Grace Under Pressure

Chapter Seventeen

"You ready for this, baby?" Perry asked as he finished stacking our luggage up by the front door. Our flight was scheduled to depart in a little under three hours, but to play it safe, we were headed to the airport early.

"As ready as I'm going to be, love," I gave him a tight smile.

The truth was that I was more nervous than I had ever been in my entire existence. What if Nathan hated me? I looked so much like our mother. What if Nathan looked at me and saw her? What if we couldn't connect emotionally? What if he was a holy terror, a real Rosemary's Baby? I felt my heart rate speed up as the panic started to set in, and I tried to will myself to calm down. Stress wasn't good for the baby.

I damn near jumped out of my skin when I felt Perry wrap his arms around me. I hadn't even seen him move. "It's gonna be okay, baby." He kissed me softly before pulling me closer and holding me right. "You're not alone in this. I'm gonna be with you every step of the way."

I let myself melt against him. Nothing could calm me down like Perry could. "I know, and I lose you for it." I leaned up and kissed his chin. "I'm just scared. What if Nathan hates me? We know nothing about this child. What if he has problems? What if he's a rotten little brat?"

Perry leaned back so he could see my face, and he made sure that I was looking at him before he spoke. "Then we find him a good kiddie shrink and love him anyway. Nathan may biologically be your brother, but we're going to be raising him like he's one of our hellspawn. That's how you have to look at this. What would you do if it was the baby your carrying or Jack or Jennifer who was in trouble? What would you do to help them?"

"Anything," I answered without a second thought.

"And we'll do anything for Nathan," Perry said simply. He kissed my forehead before completely pulling away from me. "Now, come on. Let's hit the road. The sooner I'm felt up by a handsy TSA agent, the sooner I can get into therapy to forget about it."

I laughed. God, I loved that man. I truly did. It was like he had flipped a switch in me. I went from all doom and gloom to hopeful and happy in the course of one short conversation. My husband to be was magic.