CHAPTER 10
Week 29: Baby kicks and stretches
Twenty-nine weeks into your pregnancy, or 27 weeks after conception, your baby can kick, stretch, and make grasping movements.
Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (about the size of a) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. His muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and his head is growing bigger to make room for his developing brain.
***
“DR. ROBERT’S, WITH all due respect, please don’t tell me anything more about hemorrhoids!” Mandy felt sick.
His lips twitched, “Constipation and hemorrhoids are a large part of the end of pregnancy. As the baby grows, there is less room and the bowels slow down.”
“La, la, la, la,” Mandy had her fingers plugged into her ear, “You can’t scare me with your wicked tales, Dr. Robert’s.”
There was a knock at the exam room door, and Tina poked her head in, “Oh hey, Mrs. Johnson!”
Mandy just ignored it, “Hello Tina.”
The assistant turned to the doctor, “I have those stool samples, did you want me to send them off to the lab?”
Mandy paled, “I am not giving you people my poo.”
From behind Tina, there was a stifled laugh. It was most decidedly male in origin.
Tina grinned, “Also, I have Mr. Brand here with me, he was wondering if he could wait in your office, Dr. Roberts. Apparently, the patients are becoming a little too friendly.”
Mandy could have died right then and there. She could not believe that she said the word ‘poo’ in front of her employer. It was bad enough that he had driven her to the appointment. It was the last one of the day, and she had meant to leave the office early and catch a cab.
Elliot would hear none of it and insisted that he take her on their way home. The way he said home made her heart thump and her blood race. But she knew that it was all a lie. Once he found out she was carrying his baby, she shuddered not even wanting to contemplate the consequences.
Dr. Roberts laughed, “We are finished here, Elliot. If you want to come in and gather up your favorite employee.”
Mandy’s blush deepened, and Elliot entered the room. Suddenly it felt much smaller than it had moments earlier.
“Oh,” Dr. Robert’s turned to Mandy, “We were going to see if the baby had turned into position. Tina, would you come in and do a quick ultrasound and jot the results on her chart?”
Tina happily bustled in and before Mandy could protest she had her shirt up and was squeezing a goopy gel on her abdomen.
Mandy’s eyes shot straight to Elliot who was looking on wide-eyed.
“I can,” he sounded hoarse, “I can leave if you want.”
Tina looked at him like he was an idiot, “She isn’t getting naked, Mr. Brand.”
His eyes widened for a moment, and he adjusted his stance. The last thing he needed to be reminded of was Mandy naked. It already haunted his every thought of every day.
Mandy shook her head, “You don’t have to go, Elliot. This shouldn’t take long.”
She was trying to be nice, but Mandy noticed that the moment she had told him he could stay. Elliot’s eyes were glued to the monitor where their baby was.
He asked Tina all sorts of questions. Mandy could hardly keep up. And then he moved in close to study the black and white screen. Tina showed Elliot all of the baby’s features, the little hands and fingers, the feet and toes, and Elliot loved every minute of it.
He turned to Mandy with such a look of reverence in his eyes that it formed a knot in her throat.
“Why are looking at me like that?” she whispered.
A slow smile broke across his face each movement causing butterflies to fill her stomach.
Tina went on to tell them that the baby was at the current moment head down, but it was possible for the baby to move positions clear up until delivery.
Mandy’s chart was noted, and the goop wiped off her stomach.
“Do you know what you are having?” Elliot asked as they walked out of the doctor’s office.
Mandy shook her head. She hadn’t wanted to know. At first, she was in denial about the entire affair, but once she had come to terms with it. Mandy wanted to be surprised.
“No,” a blonde strand of hair blew into her eyes and Elliot stopped to tuck it behind her ear before opening the door to the black town car. “But my sister, Kim, thinks that it is a boy.”
Elliot knew that Mandy had been spending a lot of her free time with her sister. Mandy had explained to him about Kim’s marriage falling apart. Elliot had often dropped Mandy at The Grind after work, but he hadn’t come in.
When they pulled up, Mandy was more than a little surprised when he shut off the engine.
She looked at him questioningly.
“Nothing horrible,” he smiled, “I promise. I just want to meet your sister and this Freddy fellow.”
Mandy swallowed her nerves and led the way into the little coffee shop. There were only a few customers, many of whom were regulars and said hello to her.
She saw that Freddy was behind the counter and walked up to hug the man. Freddy looked badass and scary as fuck, but he was more like a teddy bear than anything else to those that truly knew him.
Elliot wasn’t sure how he felt about Mandy going into the tattooed man’s arms like she had done it a thousand times before. But he swallowed that twinge of jealousy and shook hands with the younger man.
Kim came out shortly after. She had the same look about her that Mandy did. Although there was a depth of sadness that was almost tangible. Elliot hadn’t known her husband, Andrew. But he was shocked that someone would walk out on this beautiful woman.
She was almost as lovely as her sister. Elliot looked over at Mandy, almost.
“Mandy!” her sister took Mandy in her arms, and they hugged briefly.
Mandy had asked how she was feeling and if morning sickness had been a problem. Elliot felt himself zone out on most the rest of the conversation. It was a cute little shop, but there didn’t seem to be enough traffic coming and going. He wondered if Kim’s shop was in the red and if Mandy knew about it.
Elliot would love to pitch in and help. But he was dealing with a huge multinational merger at the moment. There had to be someone who could look at the books, that is if Kim would let them.
Once he had grabbed a coffee for him and a peppermint hot chocolate for Mandy, he asked her about it.
Mandy blinked, “I think that they are barely in the black, that is why she doesn’t hire more staff to help. I am very worried about her working these long hours especially with a baby on the way.”
“Would you be willing to speak to her about it?”
***
THIRTY MINUTES LATER Nate was swearing up a blue streak as he strode into the little coffee shop in an area that was on the border of being sketchy.
“What in the hell is the emergency, Brand?”
Mandy scooted a little further away from the angry man, but Elliot just smiled.
“I have a dare for you. If you want, we can even make it interesting.”
Nate’s eyes perked up, “Do tell?”
“I dare you to triple the sales of this coffee shop by Valentine’s Day.”
Nate scoffed, “Please, what do I need with a coffee shop?”
It was true that he too was a busy man, but Elliot was fully aware that his workload was light at the moment.
“If you manage to triple the sales by Valentine’s Day, I will give you the Bugatti,” Elliot knew that Nate had been eying his car for quite a while now.
“You’re shitting me,” Nate breathed in excitement.
“Do we have a deal?” Elliot grinned extending his hand.
Nate grasped it in a heartbeat, “We sure as fuck do!”