Free Refrain (Soul Series Book 3) by Kennedy Ryan Page A

now.”
    “Doctor?” I tip up her chin to search her eyes and make sure she’s not hiding anything from me. “Everything okay?”
    “Yeah.” She gives me a smile that I don’t quite buy. “I kept feeling like I was forgetting something. I realized I missed a doctor’s appointment.”
    “Is that a big deal?” I spread my hand at the small of her back.
    “They can squeeze me in today, so it shouldn’t be.”
    Then why does she look like it is?

I ALWAYS FEEL LIKE I HAVE these little paper gowns on backward. Is this right? Sitting on the examination table, I peer down at my breasts and panties peeking through the open panels. I can’t believe I did this. How did I miss this appointment? I mean, I know how it happened. The tour. My collapse. Our vacation to Bora Bora. The new phone and my screwed up calendar alerts. I’ve had a lot going on, but to let my birth control shot lapse? And by five weeks?
    While I was reading through the offers and projects Bristol sent me, I noticed an email all the way at the bottom of the pile about my missed doctor’s appointment. If I’d had my old phone, I would have gotten the reminder call. I would have seen the appointment alert. But I didn’t. And now Rhyson and I have been having unprotected sex for the last five weeks.
    The hormone stays in your system for a while. I’m sure I’ve dodged the bullet. I haven’t had any symptoms. No fatigue or morning sickness. Nothing to indicate anything will come from this oversight except a lesson learned. It can’t. I tell myself all these things as I sit and wait for the doctor to come in. I’m so close to doing all the things I’ve always wanted to do. What are the odds that something else will slow me down? That through my own negligence, I will slow myself down?
    My phone lights up beside me on the table.
    Rhyson: Everything okay? Has the doctor seen you yet?
    I smile and dial him.
    “Hey,” he answers right away.
    “Hey. I peed in a cup and the nurse took my blood pressure.” I swing my legs hanging over the table’s side. “So just waiting for the doctor. What are you doing?”
    “Working on some tracks for Kilimanjaro.” I hear him still clicking away on the keys while we talk. “There’s a song they’ve been doing on the festival circuit that could be great for their album, but needed some tweaks.”
    “Cool. Thanks for bringing me. I’m sure you had better things to do than sit in a waiting room full of women. Is anyone giving you trouble?”
    “Nah.” He chuckles and lowers his voice. “I did have one elderly lady tell me I looked a lot like that folk singer Rhyson Gray.”
    “ Folk singer?” I bend at the waist to laugh, clutching the maybe-backward panels together over my naked chest. “What are you, John Denver now?”
    “A few people recognized me and asked for autographs, but it hasn’t been that bad. I’m wearing my cap.”
    “Which is, in your mind at least, like a cloak of invisibility.”
    “You can’t deny its effectiveness.”
    “Oh, yes, I . . .” My words peter out when the door opens and Dr. Allister walks in. “My doctor just came in, babe. I’ll be out soon.”
    “K. Love you.”
    “Love you too.” I smile at the doctor and bite my lip. “Sorry. I know I’m not supposed to be on my phone. Just checking on my fiancé out in the waiting room.”
    “Rhyson Gray is in our waiting room?” Dr. Allister’s eyes light up behind her blue-rimmed eyeglasses. “He may need a security escort to get out. Our receptionist is a huge fan. Would he like to wait in a private room? Would that be easier for him?”
    I process that she knows who I am, and therefore knows who my fiancé is before answering her question.
    “He’s fine, but I’d like to get this shot so he can leave before people start posting pictures of him to Instagram.”
    Dr. Allister’s smile fades a little. She takes the seat facing the table at the end with the dreaded stirrups.
    “Kai, about your shot.” She