Page 99 of Roping Her In

Finn knew that doctors had no concept of time whatsoever, and that “a moment” meant anything but soon. He’d played through his entire repertoire of games before the door opened again, and Dr. Richards and the technician entered. The tension in the room picked up by double, and Finn swallowed as he shoved his phone away and leaned toward his wife.

“Hey there,” Dr. Richards said, her voice filled with joviality. “How are we feeling?” She smiled at Finn but quickly put her main focus on Edith.

“Good,” Edith said.

“No more morning sickness?”

“Not for a couple of weeks now, thankfully.” Edie had reached twenty-two weeks and was well into her fifth month of pregnancy, but her morning sickness had lasted much longer with this baby than the others, and Finn was glad to see it go.

“We’re going to be doing a lot of measuring today,” Dr. Richards said as the technician fiddled around with some tools on a tray. “We should be able to get your due date within one or two days, and it’ll be fairly final.”

Edith nodded. “That’s good,” she said. “Because my mom is coming from Florida when the baby is born.”

This would be their fourth baby, and seeing as how Dusty was five and all the boys went to school, Finn wasn’t sure how much help they’d really need. He loved his wife in all stages of their life, but none more than when she carried his child. He loved holding her when they were the only two people on the planet who knew about the baby growing inside her. He loved it when she first started to show, and covered it up with bigger, baggier clothing.

He loved this state she’d reached when she couldn’t do that anymore. They hadn’t made a big announcement about her pregnancy, but Finn had simply told people as he’d spent time with them. But now, everywhere Edith went, people would know.

“All right, let’s see what we’ve got.” Dr. Richards lifted Edith’s shirt and tucked it up under the bottom band of her bra. Finn’s throat closed and he tried to swallow past it, because they both wanted a little girl so badly. Finn had always endeavored to give Edith whatever she wanted, but he had no control over this particular thing.

He’d resorted to praying dozens of times a day that God would bless them with a little girl. He reached out and twined his fingers with hers, and when she squeezed hard, that prompted Finn to send up another prayer.

Please, Dear God, if there’s any way possible for this ultrasound to show us a little girl…. Please.

Dr. Richards spread the gel on Edee’s stomach and took the ultrasound wand from the technician. She watched a screen mounted to the wall above the end of the exam table. Finn did too, though he had no idea what he was seeing in the black and white lines and blurs.

“This here’s the femur,” Dr. Richards murmured, and she started clicking on the wand. The image would freeze for a moment or two, and then she’d move again, sometimes pressing on the top of Edith’s belly and sometimes the side.

“Nice big head.” She smiled as she did, but Edith’s gaze was riveted to the screen, as was Finn’s. After several minutes, a machine started whirring on a shelf next to the monitor. The technician ripped it off and handed it to Dr. Richards.

“You’re actually measuring a little large,” she said. “What was your previous due date?”

“September fourteenth,” Edith said.

“I think we’re going to put you more like the eighth,” she said, and she smiled. “That’s a whole week earlier.”

“Yes, that’s great,” Edith murmured.

Dr. Richards handed the paper back to the technician. “All right, I know why you guys are really here.”

Finn pulled in a breath, determined to hold it until he knew if this baby was a boy or a girl.

“I’m pretty sure this baby’s positioned really well for us to tell what the gender is.” She smiled at him and then Edith. “That’s what you really want to know, right?”

“Well, I came for all of it.” Edee laughed. “But, yes, I want to know.”

Finn’s pulse beat against the lump in the back of his throat as Dr. Richards put the wand on his wife’s belly again. She moved it around and click, click, click, snapped some pictures.

“Bring up that second one, Jessica,” she said, and the technician clicked a couple of times on the computer, and the large screen showed a still image.

Dr. Richards moved a little bit closer to it and pointed. “Here you can see this nice big head, and the curve of the back here. And here, the baby’s legs are tucked up. In just a minute, we’ll be able to listen to her heartbeat.”

Finn’s breath whooshed out of his body. Had she said her heartbeat?

“Go to the next one,” Dr. Richards said.

Finn squeezed his wife’s hand, hoping to reassure her that no matter what came next, he would be happy about it. He suspected Edee would be disappointed, but she’d love the baby no matter what. He simply wanted her to be happy, and any baby would do that.

“And here, I managed to move her leg a little bit,” the doctor said, and she definitely used a female pronoun. Then she smiled and indicated the area. “You’re going to have a little girl.”