“Mom says that she’ll be here in ten minutes.Let’s dip the sticks.”
Raegan opens the undercounter door and reaches in the far back of the cabinet, pulling out several rectangular boxes.
“So what makes you think you’re pregnant?”
“It’s weird but smells that I once loved are making me nauseous.Every time I smell coffee it sets me off, and my stomach has a bump.I thought that it was just a food belly or being bloated, but it never goes away.I know that I’m eating more so it just might be weight gain, but I don’t know.I saw a show with a pregnant girl who showed the same symptoms as I’m having.”
“You never know,” Raegan shrugs, and we get to work opening the packages and dipping the sticks in the pee cup.“Now we wait three minutes.”
We stand next to the counter, and it seems like every second takes a year.My foot taps and I put my back to counter.
“Whoa, that didn’t take long at all,” Raegan says with a shocked gasp.“Look.”
I turn and see four out of the five results already showing, and I can’t take my eyes off the words on the indented stick.
Pregnant.
“Oh my gosh,” I say in a whisper.
“Those results come back within a minute, Sutton,” Raegan states.
“What am I going to do?”I ask in the mirror staring at myself.
“Ivy is going to feel so left out,” Raegan says, and it brings me out of my daze.We both look at each other then burst into laughter.
“Knock, knock!”we hear from the bedroom.“It’s just Mom.”Melissa comes in with a black leather bag and smiles at us.“How are my girls doing today?”
“We’re great!”Raegan says giving her a hug, and I follow suit.
“So tell me what’s going on,” she jumps right in asking us questions.
“It looks like our men knocked us up,” Raegan coyly says.
“Babies are such a blessing,” Melissa gushes.
“Here are the results of the tests.Sutton’s tests came back under a minute,” Raegan tells her and points her over to where all the tests are lined up.
“That quick?”Melissa asks.“You might be farther along than just a few weeks if the results came back that fast, but once I draw some blood and take it back to the lab to look at then we’ll know more, honey.”She gives my upper arm a squeeze of assurance.
Over the next few minutes, Melissa draws our blood and labels the tubes before putting them back in her bag.We talk for a bit about what there is to expect, and she asks if we have any questions.I show them my bump and how hard it’s starting to feel.Raegan, in turn, pulls her pants down to compare and Melissa laughs as we both try to compare our stomachs.
“Okay, well, I’ll head back over to the hospital and drop these off.We should hear back by the morning or the next day at the latest, and I’ll give you each a call or I can come by if that would be better,” Melissa says then turns to me.“And no more painting or lifting heavy things until we know how far long you might be.Rocky tells me every night at dinner about the work y’all are doing.I think he’s going to be so surprised in a few days.”
After I agree, we walk her to the front door and watch her leave.Raegan’s phone buzzes and she answers.
“Hey… okay, see you soon,” she says then pockets the phone.
“Stone said he’s almost home and that Havoc is stopping by to pick something up before heading to his place.”
“Shoot, I need to get back before they know I left the house,” I say and give her a big hug.
“I can’t believe we’re going to be mamas together,” she beams.
“This day feels like a dream,” I say.“I’m afraid to lay my head down because it might not be real when I wake up.”
“Our best days are ahead of us,” she says smiling.
I open the screen door, pulling my hoodie up over my head, and look both ways up and down the street.I take off in another jog down the sidewalk and back across the street to my house.When I open the front door, I pull off the heavy hoodie and hang it back up on the hook.Walking farther into the house, I notice a weird stench.Melissa had said that I’d be super sensitive to certain smells, but this doesn’t smell normal.I look around the room for the source but come up empty.Heading to the kitchen I wonder if maybe I left something out that might’ve gone bad in the little time I was gone, but come up lacking.As I’m about to head to the back rooms, I hear beeping, like a timer going off, by the back door.
