Waste My Time by Kelsey Clayton

I'm sittingon the couch replaying the memory of tonight over and over on a loop. The way Kennedy and I connected felt like a breath of fresh air. It doesn't even bother me that she stopped us when we were only getting started. Getting to feel her skin on mine again, getting to kiss her again, it was everything. And then for the baby to kick for the first time right before she left? I can't even explain it.

Going to Tessa earlier today and telling her I couldn't be friends with her anymore was hard. I dreaded doing it, and the whole time, there was a pit in my stomach. But that pit turns into a rock when I think about the possibility of Kennedy never being mine again. When I weighed the two, the obvious choice was Kennedy, and I was stupid not to see that before.

Thankfully, Tess took it like a champ and told me she was proud of me for starting to make the right choice. It made the blow easier for me because I wasn't hurting her. She just got it, as usual.

The door opens, and Amelia comes in. She looks exhausted, which is understandable if she and Tye handled a whole Friday night shift by themselves. With Kennedy being pregnant, they've been trying to keep her away from the night shift. There is too much chance of injury when around a bunch of drunken men with wandering hands. I offered to be a bodyguard, but both she and Amelia said no.

“You look like you need a nap,” I tell her.

She groans and plops onto the couch beside me. “More like a coma.”

“Ouch. That bad?”

“Yeah.” She covers her mouth as she yawns. “But I'm proud of you. I heard what you did today, giving up your friendship with Tess. I know that had to be hard for you.”

I shrug. “I was being selfish by trying to have them both. Even just being friends with her makes Kennedy uncomfortable, and for obvious reasons.”

“Well, I'm glad you finally acknowledged that.”

“Yeah. If I had figured it out sooner, maybe then I wouldn't have lost her in the first place.”

She waves it off lazily. “You'll get her back.”

I look at her like she knows something I don't. “You think so?”

“You're a Donovan,” she says with a smile. “We don't give up. Just look at Zayn and my awesome scar.”

With a lift of her shirt, I see the fading mark of where Blade, my former drug dealer, stabbed her. She was trying to protect Zayn and instead almost got herself killed. I don't think I've ever been as scared as I was that day in my life.

I reach forward and tug her shirt down for her, not able to stand looking at it. She curls up in a ball and leans against me as she's unable to keep herself awake any longer. I chuckle softly and shake my head.

She does have one thing right—Donovans don't give up.

TWO WEEKS GO BY in an instant, and with finals coming up, everyone has been on edge and studying constantly. Still, I've managed to keep up the pattern of bringing Kennedy something she needs every day. Only now, I don't walk away.

Seeing her living at Tye and Carter's place now, I'm not going to lie—it irks me. She's pregnant with my kid and I'm in love with her. Of course, I wish she moved in with me instead. But I also know why that wasn't going to happen. That wasn't a plan she was even considering, and I'm not in the place to push. Besides, it could be worse. She could be moving home.

I pull up to the house a whole half-hour early and text her to let her know I'm here. Even though I think she's gorgeous, I know she's been really self-conscious about her clothes not fitting her as well anymore. When I showed up one day unannounced, she looked really uncomfortable about it. So for her, I let her know when I pull up.

“You're super early,” she says as she opens the front door.

I rub the back of my neck nervously. “Yeah. I wanted to make sure I didn't let you down this time.”

That makes her smile. “Well, thank you. I appreciate it.”

What she doesn't realize is that it's a whole extra half-hour I get with her.

It's definitely not a hardship.

THE WAITING ROOM OF the doctor's office is probably one of the most anxiety-inducing places I've ever been. I sit next to Kennedy, who reads a magazine, completely calm, while my knee can't stop bouncing. After a couple minutes, she glances over at me and gives me a look.

“Are you okay?”

I nod, but it's clear she doesn't buy it. “I'm just nervous.”

She closes the magazine and puts it on the seat next to her. “About what?”

“After you asked me to come with you, I looked up all the things they look for at this appointment. If anything is wrong with him or her, we'll most likely find that out today.”

Her eyes sparkle with something I haven't seen from her in a while. “You're worried about the baby.”

“Damn right I am,” I say, shocked she isn’t. “That's my baby.”

She looks me up and down and a smug grin appears on her face. “You're kinda hot when you're all caveman and protective.”

I lean forward and speak directly into her ear. “Let another man try to get close to you or my baby, and you'll see just how caveman I can be.”

Her cheeks pink, and she smacks me in the chest halfheartedly as she laughs. Instead of letting her pull her hand back, however, I grab it and take it in mine. She doesn't fight me on it as I interlace our fingers. I don't think too far into it, though. She knows I'm nervous.

No more than ten minutes later, we're called back, and we follow the nurse into a dark room. Kennedy climbs up on the table and lifts her shirt like she's a seasoned professional at this point. Me, on the other hand, I sit nervously on the chair beside her.

“So, is this the father?” the technician asks.

Kennedy looks over at me and smiles, like she's proud. “Yeah. He's the dad.”

The woman looks at me. “Nice to meet you, Dad.” She turns her attention back to Kennedy. “You two are going to make a beautiful baby.”

“I know, right?” she agrees.

After squirting some gel on her stomach, the tech presses a wand over it and the image of our baby appears on the screen. Right away, I can see every little body part, from the head to the toes. I’m instantly mesmerized. My jaw drops, and I watch as the baby kicks his or her legs and flails its tiny arms.

The technician starts to do her measurements, taking pictures and marking them with certain things I'm sure only the doctor can understand. We count the fingers and toes to make sure there are ten of each, and she points out things like the baby's spine and that the arms and legs are exactly the size they should be at this far along in the pregnancy.

“I'm just going to check the ventricles of the heart and listen to the heartbeat,” she says, pressing buttons on the machine.

I wait patiently, but when she zooms in on the heart and I watch the little thing fluttering away, I can't hold back anymore. This is my child. This precious tiny human, with a beating heart and moving limbs, is mine.

Kennedy looks over at me and sees how in awe I am of everything. She reaches over and puts her hand out for me to take. I grab it instantly, and as the heartbeat starts to play through the speakers, I know I would do anything in the world for these two.

I'd walk through fire.

I'd swim to the bottom of the ocean.

I'd take on an entire armed cavalry with a hand tied behind my back.

I'll do absolutely anything to keep them safe.

“Well, I'm not the doctor, but from what I can see, everything looks good,” the tech says, making Kennedy and I both sigh in relief. “Last thing is, do you want to know the sex?”

The two of us turn to each other, and it doesn't even take a single word to know we're thinking the same thing.

“Yes!”

MY WHOLE BODY IS buzzing in excitement as I drive away from the doctor's office. There were a lot of ways I saw that appointment going, but I don't think I imagined anything like that. The feeling I got when I saw our baby up on that screen—it was everything.

“That was...wow!” I tell Kennedy as we drive home.

She giggles from the passenger seat. “Out of this world, right?”

“I can't even explain it. Did you get this way the first time?”

“Just about,” she answers. “But this time there was a lot more to look at. The first ultrasound just looked like a little alien.”

I take a deep breath and smile over at her. “Thank you for letting me come with you to that. It means a lot to me.”

The corners of her mouth raise in a grin she couldn't fight off if she tried. “I'm glad you were there. I really loved sharing that with you.”

Her response, paired with how good we've been for the last couple weeks, makes me feel invincible. Now, there's only one thing left to do.

“If it's okay with you, I'm going to go tell my parents about the baby tonight,” I tell her. “I want them to know they're becoming grandparents.”

“Good luck with that,” she quips. “I told mine, and it sucked worse than when I got my period in class in the sixth grade.”

I snicker at the dramatics. “I mean, I never said I won't throw up on myself in the process, but I'm still going to do it.”

She looks over at me and smirks. “Do they know we broke up?”

Fuck. Between fighting to get Kennedy back, finding out about the baby, and also being deathly afraid of my mother's women deserve more respect than that lectures, I put off telling them. A little voice in me wonders if I should mention that we could just get back together and solve that part of the problem, but we're on such a high, and I don't want to ruin it.

I lean my head back against the headrest and sigh heavily. “I guess I have two things to tell them.”