“Good.” I smiled and wrapped a hand around his neck, “I don't want you to just be the guy that raises him. What you said this morning, was more than perfect. I want you to be his dad, I want him to be your son. I want you to be my husband and if we have more kids later on in life, I don't want them to be our kids, and him” I pointed to my stomach, “be my kid. I agree he needs to know about Chase, but you're going to be Dad to him, and he's going to be ours. Just like any other child we have.
“I want you to be at the rest of the appointments if you want to, and don't worry, Dr. Lowdry already knows about you. She pulled me aside during my second appointment and asked about the father, I ended up breaking down and telling her the whole story. I swear those Doctors are trained to be therapists too. She knows that Chase died, and she knows you've been there for me. Honestly, she's like Bree and Mom, I doubt she'll be surprised to see you there. So if you want to be there, then I would love for you to come with me. I want you to help me name him, and if it's okay, I want you in the room with me when I deliver. I'm telling you, I'm not going to pick and choose what you can and can't do, I want you there for everything. I’ve wanted you there for everything, but I’ve been denying myself of what I want and pushing my emotions away. Now that we’re done pretending, I’m ready for it all, but you need to tell me if you're uncomfortable with any of this.”
“If you were any other girl, I would be. But you're my world Harper, no matter how strange our situation may be, being with you and starting a family with you feels right.”
“I completely agree.” I whispered against his neck and pressed my lips there twice. “Are we all clear now? Anything else we need to cover?”
“Will you move in with me, let me take care of you and marry me?”
“Are you proposing Brandon Taylor?” I teased, looking up into his brown eyes.
He smiled and caught my lips with his, “Not until I have a ring for you sweetheart.”
“Good because that would have been a horrible proposal. And in the words of the man I love, yes to all of the above.”
15
Brandon and I had found a townhouse that weekend and were moving in tomorrow. It was a three bedroom, two and a half bath, two car garage with a backyard and it was perfect. It was less than ten minutes away from Mom and Dad's, and even though they were sad I wouldn't be living with them, they were really happy that Brandon and I were moving on with our lives. Mom said she was going to set up another nursery in the room anyway so she could babysit and to insure we would still come over often. Yesterday we had finished picking out and buying everything we needed to furnish our new place, and the things that weren't already stored in Mom and Dad's garage were being delivered tomorrow morning. We were currently starting the ultrasound at my first appointment with Brandon since he and I had gotten back together. As suspected, Dr. Lowdry wasn't surprised to see Brandon, and was genuinely happy he was there with me.
Brandon's breath caught and he squeezed my hand as soon as Gummy Bear's heartbeat filled the room and he was on the screen. “Oh my God, Harper.”
I smiled at him and looked back to the screen. Going through this right now was completely different than it had been with Chase. It had been almost magical with Chase, emotional since he died, and felt like a perfect new beginning with Brandon.
“Okay Harper, as you can see, the baby has already turned head down and dropped. That usually doesn't happen for a couple more weeks, so unfortunately I am going to have to put you on bedrest. He'll probably still come early, but honestly with how things are going it could happen at any time now. We need to make sure he stays in there at least a few more weeks so everything can be fully developed. If it comes down to it there are medicines we can use to help with that, but I'd prefer to not do that. So the less active you are now, the better.” Dr. Lowdry turned to Brandon, “Now I'm counting on you to make sure she takes it easy, okay?”
He grinned at me, “I promise she'll be taken care of.”
I rolled my eyes, he knew I could only handle being babied for so long before I started going crazy. I usually didn't make it past two days.
The next day was ridiculous, I wanted to be putting everything away in our new home, but once the furniture had been moved in, everyone made me lie on the couch and tell them where I wanted boxes to go. I continued to whine and complain until Brandon came back with another load of boxes and frozen yogurt from Golden Spoon for me. That shut me up and I decided to play nice the rest of the day. I ordered pizza for everyone that helped four hours later when they'd finished, and we had the house to ourselves by eight. Brandon and I walked from room to room so I could see how the furniture looked in the rooms, and I couldn't have been happier with how it turned out. We had just left the new nursery when Brandon stopped me in the hall.
“Close your eyes sweetheart.”
“Why?” I dragged out the word a bit.