Noah took his time parking the car after dropping Lexi off at the entrance to the doctor’s office. He needed this time alone, away from her, before going into their appointment. All this putting up a brave, upbeat front was wearing on him. The last thing he wanted was Lexi to be worrying about him on top of the baby.

It was good to see Evie and Anthony for a little bit, but now it was back to the two of them again until Kat and Jackson arrive next week. He had to admit having them watch after Stephanie and Josephine took so much stress off both of them; it was a blessing. There was no one else but his bandmates who’d been his best friends for twenty years, that he trusted with the things that meant the most to him.

“Mr. Matthews? Hello. Mr. Matthews.” The lady at the front desk waved him over with a smile. “Mr. Matthews, Dr. Halston already has your wife back in one of the rooms, and a nurse has begun running some tests on her. While that’s going on, he’d like for you to go back into his office.” She pointed to the door. “Go through there and down the hall, all the way to the end. His office is on the right. He’s in there waiting for you.

Noah’s stomach clenched, and he prayed everything was okay as he had an out-of-body experience walking down the hallway, like in one of those dreams where no matter how far or fast he walked, he was never getting to the end.

Taking a deep breath, he entered the doctor’s office.

“Hello, Mr. Matthews.” Dr. Halston stood up and held out his hand to shake Noah’s. “Please sit down.” He closed the door. “How are you doing?”

“Fine. How are you?”

Dr. Halston shook his head. “No, tell me—how are you, really?”

Noah sighed and his shoulders slumped. “I don’t know; I’m all over the place.”

“That’s to be expected. I know all the focus is on Lexi and what’s going on with her pregnancy, but you need to take time for yourself too. You need something to release all the anger and worry that you are bottling up inside of you. Otherwise, it’s going to eat you alive keeping it from her.”

Noah rubbed the back of his neck. “That obvious, eh?”

“That predictable.”

Rolling his eyes, Noah let his head fall forward into his hands. “Man, I hate being predictable.”

The doctor chuckled. “Don’t we all? So, what are you doing as a stress release?”

“Nothing.” Noah shook his head. “Everything is focused on her. She’s my everything. She and the baby have to be okay.”

“I understand that, but—”

“No, doc, you don’t. I met her after she’d been attacked by a psychopath, who was about to kill her but was interrupted. She moved across the country and began to rebuild her life. At the same time I met her, he started playing a game with her—tormenting her, stalking her, making her think she was losing her mind because the person who she thought was responsible for attacking her wasn’t in a position to be doing this to her. He had her, alone, and was planning on finishing the job he had started years ago.” Noah looked out the window behind the doctor, not focused on what he was seeing. “I was worried about her and went over to her house. She stood there and looked me in the eye, with tears running down her face, telling me she loved me but it wasn’t going to work. She said goodbye to me with a madman standing behind her waiting to kill her. She knew what was going to happen as soon as she closed that door, and she was more than willing to die to keep me safe. So no, doctor, you don’t understand.”

“What happened next?” The doctor steepled his fingers together, listening.

“She started to fight him off—she wasn’t going to give up without a fight. The further I got from her house, the more things didn’t add up. I went back and busted in. I thought I knocked him out, but somehow he escaped before the police arrived. We spent the next year with him continuing to torment our friends and us until finally he was killed. She’s a fighter, one of the strongest people I’ve ever known.”

“And you don’t think you can be weak around her?”

Noah scoffed. “No, I’m not one of those guys. Trust me; she’s seen me weak. I’m trying to make this as easy as it can possibly be for her.”

“You can’t make it perfect. There is no such thing.”

“I can try.”

“You need to come up with something, because really you aren’t making this easier on her, because at some point you are going to break down. Have you been writing any songs?”

“Sort of.”

“Maybe you should do more than ‘sort of.’ It would be a good outlet for everything you’re feeling right now.”

Noah tapped his lip, thinking about what the doctor said. “Yeah, I could do that.”

“Great. Now Lexi should be done with her tests. Let’s go talk with her.”

 

*****

 

Lexi relaxed in the car as Noah drove them home. “The tumor is still slowly growing. I was afraid it would be larger.” She rubbed her belly. “I really like Dr. Halston. I think he really cares about us, not like he’s just passing as many people through the doors as possible to make money. And he said his wife would be in the operating room with him. Between the two of them, everything should go according to plan.”

“Yeah, he seems like a great guy. And the best one to make sure Junior here has a successful surgery after he’s born.”

“We’re going to have to come up with a name. We are not calling him Junior.”

“You don’t like any of the names I’ve suggested.” Noah shook his head.

“That’s because you haven’t given any serious names.” Lexi rolled her eyes and sighed. “Ludwig is not an option.”

“I don’t know why you’re focusing on that one name. I gave you plenty of others.”

Lexi rolled her eyes, again. She knew what he was doing, and she only hoped that keeping up this act of not being worried about her and the baby wasn’t going to be too exhausting for him. Everyone had to deal with stress in their own way, and Noah was trying to make sure everyone happy. Everyone but him.