Nanny for the SEALs by Cassie Cole

53

Asher

I was hardly listening to the doctor. I was busy smiling down at Heather, a woman I cared deeply about. The second-most important woman in my life, behind Cora.

In the past few hours, I had come to a surprising realization: I loved Heather. The feeling was new and intense, but it was certainly real. The relationship we had been enjoying for the last six weeks wasn’t just physical. It was far more than that. It was emotional, it was intellectual. The way she cared for our children stirred something deep within my soul.

I wanted her to stay with us. I wanted her to be Cora’s mother.

And we had dangled her in front of the stalkers like bait. The realization made me sick to my stomach.

We’ll never put her in harm’s way again, I thought while watching her.

Then the doctor said something that yanked my attention away from Heather. “…Are you not aware that you’re pregnant?”

The room was quite crowded around Heather’s bed: in addition to the three of us, there was Agent Cooper, Amirah Pratt, and Jimmy Cardannon. All six heads whipped around to stare at the doctor, then swung back to look at Heather.

Pregnant? I wondered. We hadn’t been using condoms with Heather, but…

“This must be a mistake,” Heather said. “I’m not pregnant. I’m on birth control.”

The doctor gave her a patient look. “Your bloodwork came back positive for the human chorionic gonadotropin hormone. At the levels present, you’re either pregnant, or you have testicular cancer. I’ll let you decide which is more likely. When was your last menstrual period?”

“I’ve always had a weak cycle. Sometimes I don’t even notice my period. I…” She trailed off and looked around the room.

The doctor cleared her throat. “Can we have some privacy, please?”

“Glad you’re doing fine,” Cardannon said with a little wave. “If you want to thank me for the help today, kindly direct any new clients to Heimdall Security.”

Amirah and Cooper left too. “They can stay!” Heather said when the rest of us started to leave. “They’re… They’re with me.”

We’re with her, I thought. The phrase made my stomach feel warm and content.

“Have you had any other symptoms?” the doctor asked Heather.

“No, I… Oh.” Heather blinked. “I have had morning sickness in the last week. I assumed it was queasiness from the hotel shooting.”

A nurse wheeled an ultrasound machine into the room. The doctor took it from her and said, “Hopefully this will clear up any confusion.”

The nurse lifted Heather’s gown and squirted jelly onto her belly. Then the doctor took the ultrasound wand and began rubbing it around.

“Since we don’t know the date of your last menstrual cycle, it might be too early to see much. It’s also been a while since I’ve used one of these, so bear with me if I need to call an obstetrician in to… Oh! There we go.”

The doctor’s voice changed at that last part—it became softer, more soothing. Like a mother speaking to a baby. The ultrasound was a blur of black and white lines, but suddenly it materialized into a black circle. Inside the circle, near the wall, was a smaller oval. It looked like nothing more than a peanut.

“That,” the doctor said, “is your baby.”

When the three of us first learned that our surrogate was pregnant seven years ago, we weren’t there in person. Our unit was visiting San Diego for a routine training exercise, so the surrogate told us the good news on the phone. I remember feeling relieved, and a little nervous.

This was a totally different experience. One minute everything was normal, and then that little black-and-white peanut appeared on the screen. A switch flipped in my head. Heather wasn’t just a woman I was in love with. Now she was the mother of my child.

I didn’t care that it might be Brady’s, or Rogan’s. The feeling of care that I felt, an the overwhelming desire to protect her from everything, was the same.

“Looks to be five or six weeks along,” the doctor said. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way. Congratulations.”

Heather’s eyes were as wide as coffee cups. She looked like she was going to cry, and I couldn’t tell if it was from happiness.

This might not factor into her plans, I realized. She was on birth control. For all we know, this is the last thing she wants.

The doctor removed the wand and cleaned up Heather’s belly, then her own hands. “I’ll give you a moment to process everything. But for now, everything looks good. For you, and your baby.”

She and the nurse wheeled the ultrasound out of the room, closing the door behind them. For a long moment, the four of us were silent.

“I’ve never seen you speechless,” Rogan said softly. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking… that I have no idea what I’m thinking,” Heather replied.

Brady cleared his throat. “Do you, uh, want to keep it? I’ll support whatever you want to do…”

“We all will,” I chimed in.

Heather smiled at each of us in turn. “Honestly, I’ve never considered what I would do if I ever found myself in this situation. I’ve spent my life trying not to get pregnant.” She let out a nervous little chuckle. “But now that I’m here, seeing what I just saw, and having the three of you with me…”

I held my breath.

“I definitely want to keep it.” Her hands drifted over the belly of her hospital gown. “I’m going to have this baby.”

I smiled. “Even if it’s Brady’s awful spawn?”

Rogan covered his mouth and turned away so we couldn’t see him laughing.

Brady glared at me. “Oh, so now you decide to tell your first joke?”

“It was a good one,” I said.

“Yeah, some comedian you are.” Brady turned to Heather. “I’d support whatever you want to do, like I said. But I’m glad you’re keeping it.”

Another joke appeared in my head, and I couldn’t resist letting it out: “He’s just saying that because your hair and makeup makes you look like Amirah Pratt right now.”

Rogan busted out laughing. So did Heather. Brady crossed his arms over his chest. “Buddy, you’re kinda ruining a tender moment.”

“You’re right,” I said, brushing aside a lock of Heather’s blonde hair. “I’m with you, no matter what happens. But what about your acting career?”

“Oh.” Heather pursed her lips in thought. “I can put my acting career on hold until after the baby is born, I suppose. If you don’t mind waiting that long before pulling strings to boost my career.”

I looked at Rogan. He winced.

“What?” Heather asked. “What’s wrong?”

“It was my idea,” I said in an exhale. “We knew that things were shaky at the security agency. If something happened to Amirah Pratt on our watch, then we would lose our ability to boost your career. A company that’s going out of business can’t call in favors.”

Rogan picked up where I had left off. “So we boosted your career ahead of time. Made some calls to agency contacts and casting directors in the industry. That way, even if we blew it with Amirah, your career would get the boost we promised.”

“Really?” Heather asked. “Is that why Jonah Weiman was here today? To watch me in action?”

“Unfortunately, no,” I replied. “Jonah Weiman was here to monitor the situation with his client. We’re on thin ice with his agency, so we couldn’t ask for any favors from him.”

“But an agent at William Morris is very interested,” Rogan said. “They talked to someone and had you added to that anti-smoking commercial.”

“So that’s how I got the part,” Heather said. “I was confused about that. I bombed the audition.”

Rogan nodded. “It wasn’t just about your acting ability. They knew the director of the commercial was… not easy to work with. They wanted to see how you would handle taking orders from someone so difficult.”

“But you passed!” Brady said cheerfully. “You took it like a champ. Williams Morris wants to sign you. I think you’ll be hearing from them later this week. Aren’t you happy?”

“I’m… overwhelmed,” Heather said. “This is a lot to take in at once. Being kidnapped by two crazy stalkers, finding out I’m pregnant, and now learning that the largest talent agency in Los Angeles wants to represent me… I need to sit down.”

“You’re already sitting down,” Brady pointed out.

“I need to sit down more.” Heather pressed the button on the bed to recline. “That’s better. Do you think William Morris will mind waiting until after I give birth?”

I nodded. “I’ll talk to my contact over there. I’m sure it won’t be a problem at all.”

Rogan took a seat next to the bed and cradled both of Heather’s hands in his. “I need to tell you something.”

“If it’s another apology, I’m going to punch you in the mouth,” she warned.

Rogan smiled. “It’s not that. Heather… I know we agreed that this was just physical. And back when we were fooling around at the Four Seasons hotel, maybe it was. But we’re way beyond that now. I’ve been lying to myself about it, but I can’t lie any longer. Heather Hart, I love you. I love you with all of my heart.”

“His heart wants Hart,” Brady said. “That’s funny.”

Heather ignored him and focused on Rogan. “I’m relieved to hear you say that, because I’ve been lying too. It’s more than physical for me as well. I think I knew that back when it first started. I… I love you too, Rogan.”

“You can love me back, even after I put you in danger today?” Rogan asked. His voice was soft and serious. Vulnerable, even.

Heather rolled her eyes. “Yes! Yes, I love you back! I forgive you! Everyone needs to stop apologizing about it!”

“Putting you in danger was a stupid thing to do,” Brady said. “He should feel like shit about it.”

Heather aimed a finger up at Brady. “No. Don’t start. If I can forgive Rogan, then you can to.”

“But…”

“No!” she snapped. “Get over yourself. Sure, you were right and Rogan was wrong. What we did was dangerous. But there’s no use crying about it. And it worked out in the end: we caught the stalkers and saved your company’s reputation. So can we all just move on, please?”

That succeeded in cowing the two of them. “Yeah, okay,” they muttered. For a moment they reminded me of Micah and Dustin after getting in trouble.

Heather is definitely the right woman for the job, I thought. Both to take care of the children, and to keep these two in line.

With Rogan’s confession out of the way, it was my turn to approach Heather. I gently kissed her on the forehead and mustered my courage.

“It feels anticlimactic to say this after Rogan just poured his heart out. But I love you too. I love the way you take care of our children. I love the way you throw yourself into each day. You’re fearless in a way I wish I could be. And beyond all that, I would love for you to be the mother of my child. Even if it’s not my child. Whoever’s baby is inside of you, they’re going to be absolutely wonderful. I’m certain of it.”

She sat up and brushed her lips against mine. “You said a whole bunch of stuff there, but I love you too, Asher. I’m so happy to have you in my life.” Her face became serious. “Even if you did watch nanny porn the first night I stayed over.”

I had forgotten all about that, and it took my brain a moment to register the words. Then I felt my cheeks redden. Brady barked a laugh.

“Oh. Um, I don’t…”

“What happened?” Rogan asked. “What am I missing?”

“Oh shit, we never told you?” Brady said. “Asher watched nanny porn in the office and Heather caught him.”

“She caught you?” Rogan demanded. A smile spread across his face. “What, did you leave the door open or something?”

“I saw it on his history the next day,” Heather said.

“That’s just as bad,” Brady said. “Everyone knows you should use Incognito Mode to watch porn. Rookie mistake.”

Heather grabbed my shirt and pulled me back into another kiss. “Sorry for teasing you. I love you, Asher Solak.”

The words ignited a fire in my chest that would never fade, so long as I lived. “I love you too, Heather Hart.”

I stood up straight and glanced at Brady. Rogan cleared his throat.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Brady said. “I already told her I love her, like, a fucken week ago. You losers are just catching up.”

Heather nodded. “It’s true. He did.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Did you say it during sex?”

“…No.”

“Did you say it after sex?” Rogan tried.

“Um… That depends on your definition of sex.”

Rogan clapped his hands together. “Then ours counts more.”

“Like hell it does!”

“It’s more meaningful here,” I agreed.

“That’s bullshit.” Brady looked furtively at Heather. “Tell them that’s bullshit. Mine means just as much, if not more.”

Heather shrugged dramatically.

As the argument continued and we fell apart in laughter, I didn’t know what the future would hold. But I knew one thing for certain.

I wanted Heather to be a part of it.