Chapter 37
Lara
I didn’t tell Mason about the appointment. It still didn’t feel real. If my doctor confirmed the pregnancy, I promised myself I would talk with Mason about it. It had been a taboo subject so far, and he seemed okay with avoiding the topic. I was still convinced if I believed I was pregnant, I would somehow jinx it.
“Good morning,” my doctor said, coming into the room. “How are you feeling?”
“Good.”
“Well, I did the second test like you asked and you are definitely pregnant. Now, given the fact that you had a negative test result and then a week later a positive test result, things are going to be a little tricky when it comes to giving you an accurate due date. There’s also a chance that first pregnancy test didn’t show positive because it was still early,” she explained.
I knew all of that. I couldn’t give a shit when the baby was due. My concern was going full term. “Am I at risk for a miscarriage?” I asked.
“Lara, we’ve talked about this. Miscarriages can happen with no rhyme or reason. The best thing you can do is try to take it easy. Don’t do any heavy lifting or overly strenuous activity. Try not to stress over things. Basically, relax and let nature take its course. I can’t promise you anything, but there’s nothing physically wrong with you.”
I nodded. “Okay. I can do that. I can relax.”
She started laughing, “I can see that.”
I put my hands over my face. “I can’t. I’m going to be a basket case until this child is born healthy.”
“That’s another thing we need to talk about. You were undergoing fertility treatments, which means there is a strong chance you will have multiples. I’d like to see you back in a month. We’ll pull out the doppler and see how many heartbeats we hear. We may also need to do an ultrasound to check everything out, but we’ll worry about that later.”
“Can we do it now?” I asked, far too anxious to wait.
She smiled. “I suppose we can do an early ultrasound.”
She grabbed a paper out of a drawer, handed the informational sheet to me, and asked me to stop by the desk to schedule it for tomorrow.
“Tomorrow?”
She laughed. “I know you’re anxious, but we need a full bladder.”
I wanted to cry.
“Let me check the schedule. Maybe we can squeeze you in later today,” she said, resigned to the idea that I was not going to leave without knowing my baby was in there and healthy.
I grinned. “Thank you!”
She left the room and came back a few minutes later. “I got you an appointment in an hour. I need you to drink a couple glasses of water, and don’t go pee whatever you do!”
Vigorously nodding my head, I smiled. “I won’t. I promise!”
I bought two bottles of water from the vending machine and slammed them both down. My hands were nervously shaking. I debated whether to call Mason but decided to wait until I knew more.
“Lara?” I heard my name and practically ran through the waiting room.
The procedure was fast. I dressed and waited for my doctor to come into the room. The butterflies in my stomach were making me sick. Or maybe it was morning sickness. Or perhaps even the large amount of water I had drank so quickly on an empty stomach.
A brief knock on the door and I almost vomited. It was my doctor.
“Well, everything appears to be just perfect. No warning signs. The pregnancy is very new. The ultrasound predicts you are close to two weeks along. An ultrasound this early in the pregnancy is fairly accurate.”
I was elated. “Thank you. Thank you for putting up with my craziness.”
“I’ll see you in a month, and hopefully we’ll get to hear that little one’s heartbeat for the first time.”
“It’s not twins?”
“We won’t know for a couple more weeks. We’ll check at your next appointment. Now go home and relax!”
I left the office and practically floated into work.
“Everything okay?” Kali asked with concern.
I felt as if I were on cloud nine. “Everything is perfect. I just got done with my first prenatal checkup.”
She screamed and clapped her hands. “I’m so excited! We’re going to be pregnant together!”
We hugged and then she started firing questions at me, none that I could answer with any real certainty.
“So, is the father Doctor Hottie or random stranger?” she asked.
“I honestly don’t know. The ultrasound showed I was about two weeks pregnant. She said the first test could have been a false negative. Basically, it’s a wait and see I guess.”
“We’re pregnant!” she shouted again. “We’re going to be mommies!”
I laughed, still cautiously optimistic.
We got to work, chatting the whole time about our babies, planning what they would wear and listing all the things we would need to buy.
By the time I closed up for the day, I was practically bursting at the seams. I couldn’t wait to see Mason.
I knocked on his door, unable to hide my giddiness. He opened it, eyeing me suspiciously. “I didn’t know you were coming by. Is everything okay?”
“I’m pregnant!” I blurted out.
He smiled. “I know.”
“No, like really, truly pregnant. There’s a little lima bean in my belly!”
He kissed me and dragged me inside. “I’m glad you finally realize that. What brought on this realization?”
“I had a doctor appointment today.”
He looked at me, surprise on his face. “You didn’t tell me.”
“I know. I had to get a second opinion.”
“Okay.”
“I made her do an ultrasound.”
He grinned. “Of course you did. I take it by your excitement everything was okay?”
“Yep. As normal as a two-week fetus can be. Here,” I said, thrusting the picture the tech had given me at him.
He took it and studied it closely. “Looks like a baby to me.”
“Mason?”
“Yes?”
“I don’t know if it’s your baby or the donor’s.”
He shrugged, not seeming too bothered by the information. He was still studying the picture.
“We can get a paternity test. You deserve to know if it’s your child,” I said softly.
His eyes met mine. “Do you love me?”
“Yes! Of course I do.”
“Then it doesn’t matter. I don’t need to know. If you want to know, we can do the test. I will love the child as my own. I don’t need to share DNA with him or her.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Okay. We have some time to think it over.”
He was studying the picture again. He took it with him as he walked to his desk in the spare room. I watched as he pulled out a calendar and started pointing at days.
“What are you doing? Is there something you see there that I should be worried about? I don’t know what all those numbers mean. I was focused on the part that pointed to the little sac where the baby is.”
“I love you,” he said again.
My heart raced. I just knew he was going to say something that was about to rock my world. My mouth went dry.
“Mason? What is it? Tell me please. You are really freaking me out!”
“It’s mine.”
“What?”
“This little guy or girl,” he said, tapping his finger on the picture, “is my baby.”
“How do you know?”
“If it was the donor’s, the embryo would show the growth. This stage of a pregnancy, things happen fast. Each day the embryo is changing.”
I slowly nodded my head. “It’s your baby,” I repeated. “I’m going to have your baby.”
He was grinning from ear to ear. I half-expected him to start crowing like a proud rooster.
“You’re going to have my baby. We’re going to be parents. Are you okay with that?”
I nodded. “Yes, definitely. I didn’t mean what I said before. I mean, back then I did, but not now. Now I want to share this with you.”
“Good, because I don’t think I could have done it the other way.”
He walked around the desk and embraced me. We shared a sweet kiss.
“Hungry?” he asked.
I started laughing. “You can’t feed me all the time. I don’t want to blow up to a blimp.”
“It’s dinner time. Eating is expected. You are going to grow fat and happy with our child growing inside you. I will love you no matter how big you get.”
“You say that now, but we’ll see what you say if and when that happens.”
We walked into his kitchen hand in hand. “I don’t know what I have to eat. I guess that’s going to change. We need to actually buy groceries and have them stocked for all the snacks you are going to need.”
“I think we should go out for a celebratory dinner tonight. We’ll worry about grocery shopping later.”
He kissed me again. “I love you.”
We headed out and found a place nearby. It was strange to order a meal and know it wasn’t just me that was going to be eating it. I had to start eating better. I was going to do everything I could to make sure my baby was healthy.
“Want to stay at my place tonight?” he asked as we walked back to his building.
“Sure.”
I thought about how that was all going to work out. His apartment was big and in a good neighborhood, but it had that same cold feel that mine used to. I was jumping the gun. I was moving as fast as Brian and Kali.
Once back at his place, we kicked back on the couch and watched old episodes of Friends. It was nice, cozy and completely normal. I lay cradled against his chest with my hands on my belly. He would occasionally put his hand over mine, both of us holding our child.
“Ready for bed?” he asked.
I yawned. “I am. Does this mean I have to start going to bed early now?”
He chuckled. “From the way I understand it, and based on experience with patients, you’re going to be wanting to go to bed early.”
I nodded. “That’s true. I read that. I need to get one of those books.”
“I can get you some. I have a library at the office. We hand them out to mothers as part of their congratulatory package.”
“We’re pregnant,” I said again. The words felt strange crossing my lips. I had never really expected to be able to share the moment with anyone after Mitchel. The fact that I got to share it with Mason made me very happy.
“Yes, we are. You’re going to be a great mother.”
“You’re going to be a great daddy.”
He sighed. “I hope so. I don’t have the best first-hand experience, and I’m sure I’ll make plenty of mistakes, but I’ll do my best.”
“That’s all we can do.”
Soon, I crawled into his bed. I loved sleeping naked with him, enjoying the feel of his skin on my own. He was all warmth and hardness, and I figured I’d better appreciate these nights while I could. Once we had a baby in the house, it wouldn’t be quite so easy to go to bed together, especially nude.
His arm came around me as I cuddled in close to his body. Maybe it was the hormones, but I was in desperate need of his body.
“Mason?” I whispered.
“Hmm?”
“Make love to me.”
He chuckled. “As if you have to ask.”