violence.

He doesn’t need to see any more violence.

Maybe if I said it enough times, it would sink in and I’d eventually get over the urge to pound the ever-loving shit out of Fred.

The rat bastard’s eyes narrowed as he zeroed in on Kyle’s bump. He straightened and walked closer, his eyes never leaving Kyle’s belly. When he got within touching range, he stopped and snapped his eyes up to Kyle’s.

“Holy shit, you’re not barren after all. How far along are you?” Kyle and I both knew what Fred was asking, but neither one of us was in a hurry to offer that information. Hesitating in front of a cop was probably not the best idea because the fucker immediately picked up on it.

“Is it mine? Tell the truth, Kyle, and don’t even think about lying to me.” He put his hands on his duty belt and stepped into Kyle’s personal space as if to intimidate him.

I put a hand in front of Kyle’s chest and gently nudged him back as I glared down at Fred. “Fuck off, Porky. You stink of bacon. Don’t you have better things to do than stalking us?”

Fred raised a middle finger at me and spat a thick wad of goop a few scant centimeters from the toe of my shoe. Turning back to Kyle, he held up a warning finger.

“If it’s mine, I’m taking custody after it’s born.”

“Over my dead body,” I said without thinking. “You can’t be bothered to even ask about the health of the baby or gender, but you’re already wanting to scream custody? How about asking if Kyle is doing okay? You’re a real douchebag, aren’t you? You need to walk your tiny, midget ass back to your little cop car and go do what you’re supposed to be doing—chasing down donuts.”

Fred sneered. “Now that lardass is expecting, I doubt that any donuts in the city are safe.” My fist clenched and my punch was mid-swing when Kyle stopped me by crying out my name. I remembered that I didn’t want to give into the urge to take Fred down in front of Kyle.

“You’re lucky, asshole. Kyle’s seen enough violence. He won’t see it from me—or hear about it. But if you persist in harassing us, I’ll attack you from another angle—the legal one. If you attempt to get custody of our child, we will make use of the police reports and hospital records that still exist from the night that Kyle was mysteriously injured.”

“Fuck you.” Fred smirked. “Like I’ve said all along, it’s his word against mine. Kyle knows better than to go up against me; why do you think he didn’t push in the first place?”

Kyle finally found his voice. “I didn’t push it in the first place because I was happy to just be free and leave well enough alone. Dallas is right, if you come after my child then I will press charges and come after you legally. And don’t think that I haven’t heard the rumors going around town where you’ve been playing the victim to your colleagues and claiming that I had packed up with the intent of leaving you without saying a word and that’s why I was alone in the yard when I was attacked by some unknown assailant.”

Fred flashed Kyle a wink that made me want to gag. “Like I said, good luck proving anything. But know this, tubby. If that baby is mine, muscles here isn’t raising it. I’ll see it in foster care before I let him get his ‘roided-out hands on it.”

Kyle’s face flushed red. “Will you quit calling my baby an it? If you have no desire to ask the gender, at least refer to the child as a baby.”

Waving a hand as though what Kyle had said was worthless, Fred wagged a finger at him. “I want a DNA test. I know they can do them before the brats are even born nowadays.”

“No, it’s not safe for the baby and I won’t allow it,” Kyle said firmly.

“I don’t give a shit what you’ll allow; if I’m the father then I’ll have rights,” Fred said in a low, threatening voice. “In fact, I might just call my attorney this afternoon and see about getting that test ordered.”

“Go ahead,” I said, putting an arm around Kyle and shutting down the conversation. “But that would be the stupidest thing you ever did because then there’d be legal documents proving that you cared more about proving possession than the health of the child. So yeah, go ahead and show the world what an asshole you are. I approve of that plan. And by the way? I’d have an injunction on your court order before the stamp on it was dry.”

I led Kyle away from Fred, leaving the little shit standing there sputtering while we made our way to my car. “Sorry if I acted like a bossy or controlling alpha by walking you away, hon. I just couldn’t take another second with that little weasel.”

Kyle stopped me mid-step, pulling me in for a kiss. “I loved every second of it. Thank you for standing up for me, and more importantly, for our baby.”