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“A boy?” Pebbles voice cracks. “I’m having a baby boy?” she asks on a sob.
She covers her mouth with her free hand as tears pour through her lashes.
Dr. Murphy smiles while rolling the wand across her belly. “It’s all a bit of formality, as I’m 99.9% sure these twins are identical since they share a placenta, but if you look here, you can see baby B is also a boy.”
I follow Dr. Murphy’s movements in amazement as she shows me in explicit detail that both of our babies are boys.
“Two boys?” Pebbles cries harder. “Identical?”
I stand up, stepping to the side of the exam table, I wrap a comforting arm around Pebbles and press my lips to the top of her head. “Boys, Red.”
I don’t even realize until Pebbles is looking into my eyes and wipes her delicate finger along my cheek that I’m crying right along with her. I’m having two boys with the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.
Now if only she would get on board with that, everything in my life would be perfect.
* * *
Pebbles has had a smile pasted on her lips since we pulled away from the doctors office. Driving through town, I almost crash into the car in front of me when she quickly sits forward in her seat. “Oh! Can we please stop there?” she asks, pointing to a large strip mall, specifically the very big department store for baby stuff.
I chuckle at her outburst and flip on my turn signal before turning into the busy parking lot. Pebbles giggles when I pull into a parking spot very close to the building with a sign similar to a handicap sign, except this one saysExpectant Mothers Parking Only.
She rolls her eyes and turns to me. “I can still walk. I feel like this should be for moms that are about to pop. I’m nowhere near there.”
I know instantly when her eyes burn daggers at me that the wrong move was to look down at her belly.
“I am not even close to being huge like that yet!”
I hold my hands up in surrender. “I never said you were! I was just trying to be nice, you know, not making you walk so far.”
Her eyes squint at me as she opens her door. I let out a gruff laugh, running my hand on the back of my neck. Lesson one, don’t look down at said pregnant woman’s stomach in reference to large sizes.
“So what are we here for?” I ask, following her as she walks through the aisles with determination.
Her mood seems to shift as her little feet skid to a halt in the middle of an aisle of blankets. “This,” she says, pulling a blue blanket off the shelf by the hanger.
When I look down at the plush baby blanket in her hands, emotion clogs my throat. I look up, searching her eyes. She reaches forward and grabs another one, exactly the same as the first, and hands it to me. The softest material brushes against my palms as I hold the blanket tightly in my grip. Little motorcycles line the blanket, and my heart swells as I run my thumb across the pattern.
I clear the lump in my throat before asking, “This is what we came here for?”
Pebbles nods her head, running the plush blanket across her cheek. “Winnie and I came here a few weeks ago, and I held onto this blanket. For some reason, I really wanted to buy it. I ended up buying that one instead,” she says and points to a floral blanket further down on the shelf. “I knew one of us had to be having a girl so I bought it, but today when Dr. Murphy said we were having boys, I just knew we had to buy these.”
She holds the blanket tight to her chest, reaching out for mine. I hand it to her and watch in awe as she snuggles both of the blankets to her.
“I read in one of the books that you can start sleeping with a blanket you want them to have and it would start to pick up your scent.” She looks down at them wistfully. “I’m going to start sleeping with them tonight.”
My heart swells to bursting in my chest as she glows with purpose.
“That’s a good idea,” I tell her. I look around and take in the store for the first time.
The store is lined with aisles and aisles of wall to wall baby shit. I wasn’t really paying attention when we first walked in because I was too focused on following behind her as she practically ran across the store, but now that I’ve slowed down and sized it up, it feels a little overwhelming.
“What else do you need while we’re here?” I ask, looking down at her blissful expression.
It’s like my question pulls her out of a trance as she looks around the store, her eyes narrowed in thought. “We need everything,” she chuckles, nervously.
“Why don’t we just get the blankets for now? We can make a list and come back another day.”
She smiles at me. “That’s perfect.”
