“Well, Honey is waiting for me. She’s already tucked into bed. I just wanted to thank you both and let you know everything is okay now,” Ella said, and Maggie and I grinned.
“You sleep with that thing, too?” I teased.
Ella pointed a finger at me. “Thing?” she growled.
“I mean that beautiful, feathered, diaper-wearing avian princess,” I amended.
Ella grinned, and my stomach flipped over because her beauty always astounded me. She nodded as if that was better, and I looked over to see Maggie beaming at her and me.
Ella wished us good night and left. Then I stared at the closed door, feeling like my heart had just leaped out of my chest and left with her.
Maggie walked over to me and grasped the sides of my face. “You love her, don’t you?”
She knew.
I just nodded, feeling smitten and heartbroken at the same time because I knew that Ella wasn’t ready foranything close to a relationship, and I didn’t even know if, when she was ready, she would want one with me.
“Trust the Lord. He will bring you the perfect spouse—in His timing,” she told me, and I just nodded, trying to let her wise words seep into me.
What I should have been focusing on was the fact that Ella had clearly come back to her faith in God. That was the real triumph here and something I wanted to celebrate.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Ella
My mom and Anna both flew in for the twenty-four-week gender scan. I hadn’t seen my little peanut since I was barely two months along. Now I was waddling and so excited to see if it was a boy or a girl. Normally, the gender scan was done at twenty-two weeks, but my doctor said we could wait a few more weeks so that my mom and bestie could be here. I looked over at Anna, wearing a blue ‘Team Boy’ T-shirt she had ordered on Amazon, and laughed. Then I peered over at my mom, who wore a pink dress, clearly team girl, and she looked stunning. We were in the room waiting for the ultrasound tech, and since my mom had just gotten in late last night, I knew she was jet-lagged, but she was grinning.
“I can’t wait to be a grandma,” she said, smiling.
I nodded but felt sad that she was so far away. I missedher. Last night, when she got in, she told me that a big publishing house had read her blog and offered her a large sum of money for a book deal. I was thrilled for her, and it would give her the finances to buy a home in France, which I knew she’d been wanting to do for a while. You couldn’t be a European travel food blog writer from Idaho.
She seemed to be having the same thoughts because her smile dimmed. Anna picked up on the melancholy in the room and squeezed my hand, “Don’t worry, if it’s a girl, I’ll still be totally excited, but I might have already bought a Kraken onesie, so she will have to be a hockey fan.”
She pulled a tiny teal Seattle Kraken onesie from her purse, and I laughed.
“He or she will love it!” I took it from her and draped it over my chest. It was so small. I hadn’t really taken the time yet to buy things for the baby because I’d been waiting to find out if they were a boy or girl.
The ultrasound technician came in then and introduced herself. Then she began to squirt gel on my belly and start the scan.
“So you’re okay knowing the gender? Or should I write it on a card, and you can do a reveal later?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No, this is the reveal.” I squeezed Anna’s hand and then my mom’s.
The woman looked at the screen, and then her face fell, which caused my whole body to spike with fear.
“No. What’s wrong?” I asked.
‘Please, God. Don’t let anything be wrong with this baby.’
She quickly recovered her face, smiling. “I’m sorry I alarmed you. Everything is fine, but… you’re having twins. Did you know that? I didn’t see that in your chart.”
My fear turned to shock as Anna gasped beside me, and my mom shouted with joy.
“What!” I couldn’t help the grin that crossed my face.
The tech nodded. “Baby B was likely hiding behind Baby A at the viability scan. They’re so tiny then, but I can clearly see two healthy babies.” She began pointing to the screen and showing us the different profiles and heads and legs.
“No wonder why I’ve been so hungry,” I exclaimed, and the entire room burst into laughter.
