“I swung the chopper by his office to see if I could persuade him to come with me.” Knox squeezes my hand. “I hope that’s okay.”

Okay? It’s wonderful. I sniffle and nod as Dr. Kwan moves forward, pulling a pair of gloves out of his pocket and smiling at me. “No latex for Miss Lexi, right?”

Immediately my agitation goes down a notch. He remembers. “That’s right.” I hold on to Knox’s hand tightly. “Can Knox stay?”

“I don’t think we’ll be able to move him,” the nurse says drily at the door.

“If there’s a problem, I’ll pay whatever fines ya need.” Knox doesn’t look away from me, his expression calm as he strokes my hand. “But I ain’t leavin’ my girl.”

The nurse just rolls her eyes. “I’m going to go get the doctor so he can talk with yours.”

Dr. Kwan waits for the door to shut and then pats the edge of the table I’m lying on. “Feet up here, Lexi, so we can do a quick pelvic exam and see what’s going on.”

Chapter 20

Knox

Nothing’s as fucking scary as seeing my gorgeous, funny Lexi pale and quiet on a doctor’s table. Her eyes are red from crying and she just holds my hand tightly as the doctor examines her. I know she’s mad at me for what I did earlier, but I’m just so fuckin’ relieved I can be here for her now. Anything she wants, I’ll do it. Anything she needs, I’ll get it for her. I just never want to see her cry again. I can take anything but her tears. She can hate me and cuss at me and call me names . . . as long as she doesn’t cry.

I’m just so fucking glad she called me. That she turned to me when she was hurting and scared. It tells me I’ve still got a chance with her. Of course, I’d give it all up to change the fact that she’s up on that table, but at least I can be here for her.

For once, I ain’t in the mood for my usual tricks. There’s plenty of tools and such that are within reach and ready to take. It’d be nothin’ to switch out some of the equipment and see how long it takes for them to notice, but this ain’t fuckin’ funny. I just want Lexi to get better and leave this place. It can all stay as far as I’m concerned. I just want Lexi to get the best treatment possible, and I’m not lettin’ go of her hand until then.

The doctor finishes his exam and purses his lips. “Well, everything seems all right from this end, but I’ll see if they’ll let me use the ultrasound so we can get a heartbeat, and I’ll check in on your bloodwork.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Lexi murmurs, her hand tight in mine.

Dr. Kwan heads out and then it’s just me and my girl.

She looks over at me again, her big dark eyes sad. “I’m sorry I dragged you out here. I was freaking out. I needed . . . someone at my side.” She bites her lip and then shakes her head. “No, I’m doing it again.”

“Doin’ what?” I ask, curious.

“Keeping you at arm’s length. You were right about that.” She squeezes my hand again tightly, her hand gripping mine so fiercely our palms are sweating, but I’m not going to let her go. Never. “I do it without thinking, I guess. And I needed someone at my side, but I wanted you. I didn’t want anyone else. Shit, it’s hard for me to say that aloud.” She frowns, almost as if she’s mad at herself, and then glances over at me. “I’m not very good at this.”

“I think you’re doin’ just fine,” I reassure her, stroking her arm with my free hand.

“I hate that you were right, because it means I’m the asshole.” She sighs and lays her head back against the paper covering the examination table. “I know I overreacted, it’s just that . . . Keith has been a problem for me for so long that I’m sensitive about what people know in regards to him. I’ve always felt like it’s my fault that he won’t fuck off. It embarrassed me that you stepped in, and I freaked out. I don’t think you’re controlling at all, and I want you to know that.”

I know it’s takin’ her a lot to confess this. I can tell just by the pinched look on her face as she speaks, and it makes me feel good that she’s tryin’. That’s all I’ve ever wanted from her. “Sweetheart, I overstepped. I realize that now. I should have said something to you first. It was just that the moment I heard he was botherin’ you, I thought, here’s something I can do to take care of Lexi and my baby. That’s all I wanted to do. Wasn’t to try and control you or make you feel like I’m chokin’ you. I just wanted to help.” I pause, then add, “And okay, I wanted to punch that smug bastard in the face, but I didn’t get the chance.”

She chuckles a little. “He is a dick, isn’t he?” She sighs. “I’m so sorry I freaked out on you. I just worry that something bad is going to happen and then everything that’s good in my life is going to disappear.”

“Like the baby?”

Lexi looks over at me, all vulnerable and so pretty it makes me ache. “Like you.” Her mouth trembles a little. “I don’t know what I’m going to do if I lose you and the baby both.”

“You won’t ever lose me,” I tell her fiercely. I want to crawl up on that table and hold her close, but I’m scared of injuring her or the baby even more, so I just lean in and rub my knuckles along her jaw. “I will always be there for you, even if you hate me. I love you. Baby or not, it doesn’t change the way I feel about you. I love you and I want to be the one you lean on.”

Her mouth trembles again. “I’m so tired of being alone and scared, Knox. I don’t think I can do it anymore.”

“You shouldn’t have to do it,” I tell her fiercely. “It’s okay to lean on someone else, sweetheart. That’s why I’m here. You don’t have to be strong all the time. You can just be your wonderful, weird self and let me help out when it gets to be too much for you. I don’t want to change a thing about you. I just want to be at your side, supporting you in whatever you wanna do.”

She licks her lips and gives me another shiny-eyed, halfhearted smile. “I think you’re the best guy I’ve ever met. I’m so sorry I called you a bastard. You know I didn’t mean it like that. If I could take it back, I would.”

Now I’m the one gettin’ all emotional. “I know you didn’t, Lexi. Ain’t no reason to apologize—”

“Yes, it is.” She lifts my hand to her mouth and kisses my knuckles, and I swear to god my heart’s gonna explode with how fiercely protective I feel of her in this moment. “I should have thought about why it hurt you. And why you keep proposing marriage. It bothered you growing up that your parents weren’t married, and you want to stop our baby from feeling the way you did. Sometimes I’m a little slow on the uptake, but I get it now.”

“It ain’t just the baby,” I correct her as she lowers our linked hands. I trace my fingers up and down the veins on her pale, pale skin. Just wanna touch her, mostly. “The moment I met you, I knew you were the one for me. Thought it might be a little early to confess my instant love for you, though, so I’ve held off. But the way I feel about you ain’t gonna change whether there’s one baby, no babies, or thirty babies.”

“Thirty babies? My uterus hurts already,” she says, a lighter note in her voice. Her eyes are soft as she gazes at me. “Though I will be really, really sad if there’s no baby now.”

“Me too,” I admit, and there’s a knot in my throat. “But we’ll get through it together.”

She squeezes my hand again gently. “I think you’re the best guy ever, Knox,” she whispers. “Even if you’re a youngster.”

I snort. “Five years doesn’t make me a youngster. It just means I have more time to keep up with you when you hit your sexual peak.”

“This is true. I should have been cradle-robbing this entire time.” Her words are playful, but her hand’s still tight in mine, her voice still a little wobbly. She’s tryin’ real hard to be strong through all this, and it makes me want to squeeze her to my chest and stroke her hair and make everythin’ all right for her.

“I’m gonna take care of you, baby,” I tell her again. “Let me take care of you. Let me love you. If things become hard, let’s talk about it instead of running away, okay? Whatever we do, we do this together. If you want to raise our kid in Natalie’s guesthouse, we can do that. If you want him to live in my trailer, we can do that. We can move to Houston if you want, or back to Luka. I don’t fuckin’ care. Let’s just make sure we do it together, all right?”

She nods and opens her mouth to speak, but a knock at the door stops her. The doctor enters a moment later, along with a woman who, I assume, was the original attending physician. They bring in a cart of equipment, and someone squirts some clear goo on her stomach for the ultrasound. I’m in the way, so I have to let go of her hand and move to the far end of the room, but I don’t leave. Fuck that. I ain’t leavin’ her side ever again.

The doctor runs the wand over her stomach and then pauses, glancing up at the monitor on the cart. He nods slowly. “Good heartbeat.” Dr. Kwan smiles at my Lexi. “It looks like everything seems to be all right with your bloodwork. Your HCG blood tests look great, and the heartbeat seems strong here.”

Lexi looks across the room to me, eyes wide with relief. I smile at her and give a thumbs-up. I can’t wait to shower her face with kisses. I’m ecstatic that the baby’s fine, but more than anything, I’m happy that Lexi’s all right.

“It looks like your bleeding’s already slowed, which is another good sign,” Dr. Kwan continues. “We’ll do a follow-up in the office next week as long as everything seems to be all right, but if you have any trouble, you come back in to me immediately.”

Lexi nods. “What could have caused bleeding, do you know?”