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Olivia’s hand slips into mine. I look down at her, my brow up. “Hm?”
“You seem nervous.”
Damn, this woman can read me.
“I haven’t been nervous a day in my life,” I say casually.
She snorts, obviously clocking—correctly—that I’m full of shit. “It’s nothing to be nervous about,” she reassures me. “It’s just a standard check-up. They’re gonna do an ultrasound, let us hear the heart. I think we get to know the gender soon, too.”
“They can figure all that out just with an ultrasound?”
“Mhmm. Pretty cool, huh?”
“Pretty weird.” I’m trying to picture what the inside of a uterus is supposed to be like, let alone one with a baby in it. This doesn’t exactly come as a surprise, since I didn’t pay all that much attention in biology class. Didn’t think it was going to come up again in life, truth be told.
Olivia laughs. “Why’s it weird?”
I shrug a shoulder, looking around. “I mean, I’m the only guy here. And I’m thinking to myself how it’s weird that that’s the case. And then how weird it is knowing I’m gonna see my own kid while it’s, yanno, in you. I’ll know what our baby is gonna be when it comes into the world. It’s… it’s weird.”
“Maybe you just need to expand your vocabulary,” she teases. “Though… I’ll admit, some of it’s a little weird. The whole ‘being able to see the baby’ thing is something to get used to. You have this idea already in your head from the jump about it, only to have science swoop in and tell you that all your preconceptions are actually wrong.”
I roll my eyes. I’m getting pretty damn sick of the world continually reminding me lately that all my preconceptions are wrong.
Olivia brushes her knuckles against my face. Her hands, despite how frigid it is in this office, are warm. Like her whole being is getting a temperature jumpstart because it knows there’s a little one trying to keep toasty inside her.
I open my mouth to say something when her name is called out.
“Ms. Carter? We’re ready to see you now.”
The nurse calling her from the mouth of the hallway is dressed in a set of baby pink scrubs. She looks like bubblegum. Everything from those scrubs to her shoes to her glasses is that same shade of pink.
I stand and pull Olivia up with me gently. I can feel the eyes of the other women in the waiting room follow us as we follow the nurse back to the actual office. All along the way, the halls are lined with pictures of perfect families with perfect babies and perfect pregnant couples with impossibly white, perfect smiles. The carpet beneath our feet squishes, like it was intentionally made with pregnant women in mind carrying more weight than they’re used to. Everything is sterile and bland, though somehow still welcoming.
“Dr. Lee is just right this way. You managed to get a good slot! She’s been doing a lot of home visits lately.”
The nurse opens a closed wooden door. Inside is Dr. Lee. She smiles wide when she sees Olivia, peering over her horn-rimmed glasses at the pair of us.
“Well, well, well. It’s good to see you this time around, Reese! Here I was thinking you were going to flake out again! I’d have to wring your little neck.”
“My neck hasn’t been little in a long time,” I rumble.
“That’s cute that that’s what you think.” She chuckles, giving a wink to Olivia. “It’s good to see you again, dear. How’ve you been feeling? Everything going well?”
Olivia nods. “Had a… rough couple of weeks, but everything’s been going smoothly since then.”
Well, at least we won’t be going into a spiel about having her sequestered away in a cabin in the middle of nowhere.
Dr. Lee hums, giving me an up and down. “You better be on your best behavior, sir. No stress for this little lady, understand? At her age, we don’t have too many concerns, but that doesn’t mean you can just put her through anything.”
I raise my hands innocently. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Mhmm.” She eyes me skeptically before looking at Olivia. “He steps outta line, you just call me. I’ll set him right.”
Olivia chuckles. “You bet.”
“I feel outclassed and outnumbered,” I chime in.
“You are,” Olivia and Dr. Lee say simultaneously.
