Tamed (Torn #5)(72)

Telling my mom and dad had been much, much harder. I’d told them everything, including the fact that I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that Adam was the father. They’d been angry at first, but they’d finally calmed down. Within a week of me telling them, they’d shifted from pissed to ecstatic, just like Chloe had thought they would.

Adam had paid a company to clean out my apartment. They’d shipped everything to his place. I left most of it in boxes, unable to bring myself to unpack. A part of me feared that Adam would change his mind and kick me out.

When I’d first found out I was pregnant, I’d been terrified. I hadn’t wanted a baby. The thought of a child growing inside me had literally made me ill. I would’ve done anything to change that positive test result to a negative.

Now that I wasn’t alone and I’d had time to come to terms with the fact that I would become a mother, my opinion had changed. Instead of feeling horror at the thought, I started to feel excitement. I was going to be a mom. I would have a precious life that I’d created, one that I would take care of and love. For the first time in a long time, the future didn’t seem so bleak. Even if Adam decided to turn me away, I would still have my baby. I would give it the best life I could. I would survive.

“Hey, you ready?” Adam asked.

I looked up to see him standing in the doorway to my room.

“Yeah.” I stood and walked over to him.

We walked out to his car side by side. My heart was beating in my chest like a hummingbird because of the fact that he was so close and because of where we were going.

Today was my first doctor’s appointment.

“You nervous?” Adam asked on the drive over.

“A little.”

“It’ll be fine. I’ll stay with you the whole time.”

“Really?” I asked, surprised.

“Yep. Wouldn’t miss it.”

“Thank you,” I whispered.

He sighed. “Quit thanking me for every little thing, Amber. No thanks are needed. I want to be here. It’s not like you’re forcing me.”

Adam stayed true to his word. He stood next to me as I checked in at the doctor’s office. When I was called back, he followed me and waited next to me as they took my medical history and weight. He even stood outside the door while I peed in a cup. I couldn’t help but laugh at that.

Once we were taken to a room, the nurse handed me a paper gown. “Go ahead and change into this. The doctor will be in shortly,” she said before leaving.

I stared at the gown in my hands, appalled. I looked up when Adam chuckled.

“What’s so funny?”

“You should see your face right now.”

“Shush.” I held up the piece of paper. “There’s no freaking back to it.”

He laughed again. “And how is that different from your normal wardrobe?”

I flipped him off. “This is different.” I sighed. “Turn around, so I can change.”

“It’s not like I haven’t seen it all before,” he goaded.

“If you want to keep your man parts intact, turn around.”

He rolled his eyes before turning away. I stripped out of my clothes as fast as I could and pulled on the gown. When I looked up, he was watching me.

“You looked.”

He shrugged unapologetically.

I jumped when I heard a knock on the door. A moment later, a doctor and the nurse from earlier stepped in. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that the doctor was a woman.

“Hi, you must be Amber.” She smiled at me.

I nodded. “Yes, and this is Adam.”

She glanced over at Adam. “It’s nice to meet both of you. I’m Dr. Dover.”

Adam surprised me when he stood and shook her hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“All right, let’s get started.” She walked to the counter and pulled on a pair of gloves. “We need to do an exam first. We’ll go over a few things after, and if we have time, we’ll see if we can find the baby’s heartbeat.”

“Exam?” I asked warily.

She nodded. “Yes. I’ll be as gentle as possible, I promise.”

She sat down on a stool in front of me and had me put my feet in the stirrups. Under normal circumstances, I would die from embarrassment, but with Adam in the room, it was ten times worse.

“Whoa, what is that?” Adam asked.

The doctor smiled at him. “It’s a speculum.”

“You’re going to put that in her?”

I groaned and put my hands over my face.

The doctor laughed. “Yes. If you’re uncomfortable, you can step outside.”

Adam hesitated before shaking his head. “I’m not going anywhere.”

One uncomfortable Pap smear later, I was able to sit up. I didn’t dare look at Adam. The doctor threw her gloves away and picked up her clipboard. I listened as she explained how things would go over the next few months. I had about a million questions, but she took her time and answered them all.

Once we were finished, she smiled at me. “Let’s see if we can hear that heartbeat. How does that sound?”

I smiled, suddenly excited over the prospect of hearing my baby. “I’d love that.”

“Sometimes, it’s hard to hear the heartbeat this early, so I can’t promise anything, but we’ll try.”