When the doctor returns, she has a portable ultrasound unit with her.
Zane hovers in the doorway.
“Come here,” I whisper, gesturing for him.
I need to hold his hand.
“Yeah?” He gives me a crooked, hopeful smile.
I heard what he said to Derek.
I’m the only man they’ll call Daddy.
I know how much he is going to love our children, and he thinks this baby is already his, but I also know how common miscarriages are.
If the stress of all of this has made me lose this baby, we’re going to need each other.
He settles beside me, a bruised and bloody mess of a cowboy. My cowboy. And he holds my hand so carefully, so gently, as the doctor readies my stomach for the ultrasound and starts to look for the pregnancy I think I’ve been carrying for weeks.
But what if I was wrong?
There are other reasons to have missed my period.
Other reasons to feel nauseous.
Other—
On the screen, my uterus comes into view, and there’s an obvious fetus.
And a tiny, fast heartbeat.
“Oh my God,” I breathe.
“Look at that,” Zane says, his voice full of awe. “What a tiny little guy, eh? Hi fella. Wow.”
“Looking good. I’d guess you’re around ten or eleven weeks, does that sound right to you?”
I nod, overcome with complicated but happy emotions.
“Then I think you should come into my office in a couple of weeks for a proper prenatal check-up, don’t you think?” She smiles at me. “You’re okay, Hope. Your baby is all right, too.”
She leaves us alone after that, and Zane comes around to hug me.
We both smell like sharp, acrid adrenaline.
But we both smell alive, and that’s all that matters.
“I can’t believe how much you bled,” I whisper. “All over the upstairs floor. And the stairs. And the landing.”
He waves it off. “I’ve wanted to refinish the floors anyway.”
"That's not funny."
"It's a little funny."
"It'snot—“ My voice breaks, and I catch it, wrestle it back under control. "He could have killed you."
"He didn’t, though. And he’s gone now.” Zane takes my face in his hands. “He’s gone, and you’ll never have to worry about him ever again. And if you don’t want to go back to the house, we’ll burn it to the ground and start over again.”
