Knocked Up(39)

"My mom always said this was the best place to go for baby stuff so I thought--" He shrugged. "What the hell, let's check it out."

He led her through to a maze of baby clothes and she stared at the sea of pastel colors and sparkly tutus with a growing sense of excitement and anxiety.

"How could we even...I don't know where to start," she murmured.

"Start wherever you want. I've got an app on my phone and all I have to do is scan the barcode in order to enter something onto our shopping list."

"I..." She blinked and with a little surge of humiliation realized that tears were stinging the back of her eyes. Stupid pregnancy hormones, they got her every time.

"Um, right." She swallowed back her tears. "Okay. So...we need clothes for all months. Sometimes kids skip whole months so we've got to sort of get ourselves covered."

"Well, we clearly need this, then." Luke held up a tiny cowboy outfit and she giggled.

"I was thinking something more mechanic-like. Maybe a bandana? For when he helps you in the shop?"

Luke's eyes went soft. "Yeah. I hadn't thought about that."

"Overalls, then." She picked some up from a nearby shelf and allowed him to scan the barcode before putting them back.

Together, they sifted through the clothes, picking out all sorts of bibs, bandanas, and bonnets along with his everyday jumpers and onesies, and by the time she reached the end of the ocean of clothes, she was sure they had a thousand dollars worth of clothing in their cart. Admittedly, she'd gone a little off the rails with her planning--especially when they got to the Halloween costumes.

"Oh my god." She snatched up a baby-sized lobster costume and shoved it toward Luke.

"No way. My son is not going to be a crustacean for Halloween."

"You have a better idea?" she challenged.

He reached past her, her body sizzling at the faintest brush of his skin against hers, and grabbed a tiny Dalmatian costume.

"You want him to be a dog?" she asked, realizing she was slightly breathless.

"We could paint his nose and I could dress as a firefighter. It would be adorable."

She swallowed hard. That would be adorable. And the idea of all of them trudging from house to house, son and father wearing matching outfits... well, that was the best part of it all.

This was bad. Like, so good, but also really bad. After all her careful planning and internal warnings, she was starting to have hope.

Hope that this baby would be able to grow up with happy, stable parents. Hope that he would be enough to make Luke want to stick around. And, worst of all, hope that maybe the two of them actually had a chance in hell as a couple.

Shit.

But as she stared up at his excited face, she couldn’t resist it another second. If she was setting herself up for a fall, so be it. She was going to fall hard and suffer for it. It was too late to stop this train now. She was half in love with her baby’s daddy already.

"You're right. Add it to the list."

Luke scanned the tag and they moved on, glancing at cribs and strollers until her head was spinning. There was so much to think of and decide. They would need to get two of everything and she still hadn’t picked out the color scheme for the corner of her apartment that would be the baby’s nursery.

She just had to clear her head and…and—

Pain raked over her abdomen like she’d never felt before and her breath caught as panic rose up inside her.

“Luke,” she gasped. “Something’s wrong.”





Chapter 16





She gripped his arm tight and tried not to let the panic clawing at her seep into her voice.

“My stomach."

His eyebrows caved into a frown. "What do you--" He broke off and stared at her as the meaning of her words sank in. "Is it the baby?" he asked, his voice hoarse.

She shook her head furiously. "I don't know. Maybe it was something I ate, but I'm getting sharp pains."

She blinked hard, willing the hot tears away. Freaking out wasn't going to help. Stress was terrible for the baby. Wasn't that half the reason she'd convinced herself to stay away from Luke in the first place. But staying calm when her body was telling her in no uncertain terms that something was seriously amiss was no easy task.

She mentally did the math that she'd been doing every day since she'd learned of her pregnancy.

“It-it's way too soon," she whispered, just a second before a second wave of pain tore through her belly. It was a pain like she'd never experienced. One that stole her breath and bowed her back. Vaguely, she felt Luke's hand gently massaging her shoulders as she tried to breathe through her nose.

"Shh, it's okay. You're okay," he murmured. "Once this bout passes, we're going to call the doctor and let her know we're coming in."