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“She wanted to get us the life-size crèche,” I told him. “Be glad they’re only this size.”
Flynn had joined in my routine, and it made the flow of things so comforting—even the food we ate and the clothes we wore, how we spent our evenings together. I knew some of it was probably more rigid than not, but neither of us wanted to test it. If it worked for us, leave it alone.
And then we’d discovered some exhilarating news a few months earlier, news that we were keeping to ourselves until the family arrived. I was pregnant!
That morning, before Margo arrived, Flynn and I had just finished making love when I stretched to reach the switch on my bedside lamp, the sheet falling away.
Scratching his chin, Flynn frowned, swirling his finger around the area of my belly.
“This is pretty big, if you ask my opinion.”
“I’ve never been pregnant before, so I don’t know.” I looked down at my body, and that was quite a mound. My breasts were already huge, too. He reached over and caressed themagain.
“You missed three periods, correct?”
“Three exactly. The fourth one is due around Christmas. Why?” I asked, staring down at my body.
“Um, that is a large protrusion for only being sixteen weeks pregnant. And your breasts, jeez.”
I hunched over, failing at covering up with my hands. “What exactly are you getting at, Flynn Safadi?”
“I wonder if there could be two in there?” He lay his ear against my belly. “Hello. This is your father speaking. Are you alone in there?”
I covered my face with my hands, peeking out at him between my fingers. Delicious chills danced over my body. “Stop it. You’re getting me all tingly.”
“We should run over to the clinic, and I’ll do an ultrasound.”
“I’d rather not know right away,” I said, my teeth actually chattering.
“You should know,” he said, feeling my belly with deft hands. “It’s part of good prenatal care. Lillian had some trouble during the delivery. Her physician should have known one baby was breech. He could have delivered you both by section.”
He didn’t say what I suspected—birth trauma had been part of what had affected my poor sister and probably my mother, as well.
“If I don’t do it today, it will not make that much difference, will it?”
“No, but I’d like to know. Let me examine you.”
“No! You’re insane,” I cried, sputtering.
In his defense, Flynn had tried his best to be a hands-off doctor dad, letting my obstetrician do all the doctoring. But I could see his excitement. Maybe I was being selfish.
“Oh, okay, if you really want to know. Not the exam! You were already down there once today. Why don’t you just listen for two heartbeats?”
He’d purchased a fetal Doppler as soon as I had a positive pregnancy test.
“Yes! Thank you for reminding me.”
He nearly jumped in the air remembering the Doppler, his naked body flying out of the bed. I buried my head in the pillow, laughing while he searched for the device. Once I recovered, I quickly grabbed my phone and went to eBay to search.Baby clothes. Baby clothes for multiples. Newborn baby clothes, new with tags.
Five minutes later, he returned with the device, holding it up in the air, and I tossed my phone aside.
“Lie back down, please.”
He got back into bed, pulling the sheet down under my belly. He sat on the edge of the mattress and began searching for the heartbeat. It didn’t take long for one to ring out, and then my heart pounded so hard, I was afraid I might pass out. He’d found a second one.
“Oh, Flynn!”
After listening for a while, a slow grin spreading on his face when he confirmed there were two distinct heartbeats, he set the Doppler down and gathered me in his arms.
