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

glances down at her clipboard and then back to me, watching me carefully. “You do realize you were overdue, right?”
    “Yeah. I was on tour and out of town and then got a new phone.” I wave my hand to dismiss all my excuses. “Sorry. You don’t want to hear all that. Yes. I was a little past due.”
    “Five, almost six weeks, past due.” Dr. Allister licks her lips and leans forward. “It’s standard for us to do a pregnancy test before administering the birth control shot.”
    The fear I’d barely allowed myself to consider stares back fully-formed at me from behind Dr. Allister’s shiny lenses.
    “No.” I grip the little paper gown in my fist until I’m sure I’ll tear it “I’m not . . .”
    “Pregnant, yes.” Dr. Allister’s kind eyes run over my face, which must be drained of all blood.
    “But the hormone—”
    “The efficacy of the hormone is drastically reduced after even two weeks past the shot, much less nearly six, Kai.”
    “I just . . . I didn’t . . .”
    I run a trembling hand through my hair. It’s still a little damp. Rhyson and I shower together most mornings. Have sex in the shower most mornings. Had sex this morning. I press my eyes shut and swallow back tears. How could I have been so careless?
    “Could there be a mistake?” I ask desperately. “I mean, maybe there’s been a mistake. I feel great. No symptoms whatsoever.”
    “Your urine test shows hCG levels.” Dr. Allister shakes her head. “That’s the hormone we’re looking for when a woman is pregnant.”
    “But I . . . you’re sure?”
    “Yes, we’re sure.” A smile softens Dr. Allister’s expression. “I’d like to do a transvaginal sonogram. That might make you more . . . certain.”
    “Like an ultrasound?”
    “A little different. Not the jelly on the belly thing.” Dr. Allister stands. “Slightly more intrusive, but it will help us determine how far along you are.”
    As soon as she says “how far along you are,” I have visions of people walking up to me in grocery stores and in Starbucks, touching my swollen belly and asking when I’m due. This can’t be happening.
    “I’ll get a technician in here to get it going.”
    Things are moving at warp speed, but I slow down long enough to think, to remember that Rhyson is in the waiting room. He has literally been having dreams about our unborn daughter for months. He should be here. Despite the dreams, neither of us imagined it would happen this quickly. We just got engaged last week.
    “I need to call my fiancé.” I grab my phone, take a deep breath and dial Rhyson.
    “You ready?” he asks after not even a full ring. “That was quick.”
    “Um, yeah.” I chew at the corner of my lip. “Could you come back here to examination room 4C?”
    In the silence, his immediate concern reaches through the phone and wraps around me.
    “Is something . . .” He clears his throat. “Are you okay, Pep?”
    “I’m fine.” I brighten the words to dispel his worry. “Could you just come back?”
    It seems that I’ve barely hung up when the door swings open and Rhyson pokes his head in. I motion for him to step all the way into the room. He crosses the small space, butting his knees right up against mine and taking my hands in his.
    “What’s going on?” Concern darkens his silvery eyes to slate. “You okay?”
    “Yeah, I just . . .” My glance drops to my hands linked with his in my lap. “The doctor just told me . . . I’m . . . I got a new phone.”
    He blinks at me several times before sputtering.
    “What the—what the hell, Pep? You called me into the lady doctor’s office to tell me you got a new damn phone?”
    “Lady doctor?” An ill-timed giggle pops out of my mouth. “I haven’t heard . . . I guess she is a lady doctor.”
    “Pep, for God’s sake. What is it?”
    “I got a new phone.”
    “Not this shit again.” He tips his head back and heaves a longsuffering sigh.
    “Let me tell you this my way.”
    “Your way is