“This might be a little cold.” Doctor Stephens squeezes a tube and cool jelly squirts across my abdomen.

I raise my arm up and lay it under my head and force myself to smile. “No problem.”

I’m getting good at smiling when I don’t mean it. It’s better than the alternative.

I cried on my way home from Clay’s last night, but that covers it. I’m done with the tears. Each day brings me closer to becoming a mother. Soon everything will change. I need to work on toughening up now.

It’s hard when I’m at my very first OB-GYN appointment all by myself. This should be one of the most exciting days in a woman’s life, but right now, I’m working my butt off to not become an emotional mess.

Seeing the other women in the waiting room with loving husbands by their sides didn’t help my state. I knew I would be going this alone, but walking through the doors of the family health clinic made it all too real.

My mom would have come with if I asked her to, but I still haven’t gotten the guts together to tell her about the pregnancy.

For now, it’s just me.

Doctor Stephens gives me a smile and messes with a piece of equipment. She’s a nice woman with gray hair and creases alongside her eyes. She’s probably delivered tons of babies. I’m lucky to have her as my doctor.

“Are you excited?” she asks, smiling wide. “We’re going to hear your baby’s heartbeat for the very first time!”

My stomach flutters, and for the first time I really am excited. I nod and adjust my weight in the reclined exam table. Doctor Stephens presses the small device in her hands against my stomach. Muffled shouting comes from out in the hallway and she stops what she’s doing to look at the door.

I follow suit, craning my neck to see what’s going on in the main area of the clinic.

“Just try again!” a familiar male voice says.

I bolt up into sitting and pull my shirt down over my tummy.

“I’m sorry,” Doctor Stephens says. “It appears something is going on...”

The door flies open. Nash strides into the exam room. Clay quickly follows.

“Excuse me,” Doctor Stephens firmly says. “This is a private room. You’re going to have to leave.”

“I’m the father,” Nash responds. Both his and Clay’s eyes fly to mine.

Doctor Stephens puts a protective hand on my shoulder. “Cheyenne?”

“I...” I try to speak, but my throat seals shut, letting out only a raspy set of incoherent sounds.

Clay and Nash stare at me, their gazes determined and pleading.

I can’t take it anymore. Pushing them away is exhausting. And how did they find me? I didn’t tell them who my doctor is or the time of my appointment today.

Yet they’re still here. I pushed them away and they came back.

I look at Doctor Stephens. “Can I get a moment alone with them?”

She glances nervously at them. They’re like two broad walls of men blocking the door, so the tentative expression on her face is more than warranted. “Yes,” she slowly says. “I’ll wait right in the hallway.”

The door closes behind her with a click.

“How did you find me?” I ask.

“You told us your doctor’s appointment was today,” Clay explains.

“But I didn’t tell you where.”

“There aren’t that many clinics around Powell and the Town of Cody.”

My lips twist into a smile. “You’re saying you just drove around looking for me?”

They glance at each other.

“We meant what we said,” Nash says. “You’re ours, Cheyenne. This baby is ours. We’re not going anywhere.”

They want me. They want this baby. They told me before, and aren’t giving up. They mean it. It’s clear to me now as more tears fill my eyes. I wipe them away before they fall. Will I be this emotional for the full term of this pregnancy?

Nash quickly steps up to the side of the examination table. His hand lands against the back of my neck, and I melt against the touch. Clay joins him, pressing his legs against the exam table. All my resolve to push them away melts.

“Nothing could make us miss this,” Clay says. He cups my chin and turns my face towards his.

Nash releases my neck. “And nothing can stop us from this.” He stands back and pulls a small box from his pocket. Holding it level in front of my face, he opens it up.

All the air gets sucked out of my lungs. The diamond ring inside the velvet-lined box sparkles up at me. “Oh my goodness…” I barely manage to get out.

“We weren’t prepared last time, but we’re ready to do this the right way… with a ring,” Clay explains.

Nash takes the ring from the box while Clay lifts my hand. They slip the silver band onto my ring finger. It nestles perfectly there.

“A ring… oh my God! An engagement ring?” I stare up at them in confusion. “I don’t…know…I…oh my goodness.”

“We’re marrying you, Cheyenne,” Nash rumbles. “All you need to do is say yes. To us as a family. It’s a little different, but it can work. You, me, Clay, and the baby. We’ll share you.”

“I can only marry one man,” I say, and feel like an idiot the moments it escapes my lips. “It probably has to be just one of you.”

Clay wraps strong fingers around my right hand. “Nash and I talked about it. You and Nash can be at the altar. Like we said before, we don’t much care about what people think, but we understand it makes more sense not to break any state laws. So, on paper, the world can believe he’s your husband.”

Nash interrupts with a grin. “Mainly because I’ve got a decent reputation around here.”

“Because they don’t know how bad it is, you mean, right?” Clay jokes, but becomes solemn again as he turns to me and adds, “You’ll belong to us both.”

All the welled-up tears spill from my eyes and down my cheek. “I can’t believe this…I wish I could tell you what this means to me,” I say shakily between shallow inhales of air that I can’t begin to control.

Nash winds his fingers through my hair. “Believe it. And say yes.”

“Yes! I will…I do! I’ve been yours since forever, Clay.” I turn to Nash. “And I love you beyond words, Nash. Yes. I’ll marry you.”

Clay leans forward, and his lips press into mine, welcoming and familiar, yet full of promise and heated excitement. I kiss him with everything I have. He breaks his mouth away from mine and Nash turns my face to his. I run my tongue across his teeth. My heart pounds away and soars into the clouds.

Engaged.

Clay steps away from me and goes to the door. “Let’s get your doctor back in here so we can get out of here. I hate hospitals. And clinics. And doctors.”

I choke out a mix of a happy sob and a laugh. “Okay.”

Doctor Stephens comes back in and warily looks between the three of us.

“They can stay,” I tell her. “They’re my dearest friends.”

She slowly nods. “And who’s the father?”

I should have expected that question, but I honestly don’t have an appropriate answer.

“It don’t matter,” Clay announces to her. “We’re here for Cheyenne and the baby.”

Nash eyes briefly bunch together and he quickly regains composure. “Right,” he tells Doctor Stephens. “Emotional support. That’s us. And you’ll probably see one or both of us all the other times Cheyenne has to be here too.”

“I’d like for both of them to stay,” I insist.

“As long as it’s what you want,” she says.

I lean back on the exam table and lift my shirt. Clay and Nash each take one of my hands and Doctor Stephens runs the device back over my belly.

For a second, it’s silent in the room. They both seem to hold their breaths as we wait.

The doctor presses a button on the keyboard beside the monitoring equipment, and a rhythmic pounding breaks the quiet.

“Here we go,” Doctor Stephens says. “We’ve got a heartbeat.”

The little heart pounds away.

This little life is mine, Clay’s and Nash’s. It’s ours.

It’s perfect.