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The doctor finally showed some understanding and ended the ultrasound, wiping the gel off Bridget with a tissue and then offering her an arm to pull herself up.
“There’s no reason to do any further testing if you don’t want to know. No matter what, you’ll prepare for your baby. They all need the same thing. You’re doing a great job, Bridget. I’m sorry you’re upset.”
“I’ll live,” she said, her standard answer. “My biggest concern is my boyfriend. His mother uses the termretard.” That did it for Bridget and she began to weep. “She’s really a lovely woman otherwise.”
“You’ll educate her if need be. Hang in there, sweetheart. It might not mean anything.”
That night in bed, her hands over her belly, she thought of the little baby girl inside her. Like a miracle, she felt a flutter inside her, that familiar butterfly-wing feeling.
“Tony,” she whispered, “are you sleeping yet?”
“I’m awake,” he said, rolling over to face her.
“Give me your hand.”
He offered it and she placed it over her belly. On cue, there it was again, a little tap, tap from within.
“Wow, that’s so cool! She’s moving around already.”
“This is about the time. I’ll be four months soon. I hope time doesn’t go by too fast.”
“Me either. I’m in the one-day-at-a-time mode. If I start thinking about everything, it will make me crazy.”
“Me too. I love you, Tony.”
“Aw, I love you too, so much. You’d better get some sleep.”
They kissed and he fell asleep with his hand on his baby.
Chapter 7
Christmas was on its way. Roberta had gone over the top decorating for Flynn and shopping and making everything perfect for him. She’d invited Alice and Emmett Clark for Christmas Eve, so there wasn’t the competition betweenthealmostgrandparents.
The firehouse was also being decorated. That morning, Katherine sat on the top rung of the extension ladder of engine 5, stringing lights around the perimeter of the room.
“Why don’t we leave these things up all year? They’re cool looking,” Joey Saint said.
“We’d be the laughingstock,” Rick Jackson said. “It would look like a circus tent.”
“You’re nuts,” Katherine yelled down.
“I’m going home as soon as Bridget gets here,” Tony told Joey.
“I’ll be right behind you. Ma had Candy baking Christmas cookies at the house last night. There goes her diet.”
“You’re cruel,” Tony said, but he laughed, catching Bridget coming through the door out of the corner of his eye. He practically vaulted over to her, pushing her back out the door so Charlie didn’t get annoyed when they hugged.
Outside in the cold dark December morning, they kissed like guilty lovers. She threaded her hands into his jacket and held him close.
“Last night was so difficult without you. Thank God this is the last night for a while.”
He was going on vacation for a week before Christmas, but unfortunately, he had to work over the holidays.
“And how did this little girl do?”
He placed his giant hand over her belly, and the warmth from it stirred the baby. “Now you’ve done it. She was rolling around half the night but finally fell asleep around midnight.”
“I wish you could come home with me,” he said, kissing her again.
