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The heartbeat. Where was the heartbeat?
Pete gripped my hand as the seconds ticked by painfully slow.
And then, by the grace of all things holy and good, a rapid heartbeat filled the room.
I let out my breath in whoosh, tears falling freely down my cheeks.
“There’s your baby. You got a wiggler.” She turned the screen around and I found my breath again.
There was our baby, moving around and doing little flips and kicks.
“Perfectly healthy—”
“But the bleeding, and the pain?” Pete asked, still gripping my hand.
“A doctor will be in here shortly to explain,” she said, patting his shoulder.
The attending physician did, in fact, come into the room quickly after the ultrasound tech left. She looked over the monitor and turned to me with a smile, a nurse hovering behind her with her slender hands wrapped around my ankle in a loving embrace.
“Just a small hematoma, they’re not uncommon by any means. I don’t see any more, so after this you should be all right. Just try to take it easy for a while. No stress.”
Pete and I looked at each other and laughed.
The nurse raised her brows at us, then turned and followed the doctor out of the room before turning back and saying she’d have our discharge papers sent over shortly and we should make an appointment with our regular doctor for tomorrow.
I laid back against the thin, paper-covered pillow and fought the urge to howl with laughter.
“No stress.” Pete chuckled. “Well, what the hell are we supposed to do about that?”
“Pray that my mom left town and Jonah isn’t on his way?” I offered, snorting with laughter. “Pete, I’ve never been so scared in my life—”
“Me neither.” He sighed, patting my arm. “You did good. The kid is already causing you grief, though.”
“We have to name the baby, Pete. We can’t just keep calling it kid.”
“Why? That’s a fine name for a baby.”
“Kid?” I scoffed. “No.”
“Then what did you have in mind?”
“I like… Well, I don’t know. I’ve never really thought it.”
“What about Buck, for a boy?”
“Absolutely not.” I laughed.
Pete laughed too, then said, “I like Mason for a boy. Always have.”
“I like that. Mason Greenway.” I rubbed my belly.
“What about for a girl?” he asked.
For whatever reason I’d felt like this baby was a girl from the beginning. That’s just how I saw the baby, I guess.
“Sophie,” I whispered, almost absently as I looked at the water-stained tile ceiling. “Sophie Greenway.”
“I like that.” He smiled softly, laying his hand over mine. “I kind think it will be a girl. I’d put money on it, actually.”
