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“Are you okay? Do you want one of those ginger candies?” Ben stood up from the recliner and rustled through my purse, pulling out the candies that Martha had stashed there.
I took one, popping it in my mouth. “Just sit in the wheelchair.”
His lips twitched, but he sat down. “Put the bag in my lap. Don’t carry it. She’s pregnant, you know,” he said to the unamused orderly. “It’s our first.”
“And probably only if this is what it’s like,” I moaned.
“She’s just saying that. First so far.”
The orderly nodded, taking the bag from my hands and setting it gently onto Ben’s lap. “Congratulations. I’m sure you’re relieved to be getting out of here.”
“I am,” Ben said happily. “We got to hear the heartbeat a couple of days ago and in three weeks, we’ll get an ultrasound and we'll see her.”
“Or him,” I corrected him.
Something about my pregnancy had switched our personalities. While the baby had morphed me into a hermit, Ben thrived, charming all the nurses and doctors as he prattled on about our baby. He even got a nurse from maternity to come down and let him listen to the heartbeat under the pretense of “missing out” on the experience. All he had missed out on so far was me losing my breakfast every morning.
“Or him. But I think it’s a girl. Can you imagine? A little Thea? I wouldn’t stand a chance.”
Ben stopped the orderly at the nurse’s station to say goodbye before being wheeled out to the entrance. Martha and Pete waited for us out front, Martha hurrying out of the passenger seat to help Benny into the backseat. I slid into the middle, resting my head on his shoulder.
“Ready to go home?” he asked, his hand on my knee working small circles on my inner thigh.
“More than ever.”
CHAPTER31
Ben
“Please slow down.”Thea pulled on my arm, slowing me. “You’re supposed to be taking it easy.”
“We’re going to be late,” I said.
I’d come home from the hospital as weak as a newborn kitten. But I had work to do at the rescue, and after Mom’s attempts to lure me back to my childhood home failed, Thea moved in. We hadn’t talked about specifics, but she also hadn’t moved out when I’d recovered enough to rattle around the house.
Still, the excitement of the doctor’s appointment and the ability to walk somewhere besides around the house had me excited. My legs ached to stretch, go on a hike, go anywhere.
Thea, on the other hand, had a rapidly growing midsection and the absolute certainty that our baby hated her lungs. She stopped walking with a sigh, dramatically checking her watch. “We have thirty minutes.”
“But there’s all that paperwork to fill out,” I protested, slowing down my gait. Holding out a hand, I reached for her, but she glared at my outstretched hand. “I’m so weak, Thea. I need you to hold my hand.”
She rolled her eyes, taking my hand and rubbing her other palm up my forearm. “You’re a mess.”
I pulled her close, nuzzling the top of her hair so I didn’t mess up her carefully curled hair. Despite the nausea, she hadn’t slowed down in the intervening weeks. As much as I tried, I couldn’t make her. She had the auction, the new shop to move into, and me.
She claimed selling the thrift store had made her responsibilities dissolve, so anything else seemed like a vacation. But once I had the rescue under control, I planned to spend all my extra energy helping her set up shop. She needed the rest.
“I’m excited,” I said, inhaling lavender and spice. “We get to see our baby girl.”
“Our baby. We still don’t know if we’re having a girl.”
We stopped in front of the entrance to the medical office. I pressed a hand onto her stomach, closing my eyes. “Definitely a girl. She told me. She also told me she likes the name Esmerelda.”
Thea dropped my arm and took a step back. “Is your doctor sure you don’t have some residual brain fog? Because I can’t think of another reason that you’d wish that upon our child.”
“Okay. Esmerelda is a no. How about Janice?”
She laughed, ducking away from me. “Did I say this was your baby? I must have been mistaken. You remember that very nice older man I met at the Singles’ Ball? I’m pretty sure it’s his.”
