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Someone rapped on the door, and the doctor and his assistant entered the small room.
“Hello, Becca,” he said. “How are we doing?”
He cast a curious glance at Nick, who was trying his best to disappear in the corner.
“Hi, Dr. Stevens. I’m feeling great, thank you. I’d like to introduce you to Dr. Nick Ciotti, the baby’s father.”
Nick recognized the practiced nonchalance with which Stevens greeted him. He was congenial, but there wasn’t a trace of surprise that, at the three-month mark, Becca had finally produced the baby’s phantom father.
After they shook hands and exchanged generic pleasantries, Becca told Stevens about the food poisoning and he got down to business asking her a series of questions.
“Have you felt the baby move yet?”
Becca shook her head. “No, not yet. Should I have already felt this?”
“No. Not necessarily. For a first pregnancy it could happen as early as fourteen weeks, but generally it happens between sixteen and twenty-five weeks.”
“That’s a wide range.”
“Each pregnancy is as individual as the parents.”
He asked her questions about morning sickness—she told him it had gone away; about fluid leakage and spotting—no to both; and whether she’d been taking her prenatal vitamins—religiously.
Then the doctor pulled over the fetal Doppler machine. Nick knew this machine because they had them in the emergency room. Dr. Stevens held a small probe against Becca’s slightly rounded belly and moved it around until they could clearly hear the heartbeat.
The doctor listened for a moment and frowned.
“Is everything okay?” Nick asked.
The doctor moved the probe around more, seemingly lost in what he was doing.
“Dr. Stevens?” Becca said. “What’s wrong?”
“Don’t get your hopes up, because we need to do an ultrasound to confirm it, but I believe I hear two heartbeats. There’s a chance that you might be pregnant with twins.”
* * *
“Twins?” Her voice cracked. “I’d just gotten used to the idea of one child. And now Dr. Stevens confirms there are two babies. The rules keep changing on me here. Or should I say the reality keeps changing. And multiplying.”
Nick smiled at her. The smile reached his eyes, making them crinkle at the edges. Ooh, those incredible hypnotizing brown eyes that looked darker and more soulful than ever right now.
“Obviously, I’m no expert, but I hear change is par for the course with children. Just when you think you have it all figured out, everything changes.”
He shrugged.
“For someone who claims to know nothing about children, you sound pretty wise. Are you sure you’re ready to do this?”
What a dumb question. They didn’t really have any choice now. Or at least she didn’t. She was still bracing herself, preparing for the moment that he changed his mind. And if learning that there was not one but two babies didn’t send him running... She couldn’t quite let down her guard and let herself go there yet.
“I don’t see how either of us really has a choice,” he said.
She couldn’t read him. Or maybe she simply didn’t want to because she couldn’t handle any more changes until she digested the fact that they were having twins.
If it had thrown her for a loop, how in the world must he really be feeling?
* * *
An hour later, as they walked to the parking lot, the toe of Becca’s boot caught an uneven edge of sidewalk and she did an awkward little stumble-dance to keep herself from falling.
An instant later, Nick’s hand was around her waist steadying her. Her body was warm where he touched her. Or maybe it was just that the stumble had awakened the cymbal-banging monkey, and it was playing a wild staccato in her chest.
“I’m fine. Thanks.” Her voice was a squeaky octave too high. She flashed him an awkward smile as heat crept up her cheeks, and she quickened her step away from him.
Gaaa! Leave it to her to be klutzy at the worst possible moment. She took a deep breath and blew it out as the burn of indignity taunted her.
“I guess I’d better get used to the uncertainty of parenthood,” she said. “Just when I think I have it figured out, I realize I don’t even know how I feel. I mean, I’m trying not to get too freaked out over his comment about twins making it necessary to classify the pregnancy nearly normal. Why? I should’ve asked questions, but I was too stunned. Now that everything is sinking in, I have a million questions. I’m going to stew about them until my next appointment. Do you know what he meant by nearly normal?”
