Every time the door opens, Tinley looks straight to it, hoping and praying that the next person to walk in is Marek. Her appointment was supposed to start five minutes ago, which means the nurse will come out any minute to take her back. They were very adamant that once the ultrasound starts, they wouldn’t allow anyone in the room. So, if Marek doesn’t show up in the next few minutes, he’s going to miss the entire thing. Her heart rate speeds up and the flutters in her stomach start whipping around like crazy. She looks down at the time on her cell phone and when another minute goes by, she can’t take it anymore.

She laughs at herself at that last text. Because that’s real threatening for a five-month pregnant woman to show up on his doorstep. Maybe it would be more threatening if he didn’t already know she was pregnant. The door opens again and finally he comes waltzing through the door with Luna in tow. Tinley’s anxiety drops down a notch, but she’s still so mad that he is now six minutes late for her appointment. If her doctor were actually on time about things, he would have missed it entirely. He looks around the waiting room and when he spots her in the corner, he walks right over.

“I’m sorry. I know I was supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago.” He looks down to Luna who is holding his hand and with a clenched jaw says, I had a bit of a complication this morning.”

She motions for him to take a seat in the chair next to her and asks, “What kind of complication?”

He picks up his daughter and says, “Luna threw a giant tantrum about the color of her hair tie. She didn’t like the one I was using and we had to scour the entire house looking for the ‘right’ one.”

“Daddy, you wanted to put a yellow one in my hair.” Luna shakes her head and puts her hands on her hips. She dramatically sighs and points to herself. “I’m wearing a purple dress, and that would not have matched. It would have looked ugly. And today is a purple day. I can only wear purple today. Duh.”

Tinley closes her mouth up tight to prevent herself from laughing. The attitude on this little girl is ridiculous, and she can’t get over the fact that even though she’s only four years old, it’s like she’s a tiny person, full of personality and her own opinions.

“It’s okay. You’re here now, and that’s all that matters.”

Nobody else gets a chance to say anything as the nurse calls Tinley’s name and they’re all whisked back to the ultrasound room. Tinley’s nerves go crazy again as they wait for the technician to join them. Any moment now, they’ll be able to see their baby and find out if it’s a little boy or girl in there. She’s happy having either one. Ultimately, she just wants a healthy and happy baby, but if she could choose, she’d love to have a little girl.

There’s a quick knock at the door and then a woman walks in. She’s smiling with a ridiculously huge grin and she says, “Good morning everybody. My name is Maggie and I’m going to be looking at your baby with you today. How are you all doing this morning?”

Introductions are made around the room as she gets the monitor turned on and pours the cold jelly on Tinley’s baby bump. A slight shiver travels down her spine at the contact, but it quickly warms up as it’s spread around. The familiar wump, wump, wump fills the room as the technician moves the wand across her belly. Luna wiggles out of Marek’s arms and stands next to Tinley, watching as the baby shows up on the screen. She reaches out to touch her belly, but changes her mind at the last second and turns toward Marek.

“Look, Daddy, it’s a baby in Tinley’s tummy.”

He places one hand on Tinley’s shoulder and the other on Luna’s. His focus is glued to the screen, and the love and awe on his face is so evident. With all three of them so focused on the child in her belly, she can’t help but feel like they could be a real family together, like she could finally have what she never had growing up—a true sense of love and belonging.

“And are we wanting to find out the sex of the baby today?”

All three of them say “yes” in unison, Luna shrieking out her response the loudest and making Maggie laugh. She moves her wand around and they all wait in anticipation of the announcement.

The entire appointment was absolutely perfect. The morning might have started out a little more stressful than Tinley would have liked, but in the end, that didn’t really matter. All she cared about was that two of the most important people in her life were there in the room when they all found out that baby Outlaw number two is another girl. They left the doctor’s office with all three of them beaming and even more excited about the impending arrival of their new family member.

As soon as they got back to Marek’s house, Luna crashed pretty quickly for her nap. All of the excitement from the appointment this morning and their quick stop at a baby store wore her out. Tinley’s been relaxing on the couch and reveling in the direction her life is going. Not even a few months ago she thought everything was going to shit, but now she couldn’t be happier. As Marek walks back into the living room from putting Luna down in bed, she can’t help but smile. She never could have imagined this man bringing so much happiness to her life and now that he has the idea of being without him and Luna is not something she wants to experience.

“I have some news for you,” Marek said with a smile.

“Oh yeah?”

He takes a seat at the end of the couch and pulls her feet up into his lap. With gentle movements, he removes both her shoes and socks and moves his fingers in lazy circles over the soles of her feet. She moans out and throws her head back enjoying every moment of the massage. As he works on her foot, he says, “I got a promotion at work.”

“Oh my gosh, that’s amazing!” She leans up and looks up at him. “What kind of promotion?”

“They’re transferring me to the outbound department. Because my numbers and my leadership have been so impressive as a team manager, they want me to bump up the sales volume over there. I’m going to be shadowing the current department head for a few months and there’s a bunch of training they’re going to send me on, but eventually, I’ll be running the entire department.”

The thought that Tinley won’t get to see Marek every day at work is kind of disappointing, although their work schedules haven’t exactly been lining up lately as it is. She knows how hard he has been working toward an opportunity like this and all of those extra shifts he’s been putting in has definitely put him as a front-runner for this promotion. He’s one of the hardest workers they have at the call center, and while she used to think he was just a major douche, she realizes now that he has always been dedicated to his work.

“That’s really awesome. I’m happy for you.”

“And you know, I was thinking…I’m going to get a substantial raise, so if you don’t want to continue working, you don’t have to, and maybe you’d consider moving in with Luna and me?”

It would make sense to move in together, but it seems too soon and too fast. They’re finally back together and she doesn’t want to mess things up when they’re already going so well, but she doesn’t want to tell him that and make him think she’s having any doubts about their relationship. Instead, she says, “That sounds great, but I wouldn’t want to leave Dakota high and dry like that. She can’t afford our apartment on her own—us lowly peons don’t get paid as well as management does.”

He looks slightly defeated and his shoulders slump. His voice comes out more quiet than she would have thought as he asks, “So it’s not a no?”

“No, it’s just a not right now.”

He smiles and pulls her hand to his lips, giving it a gentle kiss. With a small squeeze, he says, “I can work with that.”

“Oh, is that so Mr. Department Head. You can work with that?”

“That’s not the only head I can work with right about now.”