I turned, a smile cresting on my lips. “You’re here. I thought you got stuck in California or something.”
“And miss the opportunity to hear our baby boy’s heartbeat for the first time? Not a chance.” Lowering his head, he pressed a kiss to my lips.
I sighed as his hand slipped around mine, cupping it.
“Mrs. Townsend, the doctor will see you now,” the receptionist stated.
“My husband can come as well, right?” I questioned, hoping she said yes without any problems.
“Absolutely.”
We followed the receptionist through a door and down the hall to a private room where we were met by a nurse practitioner. She took my measurements, drew my blood, had me give a urine sample, and then had me lay on the table and unbutton my pants in preparation for the ultrasound.
“I can’t believe we’ll be able to find out the gender today.” I squeezed Robert’s hand as I laid on the table in the doctor’s office, next to the ultrasound machine.
Robert brought my hand to his lips, kissing it, as he stood over me. “I already know what the gender will be, but if you need this test for confirmation …” He shrugged.
Smirking, I placed my free hand under my head. “You’re so sure it’s a boy. What if it’s a girl?”
He was shaking his head before the question was out of my mouth. “It’s a boy.”
“They’ll also test to see if anything’s wrong with the baby.” Biting my lower lip, I brought my hand down, running it over my stomach. I grew nervous at the thought that something might be wrong with the baby.
“He’s fine,” Robert reassured. “You know we nee—” He was cut off when the doctor knocked and entered the room.
“We’ll talk later,” he said.
“Mr. and Mrs. Townsend, great to see you again. You’re here for your twenty-week ultrasound. Time is flying, isn’t it?” Dr. Muller quipped.
I laughed. “I can’t believe it.”
“Having any more bouts of nausea?” she asked while pressing on my abdomen.
I opened my mouth, but Robert responded, “She got sick last week while eating split pea soup. She normally loves it, but even the mention of it and—” He stopped when he looked down at me. “Yeah, she makes that face.”
My doctor’s eyes rose to my face, which I certain was turning slightly green. The mention of split pea soup had that effect on me as off late.
“Certain food aversions, even to foods you typically enjoy, is not uncommon in pregnancy. Is there anything else you can’t keep down?”
“Chocolate, bananas, and the soup that shall not be named,” Robert quickly answered.
My doctor looked to me, smirking. “Most husbands I come in contact with are not nearly this attuned to their wife’s symptoms.”
“Oh, and her ankles swell a little at night,” he added, not even acknowledging what my doctor had just said.
I swallowed, feeling a little bit silly. Earlier, I had been throwing a pity party for myself because I’d felt like my husband was distancing himself, and here he was, better able to recite my symptoms to my doctor than I was. Not to mention the fact that he’d been enduring a lot of upheaval at work given the source of the leaks had finally been tracked down. While that was a relief to him and Townsend Industries to have finally uncovered the source, it came with increased scrutiny from the media.
I squeezed Robert’s hand to my side. “He’s one of a kind,” I finally responded to my doctor.
Twenty minutes later we were walking out of my doctor’s office with the confirmation of what Robert had been saying for some time. There it was, in black and white, on the sonogram pics. I was pregnant with our son.
Robert’s smile was big and bright enough to light up the entire hallway, as we strolled hand in hand down the hardwood floor. He kept holding up the pics and smiling at it.
“Carter,” he suddenly stopped and said.
“What?”
“That’s his name. If you agree.”
