Chapter Twenty-Eight
Elena
A week after I had moved in with Noah, it was my first doctor’s appointment. I was nervous, my stomach twisted in knots. I had nothing to be nervous about, but nothing about this was routine for me and if I had to be honest, I was downright terrified.
“It’s going to be okay,” Noah said for the umpteenth time.
“Are we going to see the baby?” Lilly asked from her booster seat in the back.
I turned in my seat to look at her. “We’re going to do an ultrasound so we’ll see the baby, but it's not going to look like a baby yet. It will be a little blob on the screen with a heartbeat. And we won’t know if it’s a boy or a girl, yet.”
Lilly nodded. She was playing with a doll she had brought with her, focusing on combing the hair rather than looking at me. I turned back to the front and took a deep breath, trying to let go of the tension.
In the waiting room, there were all kinds of women, from thin to heavily pregnant and everything in between. We sat down and waited for a while before we were called in.
The consultation went well, with a few questions we had to answer before we were escorted through to another room where I had to lie down on a bed.
“What are they doing with that?” Lilly asked when the ultrasound tech squirted jelly on my stomach and I squealed because it was freezing.
“We’re going to meet your brother or sister,” the tech said.
Pictures appeared on the screen, and a moment later, the tech zoomed in on a blob the size of a coin.
“That’s your baby,” she said. “About eight weeks along.” She pushed a button, and a heartbeat filled the room, so fast and so beautiful. I teared up, a lump rising in my throat. When I looked at Noah, he was as emotional as I was.
“Is that it?” Lilly asked, sounding disappointed.
“Before you know it, that’s going to be a sibling,” the tech said. “What would you like, a brother or a sister?”
Lilly tilted her head to the side, thinking.
“I think I’d like a brother,” she said. I looked at Noah, smiling. Lilly was adorable, accepting the baby and me without blinking.
“I think I would like a boy, too,” I said. Noah nodded. We were all on the same page, although it didn’t matter what we had. If we had a girl, we would be as happy as if it was a boy.
When the ultrasound was over to the pharmacy to get the prescription filled for the prenatal vitamins I had to take. Noah was serious about keeping me safe and healthy for the duration of the pregnancy. It was endearing to see him like this, eager to meet the new baby and involved with the pregnancy right from the start.
“I think we should get ice cream to celebrate,” Noah said when we climbed back into the car.
“Yeah!” Lilly cried out.
I laughed.
“I can eat ice cream,” I said. I had been getting cravings lately, and ice cream was on the list. Noah chuckled, and he turned in the right direction to head to the ice cream parlor. When we sat down at the table and ordered what we wanted, Noah sat back and looked around like a satisfied man. He was watching the other families, and I could see he was happy to be one of them.
“I think we should change the guest room closest to ours into the baby room,” he said. “What do you think?”
I laughed. “We still have thirty-four weeks to think about it.”
Noah shrugged. “Well, that’s one thing down, then. We have to make a lot of changes.”
I shook my head. He was so on board with this. It was hard to think that I had been so scared to tell him I was pregnant. That I’d been worried it would interfere with his professional life. The man that sat opposite me was so on board with being a new parent again everything was perfect.
“Can the baby sleep in my room?” Lilly asked.
I shook my head. “The baby is going to cry a lot at night. I don’t think you want to wake up all the time.”
Lilly made a face. “And smelly diapers.”
“That’s right,” Noah said.
I nodded. “The guest room sounds like a good idea.”
“Done,” he said. I knew we would talk about painting and color schemes soon, with how he was going on about it. And it was perfectly fine by me. With Beth’s wedding around the corner, I had a lot to think about, but once that was done, it would be great to start preparing for the baby to arrive.
The ice cream arrived, and I watched Noah and Lilly dig in. A sense of peace overwhelmed me, and I realized this was the feeling that everything was going to be okay, that I was exactly where I needed to be. It was hard to think that I found my happily ever after when I hadn’t been looking, but I was in it now, and I couldn’t be happier. This was what I’d imagined my life to be like when I was younger.
Noah’s phone rang, and he took it out of his pocket, frowning at the screen.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“I have to take this,” he said, excusing himself from the table. He walked out of the door for privacy, and I sat with Lilly.
“Do you think my brother will like ice cream, too?” Lilly asked.
“We don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl yet,” I said. “But I’m sure that he or she will love ice cream just as much as you do.”
“I can’t wait to play.”
I chuckled. “It’s going to be a while before Baby will be ready to play, honey.”
Lilly straightened her shoulders. “I can wait,” she said.
I loved her. Lilly had been nothing more than my boss’s daughter once, but they had become so much more to me in such a short time. And now that I had moved in, Lilly was like a daughter to me. I didn’t want her to think I was her biological mother, and soon we would have that talk – I wanted her to know about her birth mother so that there weren’t questions later – but for all intents and purposes, I was her mother.
And she seemed as happy about it as I was.
I glanced up at where Noah was standing talking on the phone, and he looked troubled, nodding and frowning. I wondered if it was about work.
When Noah finally joined us again, his ice cream was melting.
“Was it the office?” I asked.
Noah shook his head. “It was Nicole’s mother.” Hearing the name made my blood run cold, but Noah carried on. “She heard that Nicole had phoned me, threatening suicide.” Noah had told me about the phone call, and I had felt for him. He hadn’t cared about her the way she’d wished he would, but knowing someone was willing to go that far was tough to deal with, no matter who they were to you.
“Apparently, Nicole is okay. She didn’t do anything to herself. She said she wanted to, but instead, she booked herself into a rehab facility in Utah. She’s getting the help she needs, and it was her own choice.”
“Oh,” I said, surprised. I hadn’t known where the conversation would go when he mentioned Nicole’s name, but this wasn’t the direction I had expected. “I’m glad she’s alright.”
“Me too,” Noah said. “It was nice of her mother to phone me.”
It had been kind, I agreed. And of course, I was glad that Nicole hadn’t done something drastic. But I was relieved that she was out of our hair now. She had caused enough trouble in our relationship, and I didn’t want more drama when we needed this time to focus on our future and enjoy our time together.
Noah leaned over the table and kissed me. “I’m saying I’m happy she’s safe, but I’m also relieved she won’t bother us anymore.” He had known what I’d been thinking. “And I told you so,” he added.
“Told me what?” I asked.
“That everything was going to be alright.”
I laughed and kissed him again because he was right. Everything was okay.