‘Hi,’ he said again. ‘How are you feeling? You look great.’ Her skin was glowing, she seemed to have even more hair than usual – was that a pregnancy thing? – and her rounded tummy was beautiful. She was wearing a long, tight orange top over dark skinny jeans with boots, under an open woollen coat, and she looked perfect.
‘Bit nervous.’ She looked down at where they were still holding hands and wriggled her fingers. James let go of her hand immediately. ‘But a lot less nervous than I might be because something amazing’s been happening.’
‘What?’ asked James and then Dina walked round the car.
‘Hi, Dina.’ He smiled at her.
‘Hey, James.’ They shared a quick cheek kiss. ‘Congratulations on the pregnancy.’
‘Thank you. I’m very excited.’ Also nervous and confused.
‘Great.’ She gave him a hard stare. ‘So I’m going to leave you both to it. I’m going shopping, Cassie. Just call me whenever and I’ll come straight back. Any time, however long it takes. I can shop all day, or not. Okay, honey?’
‘Thank you so much,’ said Cassie.
Dina pulled her into a big hug and said, ‘It’s going to be okay, I’m sure it is.’
James waited until Dina was back in the jeep and revving the engine and then said, ‘So you said something amazing had been happening?’
‘Shall we go inside?’ Cassie turned towards the building’s entrance and started to walk. ‘I can feel the baby kick. Which I never did with my first one. So I know it’s alive.’
‘Wow. Thatisamazing. Wow. So what does it feel like?’
‘Well. People, and books, tell you that it’s like butterflies in your stomach, like there’s something light moving in there. So you imagine what it might feel like. Then when itdoeshappen it doesn’t feel like you imagined at allbutif you were describing it you’d absolutely say it’s like butterflies in your stomach or something light moving in there.’
‘Right. So what you’re trying to say is it’s indescribable?’
‘Exactly.’
They went inside the building and Cassie gave her name at the reception and they got buzzed through into a waiting area.
They sat down and after a minute or two, Cassie said, ‘It’s kicking now.’
‘Wow. So… you’re feeling butterflies right now?’
‘Kind of. Little squiggles of sensation.’
‘Wow.’ This was making it all feel remarkably real.
‘Would you like to feel it?’
‘Sorry?’
‘If you put your hand on my tummy you can feel it from outside. Only a tiny bit because it obviously isn’t very big yet, but you can definitely feel something.’ She looked at him goggling at her. ‘My jeans have a very large elastic waistband that starts at the bottom of my bump, so you can feel through that. No undressing required.’
James cleared his throat. ‘Great.’
‘So, it’s still moving. Right here.’ She pointed low down on her tummy. Oh, God.
James placed his hand there tentatively. And felt something squirm against his hand.
‘That was it! That was actually it! I’m pretty sure I felt the baby! I felt the actual baby!’ He’d never felt so exclamatory in his life.
‘Yes, that was it.’ She was beaming at him.
James wanted to put his arm round her shoulders and kiss her to high heaven, holding onto her tummy and their baby the whole time.
But he couldn’t do that, so he said, ‘Wow,’ again.
