“Absolutely,” he says. “Now, let me show you how much I love you.”
CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN
Prophet
My hand gripsPhoebe’s as I watch the ultrasound screen and hear the whooshing of our baby’s heartbeat as it fills the room. Granted, I can’t see anything that even remotely resembles a human, but Phoebe had already told me that initially, babies look more like aliens than anything, so I’m not particularly worried.
“Let me print off a few copies of your little one before I let you get dressed,” the ultrasound technician says. Once she’s done and has left the exam room, I wet some paper towels and help get the goop off of Phoebe’s abdomen before she puts her clothes on again.
“I’m so excited,” she whispers as we wait for the doctor to come in and see her. “Cami’s going to be a big sister.”
I missed out on all of this the first go around and have no intention of letting Phoebe do anything baby-related on her own. Whether it’s holding her hair back as morning sickness hits, like I did this morning, or sitting next to her while we waitto see her doctor, I plan to be by her side. Thank fuck that Holly was able to get her an appointment relatively quickly, because now we’ve got a pretty good idea of when our baby is due.
“And we’re going to be parents,” I reply.
“This might delay things for me a little bit,” she muses. Then she shrugs and grins before she adds, “And that’s okay. I don’t think I want to be too far from our family.”
“Gotta agree with you there,” I admit. “But I still think that there’s time for you to take on at least one assignment so you can knock out some of the clinical hours you need.”
She shrugs. “I feel like everything is going at warp speed sometimes, Eli. Who knew that I’d practically have what I needed to get my master’s degree in such a short amount of time?”
“Your own desire for more knowledge is what helped you with that, sweetheart.”
She’s about to reply when there’s a knock on the door and the doctor comes in, smiling. “Well, Mom and Dad, let’s see what we know so far,” she says.
Thirty minutes later, my head is swimming, Phoebe is softly laughing at my expression, and we’re on our way back to the clubhouse. Because of the upcoming changes, we’re going to have church while Holly and Marnie start planning a baby shower.
“I need to get one of those books,” I mutter as I help her into the truck. “I’ll one-click it when we get to the clubhouse.”
“Just saying, but that one gives pretty much every scenario that can happen, Eli. You heard the doctor, I’m young, healthy, and we should have no problems at all,” she says.
“I need to be prepared,” I reply as I slip into the driver’s seat and start the truck.
“Eli,” she drawls out. “We can prepare all we want, but at the end of the day, whatever is gonna happen will happen.”
“At least we have an automatic litter box already for Kevin,” I muse. “That’s one less worry, right?”
“Yes, it is,” she states. “And as far as the foods I should either limit or avoid completely, I don’t usually eat most of them anyhow.”
“I’m still checking the cupboards and pantry out and tossing any of it I find,” I firmly state. “Why take chances?”
I may be watching the road, but I know she’s rolling her eyes at me right now, and maybe I am being ridiculous, but I’ll do whatever I can to make sure our baby is healthy. I’m already making mental notes about things I need to do around our house.
“Will this make it easy for you to cope?” she asks. When I nod, she says, “Then you do what you feel you have to, Eli. If I think you’re getting too out of control, I’ll ask Holly to talk to Rebel so he can rein you in.”
I can’t help it, I start laughing and soon, she’s joining in as her hand reaches out to clasp mine. “Maybe I am being a bit over the top,” I admit. “I missed out on so much not knowing about Cami.”
“That still ticks me off,” she grumbles. “Which is one of the reasons I took so many videos. I know it’s not the same, but I wanted you to at least have that, Eli.”
“And I’m thankful you did that,” I reply as we pull into the parking lot of the clubhouse.
“Will Ella be there?” Data asks.
I’ve just finished filling in my brothers about Phoebe’s travel assignment. Thelma’s network is pretty awesome, all things considered, and she managed to get permission for Phoebe’s clinical hours to be done under her guidance and supervision.
Not only are we heading out next week to an area that was hit hard by some severe storms, which were thankfully not as severe as the hurricane ravaged area we were in several months ago, but apparently, Ella does plan to be there as well.
