Double The Love (BWWM Pregnancy Romance Novel) (4 page)

And so began the longest five
minutes of Liam's life. The tech spent ages pushing against Jasmine's stomach
with a scanning wand, clicking on his keyboard every now and then to take
random measurements. Eventually Liam gave up trying to watch and studied Jasmine's
face instead.

Liam felt like he was looking
at pre-fame Jasmine all over again. Her face was bare of any makeup and she was
clearly nervous as hell. From the neck up, he was the Jasmine he knew in his
youth. He wanted so badly to talk to her, but now wasn't the time. They'd both
been holding their breath ever since the tech said he wanted to make sure
everything was okay with the baby.

What
did that mean anyway?
Liam wondered. Here he was,
having only just found out that he was going to be a dad, and he was already
knee-deep in protective mode.

Finally, the tech turned to
them and smiled. “Your baby is perfectly healthy,” he assured them. “Shall I
introduce you?”

Liam and Jasmine nodded at the
same time, and the tech turned his cart around so that they could better see
the screen. “Here’s the head,” he explained, pointing his pen at a small
circle. “And this right here is the heartbeat.”

Liam felt like his entire world
had shifted off its axis. Everything he thought was important before this
moment now seemed to pale in comparison. He could barely even take in what the
tech was saying. All he could focus on was the tiny person he had a hand in
creating.

“Do you want to know the sex?”
the tech questioned, catching Liam's attention for the first time in minutes.

“No,” he and Jasmine said in
unison. It marked one of the first times in their lives that they'd
automatically agreed on something.

The tech smiled. He briefly
wondered what the story was with these two. They seemed like a couple, but one
could never be sure. The love struck way in which Liam was staring at the
ultrasound made it clear that he'd only just unearthed his role of father-to
be.

“There you have it,” the tech
said, turning the screen back towards him and tapping a few buttons on his keyboard.
“That's your baby.”

“Our baby,” Liam repeated,
speaking his first words in minutes. He gripped hold of Jasmine's hand and
smiled at her as a few stray tears trailed their way down his cheeks. It was
the expression of a man who'd just fallen in love.

Chapter five

Jasmine ran to make a much
needed bathroom break after her scan, and the tech took the opportunity to hand
Liam his own copy of the ultrasound photo.

Liam's heart skipped a beat
when he looked down at it. It was his first physical photograph of his child
and he couldn't get over his excitement. Who knew you could love someone this
much who you'd yet to meet?

“I just figured you might want
one of your own,” the tech explained.

“I appreciate it,” Liam said as
he neatly folded the picture in half and slid it in his wallet.

When Jasmine returned, the tech
handed her a copy of the ultrasound as well. “Well alright then,” he spoke up,
making his way over to the door. “It was nice meeting you both. Dr. Gilligan
will be in soon for the second half of your appointment.”

Liam and Jasmine both thanked
him. As soon as he was gone, Jasmine's smile dissipated and she turned to look
Liam in the eye.

“You don't need to stay for
this part,” she told him. “You've had your confirmation.”

Liam didn't flinch.

“Liam,” Jasmine said with a
deep sigh. “This isn't like the ultrasound. This is private.”

Liam shrugged. “If it involves
my child, I want to be there for it. You're just going to have to get used to
it.”

Jasmine narrowed her eyes at
him but remained quiet. She contemplated pointing out the fact that he had no
real rights as a father considering the baby wasn't even born yet, but
something stopped her from doing so. It occurred to her that maybe if he heard
all the gory details of what went into childbirth, he wouldn't feel the need to
tag along next time.

“Whatever,” Jasmine muttered.
“I'm not in the mood to fight with you.”

“Good.”

They sat in an awkward silence
for a good ten minutes and Jasmine distracted herself by flipping through some celebrity
gossip site on her phone. She knew it wasn't a smart idea to look at bad press
about herself, but she couldn't help it. There was something so fascinating
about reading what people thought they knew about you.

“Why?” Liam finally spoke up.

“Why what?” Jasmine questioned,
pulling her attention from an article that was dragging her for her natural
hair transition. Not that she cared. Frequent perms and bleaches weren't safe
during pregnancy, and she cared a lot more about her unborn child than she did
her hair.

Liam took a deep breath. He had
a hard time getting the words out. “Why did you go through with it?” he
questioned, keeping his gaze steadied on his hands.

Jasmine swallowed hard and went
back to flipping through her phone. “I don't believe in that,” she said. It was
a simple enough reason, but what she really wanted to say was,
'this baby is a
part of us. I could never get rid of it'
.

The implications of speaking
those words were far too heavy for Jasmine’s liking. She and Liam were over.
Baby or not, was no ‘them’ left.

“Thank you,” Liam said.

It was the most sincere thing
Jasmine had heard him say in awhile, and she couldn't help but look at him. “I
did it for the baby,” she clarified. “Not for you.”

“I know,” Liam said in his
usual cocky manner. “But that doesn't make me any less grateful.”

Dr. Gilligan entered the room a
few seconds later. “Good afternoon, Miss Davis,” he said, nodding at Jasmine
without looking up from his clipboard.

Liam was immediately put off by
how bored he sounded. He didn't want any doctor who was in charge of bringing
his kid into the world seeming annoyed by his profession. Not to mention the
fact that he had clearly seen better days. He had to have been at least sixty
by the looks of it. Why hadn't he retired yet?

“I've reviewed your file,” Dr.
Gilligan continued without acknowledging Liam's presence. “Your baby's
development is exactly where it should be this far along. All I need to do
today is get some additional information from you. Your next scan is a big one.
We need to know if there’s anything in specific that we should watch out for.
Let's start with the father. Do you happen to know anything about his medical
history?”

“Actually,” Liam spoke up,
gritting his teeth. “I'm the father.”

Dr. Gilligan looked surprised.
“Oh, I'm sorry. Of course. How rude of me.”

Liam shrugged.

Dr. Gilligan cleared his throat
and looked down at Jasmine's paperwork again. “As I was saying,” he continued,
stumbling over his words a bit. “Your baby's development is right where it
should be this far along. My main concern is how you've been feeling. It says
here that you've been experiencing a bit of heartburn?”

“Yes,” Jasmine said. “But it's
manageable. It mostly only happens after I've eaten something spicy. The little
one doesn't seem to agree with my Thai cravings.”

Dr. Gilligan smirked at the
remark, but the look in his eyes made it clear that he wasn't entirely
listening. He went on to make a few recommendations before explaining the birthing
process Jasmine had decided on in vivid detail. Liam latched onto every word,
but he was left feeling physically ill by the time the appointment was over.

“Jazz hold on, we need to
talk,” he spoke up, placing a hand on her arm to stop her from walking so fast.

Jasmine laughed and shook her
head. “Oh no we don't,” she shot back, continuing down the corridor towards the
parking garage where her driver was waiting.

Liam ran after her. “Jazz come
on,” he pleaded. “I know we're not the best of friends, but you can't keep me
out of my child's life.”

Jasmine sighed. “What exactly
do you want?”

“Easy,” Liam said, leaning
against the wall. “I want in on the decisions from here on out. I want to come
to these appointments, I want to be there for the birth, and I want joint
custody.”

“What?” Jasmine hissed. “Joint
custody? Liam, come on...”

“No, you come on,” Liam shot
back. “Any child of mine is going to have both their mother
and
their
father in their life.” He paused and grabbed her hand, forcing her to meet his
gaze. “Even if one of them hates the others guts.”

Jasmine glared at him. “I don't
hate you,” she muttered.

Liam raised an eyebrow, making
it clear that he didn't believe her.

“Fine,” Jasmine agreed,
exhaling a deep sigh. “But when I ask you to back off, you back off. And your
involvement in my life ends with our child. It doesn't cross over the
boundaries of that.”

“Of course,” Liam said. He
smiled and held up his hands. “So long as you don't let your life have an
affect on our kid's.”

Chapter six

There were over ten messages
from Eli awaiting Jasmine in her phone by the time she returned home from her
appointment. She sighed and thought seriously about ignoring them, but it
wasn't long before she found herself dialing his number.

Eli picked up after the first
ring. “Where the hell were you?” he demanded.

Jasmine was taken aback. “Not
that it's any of your business, but my appointment ran late,” she said,
omitting the bit about Liam.

“Yeah, well, I was worried. In
fact I almost came down there to find you.”

“Relax, Eli,” Jasmine said with
a roll of her eyes. “Didn't I tell you that I'm capable of taking care of
myself?”

“I know. I just feel protective
of you, that's all.”

“I appreciate that, but like I
said...I'm a big girl. I'm fully capable of looking after myself.”

“I'm sorry,” Eli said,
immediately slipping into 'pleading for forgiveness' mode. “Look...why don't
you let me make it up to you? How about I bring over some Chinese tonight and
we can watch a couple movies. I'll even sit through that basketball romance
again. The sixth man or whatever.”

Jasmine snickered. She really
needed to rest, but she also wanted to end things with Eli cordially. Appeasing
him with one final movie date seemed like as good as any way to do it. “Fine,”
she agreed. “And for the hundredth time, it's called Love and Basketball.”

Liam took Eli's place on
Jasmine's couch the following morning. “I found you a better doctor,” he
announced, pulling a card from his wallet. “Andrea said she's one of the best
in LA. All you have to do is call and make the appointment.

Jasmine sighed and put away the
maternity magazines she’d been flipping through before he arrived. “For the
millionth time...I don't need a new doctor. Dr. Gilligan is fine. In fact, he's
been great to me. You just happened to catch him on an off day, that's all.”

“Jazz, come on. The dude’s
ancient. I don’t want the crypt keeper delivering my kid. Dr. Everett is the
real deal. Andrea said she’s one of the best obgyn’s in the city. She's
like...the vagina whisper or something.”