At two months pregnant she didn’t show at all, and likely didn’t need a high-risk obstetrician, but this was how it went with high-profile patients. Not her, but the elated parents-to-be she was lugging a baby around for—the late Honorable Ford Conway’s son and his wife. The younger Conway, notable in his own right, and his wife also happened to be running late. I tapped my pen onto the file, pretending to peruse it for pertinent information.
“Jamie texted. They landed and are on their way. You know they had the premiere forSuper Ladylast night? But they would never miss this.” Laura spoke up, seemingly reading my thoughts, defending the couple paying her to carry their baby.
I nodded. “No problem.” Of course Ford Conway, the baby daddy and sperm donor, was the son of a former Supreme Court justice, brother of a senator, and a hotshot movie producer himself. Go figure—he had to be on the red carpet the night before, despite his cross-country relationship with a surrogate. In fairness to him, he did offer to have me flown out for the premiere, but I’d declined.
What would I do at a movie premiere? Meet a celebrity?
“Well, until they get here, I can take your blood pressure…again.”
I busied myself taking a few vitals my nurse had already taken and made small talk with Laura. She explained how the Conways wanted to be involved in every step and didn’t plan to cut her out of their lives after she had the baby.
“Could always change, but you know that.” I looked up, raising an eyebrow. Giving birth, surrogacy, parenting brought out the best—and the worst—in people.
Regretting my bad attitude and lapse into my childhood, I ran my hand through my hair and cleared my throat, grasping for something kinder to say. My bedside manner didn’t tend to be lacking, and my expertise typically made up for my shortcomings. In this case, the Conway/Laura trio didn’t need either my encouragement or expertise—they needed a healthy baby and to go on their merry way.
Laura rattled on. “This is my calling. I love being pregnant, and I’m blessed with a beautiful baby of my own. I’d like to give that to anyone who wants.”
Like I said, no need for sweet nothings.
No doubt this would be a healthy baby. Ford Conway had spared no expense in making sure the embryos were perfect before being implanted. They implanted two, but only one took. I’d seen Laura when she’d had some bleeding, and of course the Hollywood parents had been on the phone the whole time, but this would be the first time I was meeting Ford and Jamie in the flesh.
“Right this way,” rang out outside the door. My nurse Jeannie knocked and peeked her head inside the room. “The Conways are here.”
Laura piped up, smiling, and I said, “Send them in.”
Laura was clearly a saint, sitting there, her belly and heart exposed while in walked a daunting Ford Conway with his hair mussed, Adidas track pants and black T-shirt, and a Rolex heavy on his wrist. His eyes went to Laura sitting on the table, but his hand never left his wife’s fingers.
The beautiful Jamie Conway brushed a tear out of her eye while her red curls went every which direction, framing her face. Dressed in jeans, an untucked white blouse, and a matching Rolex on her wrist, she looked like royalty, even though I’d heard she was a simple woman—worked in the nonprofit sector—who grew up in a different world than her husband and his family.
It wasn’t until I caught a glimpse of who was standing next to Jamie that my heart started to race, my breath catching in my throat.
“Laura, Dr. Rand, this is Billy.” Despite the introduction not being necessary, Jamie introduced her sister-in-law,theBilly Conway.
Billy Conway was the ultimate woman of my dreams. Look, I might be a successful physician, highly touted, but at the end of the day I was a man who crushed on a Hollywood actress. Until this moment, she was a fantasy…
Laura smiled and whispered, “Oh my God. How exciting! You’re going to make a beautiful aunt,” and I wanted to shush her. She was stealing my thunder.
Billy was beautiful, for sure. Blond, blue-eyed, lithe at around five foot eight, with skin not quite fair or olive but somewhere in the middle, she was the golden standard for me. I’d loved Billy Conway since I saw her in her first role,Pretty Penelope. She’d taken my breath away even though it was a ridiculously frivolous rom-com. At the time, a bad date had dragged me to see the film, but the ethereal beauty now standing in front of me had saved the day. She’d been gorgeous when she was younger, but she was absolutely stunning in person.
“Nice to meet you,” she said to me, extending her hand.
As her slight fingers slipped into mine, I realized why I’d never dated seriously—my standards were too high. I was attracted to actresses way out of my league, and I was a boring doctor who lived outside DC.
The two didn’t mix.
“Now that we are all here,” I said to the room full of onlookers, “we can check out our baby.”
I made a show of re-checking all of Laura’s vitals, asking both Laura and Jamie if they had any questions. Laura went on and on about how well she was feeling, and Jamie asked if we could listen to the heartbeat.
“We will do a vaginal ultrasound today and be able to check in on our little one. As you know, we lost one embryo early on, and we’re not out of the woods with this tough guy or girl yet. But with Laura’s history and the testing you and Mr. Conway did, I am expecting this to go as planned.”
“Ford, please…” Jamie scolded her husband, who was pacing.
I hated having to remind them how fragile this whole process was, especially when I could’ve sworn a tear dropped from Billy’s eye. She was quick to swipe it away.
Jamie Conway was the only one who didn’t seem swayed by my words as the smile on her face widened. “Great. When can we do the ultrasound?”
“First, I need to know who Laura is comfortable having in the room, and then I can send in my tech to get it all set up.”
