Any other time, Erik would have laughed, but right then he shook his head and dropped down on the couch. “Man, I fucked up.”
“Uh, yeah. She is pissed.”
“Pissed is not the word for what she is.”
Shaking his head, he buried his face in his hands as he took in a deep breath. She was right. How did he forget? She had reminded him yesterday! Erik’s heart hammered against his ribs. Usually he knew what to do to fix things, but with her, he didn’t know and she was pissed. Pissed enough to break his TV and game system and probably his neck if she wanted to.
God, he was an idiot.
“Yeah, I’m not really sure how you are going to fix this,” Phillip muttered.
“I’m not, either.”
But he knew he had to try.
Because Piper mattered.
Chapter 13
The next morning Erik stood at the lakeshore behind Piper’s house letting the water run up his ankles, his mind completely on her. They hadn’t talked much since yesterday, after she annihilated his toys. He still could not believe he missed the appointment—God, he was an idiot. He was losing his mind worrying about her. The feelings he was having were scaring the hell out of him. But he had no control over them. When it came to Piper, nothing made sense and he was starting to accept that.
Running his hand down his face, he took in a deep breath and reached in his pocket for his phone. Looking down at the display he saw he had no missed calls, no text messages or voice mails. He didn’t even have a Facebook notification, which was so pathetic. Just then the phone lit up with Jakob’s ugly mug, but before he could answer it, Erik jumped in surprise when a hand came down on his shoulder. Looking behind him, a smile came over his face when he saw it was his brother. “Hey, bro, what’s with the phone call, warning me you’re in the vicinity?” he said as Jakob came to stand beside him, his arms folded across his chest.
“Nah, just wanted to make you jump. Why are you standing out here alone?”
Erik let out a breath. “Thinking.”
“About?”
“Piper,” Erik said honestly, with a sideways glance at Jakob.
Jakob nodded as he looked down at the ground.
“They talked yesterday. Harper said that you guys missed the appointment to find out what you’re having.”
Erik nodded. “I forgot.”
“Oh God. Are you stupid?”
“Yeah, basically,” Erik answered with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Harper didn’t tell me that. She just said that you guys are waiting until the baby is born.”
Erik shook his head, looking over at his big brother. “Nah, man, I fucked up. I missed the appointment and now the office is booked until after the baby comes. I even tried to get us another appointment at another office but no luck.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, I suck.”
“Yeah, you do. Was she mad?”
Erik laughed as he nodded. “She broke my TV and Xbox and now won’t talk to me.”
Jakob shook his head. “I don’t blame her.”
Erik dropped his head at the sound of disappointment in Jakob’s voice. It was bad enough that he felt like a jackass for what happened, but it didn’t help to hear Jakob’s disapproval as well.
Clearing his throat, he asked, “How would you fix it?” Jakob grunted, causing Erik to look over at him. “What?”
“Nothing. It’s just so weird to see you like this. I never thought I’d see the day when you’d care if a woman was mad at you or not. It’s weird.”
Erik looked away.
“I get that but are you going to help me?”
“So this isn’t a sham then, is it? You really care for her. Because honestly, up until now I thought you were full of shit.”
Erik looked straight into his brother’s eyes and for the first time since marrying Piper, he didn’t lie when he said, “I do.”
“Okay,” Jakob said with a smirk. “I won’t say anything else about it then. I’m sorry I doubted you.”
“It’s fine; now help me.”
Jakob thought for a moment and then clapped his hands together, turning to Erik with a huge grin on his face.
“When Harper was pregnant with Ally, we had gone to the regular ultrasound at the doctor’s office, but Harper wanted those cool 4D ones, so we called around and everything locally was booked, so we called places in Clarksville. I bet Piper would like to go there since it is close to her parents’ house; you could kill two birds with one stone as the saying goes. The place is literally across the highway from Blake and Rowan’s.”
Erik nodded as he thought. That was the perfect solution. Why didn’t he think of that? Though he had no clue what 4D was, he was pretty sure it was like an ultrasound, and well he had to give himself points for even trying to reschedule that. With hope, he asked, “Do you have the number?”