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before coming to a complete stop and then starting again erratically. I’d never felt anything so intense. With just his words, Julian Winters had rendered me speechless when all I wanted to do was shout from the rooftops.
    “Sorry for the delay. Your results—oh!” Dr. Nelson walked in, jerking me out of the single most epically romantic stunt Julian had ever pulled.
    I quickly turned my head to the surprised doctor, wiping my face dry. “Please, one more minute! Don’t tell us yet.” I turned back to Julian. “Yes. Absolutely, yes. You are the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. You are it for me. I love you so much. There is no scenario in which I wouldn’t accept.” My voice dissolved into a few heaving breaths. I bit my lip. “But your words… God, Julian. Your words go directly from your lips to my heart. You’re a poet and I’m all flustered and I’m trying really hard not to break down right now…”
    I swallowed the sob that was lodged in my throat. When my body started to shake, Julian stood up and captured my head in his hands. His glassy eyes searched mine as I continued. “There is no title I would want more than to be known as your wife. I love you. I love you for the man you are. I love you for the husband you will become.” I removed one of his hands from my face and relocated it to my lower belly. “And I love you for the father you will be.”
    Julian closed his eyes for a few seconds as his hands flexed against my belly. He let out a rough breath before he grabbed my face again, pressing his lips against mine softly. “I love you,” he uttered before kissing me again. “I love you so much,” he repeated.
    “Knock knock,” Dr. Nelson said, forcing us apart before I was ready. The doctor had his head peeking into the room.
    “Come in,” Julian and I said at the same time. We looked at each other and laughed together.
    It felt good to laugh.
    “So what did I walk into?” The doctor tried to play it cool, but it was painfully obvious that he knew.
    “My amazing, talented, handsome boyfriend is going to be my amazing, talented, handsome husband.” I bit my lip as I gazed at the bauble on my finger. Just saying that Julian was going to be my husband gave me butterflies.
    Julian looked at me. “What she means is she is about to make me the luckiest man on Earth by becoming my wife.”
    My lip slipped from between my teeth as I grinned at him.
    “I’m very happy for you two. Congratulations!” He shook Julian’s hand and then he shook mine before he pulled the stool to the center of the room. He gestured for us to sit and we did. “Now, your results. You said the test you used at home was expired, so that explains some of the confusion…”
     

Chapter 3
     
     
    The weekend was a complete blur. The results of the pregnancy test did not fully hit me until I was sitting in the passenger seat of Julian’s car on the way home from seeing my gynecologist, Dr. Lynn Maxwell. Void of music and with the world’s smoothest engine, the car was absolutely silent for the majority of the ride home.
    I let out a deep breath as I said what I had been thinking all weekend, but especially since getting the ultrasound picture. “What do we do now?”
    I stared at his chiseled profile. The quiet question hung in the air as Julian maneuvered into the neighborhood, waving at security as they opened the gate.
    “What do you mean, Beautiful?”
    “This changes everything.” I swallowed, feeling pulled in so many different directions.
    “It does.” He slowed to a stop a few feet from the driveway and looked at me. “What are you thinking?”
    That our careers are over. Oh and—no, one thing at a time.
    Julian and I had spent all Friday night talking about our childhoods and everything we wanted to teach our future child. We discussed our hopes and dreams for the child we created. We knew we should wait until we met with Dr. Maxwell to get too wrapped up into the idea so we kept our