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Planning for the ‘what if’s’ that we both know can never really be planned for.
Even though I have a female doctor, Blake insists on being at every single appointment, holding my hand, and being right there for every single thing it seems.
Except when I fill a cup or have blood taken.
Blake would kill me for saying so, but his kryptonite, the one thing the big guy can’t handle is the sight of blood and needles.
“You’ll be okay at the birth though?” He’s been asked a dozen times, every time setting his jaw firmly, playing the boss.
“Of course, it’s just the needle in the arm thing. I’ll be fine. Just fine,” he’s assured everyone, but he can’t fool me.
I’ll be sure and let them know closer to the time that they might have a fainter on their hands. But they didn’t hear it from me.
Today though, it’s nothing so dramatic, and as Blake makes a face, complaining about the resolution of the imaging, our doctor gives a loud and clinical sounding “uh oh.”
My heart freezes and I feel Blake’s hand grip mine even tighter.
“What is it doc? Give it to us straight,” he demands with his trademark intensity, but she only laughs softly to herself.
Must be a Doctor joke thing.
“I mean ‘uh oh’ spoiler alert,” she chimes. “Look away now because junior here is about to flash you his or her gender,” she says with a huge smile, looking adoringly at the grainy image as I feel my baby shift inside me.
Blake looks away from the small screen and holding a hand over my not-so-small baby bump he looks into my eyes instead.
“You can look if you want to, mommy,” he tells me. “It’s our baby, but I know you’re doing all the work. I don’t mind if you want to know,” he tells me, leaning over to kiss me and I can tell he’s just itching to know, but he loves a good surprise as much as I do.
Dr. Fitzgibbon asks me if I want to see, and I nod eagerly.
Blake squeezes my hand again and keeps his eyes on me as I watch our baby turn to face me for the first time, making me cry straight away.
The doctor raises her brow in a question and although I think I can see, I nod before she mouths the gender of our baby so only I can see.
It wouldn’t matter. It doesn’t make any difference to how I feel, but knowing I was right. Knowing I already do know my little girl a little is all the confirmation I need.
Forty-five minutes later…
“I know I said I wanted it to be a surprise. But that was ages ago. You got to find out and now you won’t tell? I think we need a second opinion. It feels like you and that doctor are ganging up on me,” Blake pouts.
I’m not sure if he’s genuine or just trying to cheer me up, but he’s been nagging me, begging me to tell him if it’s a boy or a girl the whole ride home.
I remind him of his own decision when he was asked, but he just keeps on about it.
I put up with it until just before bed.
“Okay fine, you really wanna know?” I growl, blowing what feels like a puff of steam out through my swollen cheeks.
“It’s a...”
“No, no! Don’t,” he says suddenly, leaning over and kissing me so I can’t tell him.
He tells me he’s sorry for acting so crazy, but being a first time daddy is doing things to him he never expected.
You’re telling me.
The next morning, at around three twelve A.M. Blake’s officially banned from even asking because he’s changed his mind yet again, begging me to tell him if it’s a boy or a girl.
“Which do you think it is?” I ask him sleepily, too tired to argue or want to talk about it anymore for one day.
“I think it’s a boy,” he says excitedly, nuzzling my neck with his stubble and making me groan in reply.
“Then congratulations, it’s a boy,” I murmur, drifting off again almost instantly.
“Or it could be a girl,” he says not long after, shaking me awake to tell me the painfully obvious chances of it being one or the other.
“Goodnight, Blake,” I moan, pulling the pillow over my head.
“Goodnight girls,” he whispers knowingly, kissing my shoulder tenderly and gently rubbing his huge hand on my belly.
Pressing a kiss from his lips with it for our unborn baby daughter.
“Goodnight daddy,” I mumble, smiling as I drift back to sleep.
We love you.
Extended Epilogue
One Year Later
Blake
Carter, Mason & Mason Holdings, my one-time solo empire has become a family business. A bigger business than one person could come up with on their own too.
Krystal’s dad is the Carter in the title, an official partner now as well as a financial wizard, with Momma and Papa Mason as we like to call ourselves picking up the slack.
