Chapter Thirteen
Walk Through Hell
Cleo reachedfor both mine and Mark’s hands while the technician moved the wand all over her belly. I stared at the monitor, trying to figure out what was what. I saw the head, and an arm, I thought.
“Here’s a good one of its face,” the woman stopped her wand and pointed to the screen, explaining where the baby’s eyes, nose, and tiny mouth was. “Okay, so I’ve looked at everything I had to. I’m going to look now and see if we can get a good look in between the legs. Do you guys want to know?”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
The three of us looked down at the woman on the table in the paper gown. She looked up at me, then Mark, then back at me.
“I want to surprise you two. Would you guys be okay waiting just a few more days? I want to do a gender reveal party for you.” Her brown eyes were wide with hope.
I looked over to my husband who looked a little disappointed.
“Please, if you let me do this, I swear I’ll make it worth it,” she pleaded. Mark seemed to soften, looking back up at me. We locked eyes and tried to silently communicate.
“What do you think, baby? I don’t think a week could hurt,” I said. Hesitantly he nodded and told the tech not to tell us. She smiled at us and nodded.
“I’ll write it down and stick it in an envelope for you to read whenever you want.” When she was finished Cleo sat up and took the envelope triumphantly.
“You won’t regret this,” she said.
That evening as we finished unpacking, I asked Mark how he felt about it. He shrugged and climbed into bed. “I don’t know. I was really excited. I’m sure I’ll be excited for the party too.”
We were woken in the early morning hours to people shouting and loud thumping downstairs. Groaning I pulled on my robe and went downstairs to see who was causing all the racket.
I was greeted by Derek and Adrian lifting a very large box, with Cleo directing them to take it upstairs. I ground the sleep from my eyes.
“What are you guys doing here?”
“What room is going to be the baby’s room?” She asked me instead of answering.
“The one right next to ours on the right. Why?”
She looked over at the guys and they nodded, lifting the box higher, and began climbing the stairs.
“What is in the box?”
“Can’t tell you that. Sorry. Just a heads up, we’ll be in and out of here most of the week. We’ll be working mostly in the baby’s room and you’re not allowed to come in.” A hand went around my waist and I turned to see Mark standing next to me.
“What are you doing now?” He asked, clearly just as exhausted as I was.
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll be practically non-existent.”
Adrian and Derek came back down the stairs and with a look towards us, headed out the front door, returning with another large box. I crossed my arms as they took it upstairs.
“If we can’t be involved, what are we supposed to do?”
Cleo looked at my hair and I quickly covered the top of my head with my hands.
“Why don’t you go get your hair done? Maybe go have a couple’s date. The more time you leave us to do what we have to do, the quicker we’ll be out of your hair.” Sighing, I turned to Mark. He was amused. He looked back at me.
“What do you say, baby?”
