Page 41 of The Hermit on the Hill

"Is she okay?" Jenna asked as the tech helped her lay down and get comfortable.

I took her hand in mine, needing the contact as much as I needed to reassure Jenna. "I have no idea."

"Had a woman throw up in here one time," Marilyn said. "She wasn't even the mother to be. New life, the change a baby can bring, it affects everyone different."

She put gel on the ultrasound wand, flicked on the monitor, and began moving the wand over Jenna's belly. Jenna's grip tightened, and I bent and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"There he is," Marilyn said.

I looked up and saw my son for the first time. My son. My heart swooped, even as I squinted at the screen to make out the shape of a baby. Marilyn pointed out the different appendages and confirmed we were having a boy.

She printed out pictures and gave them to us. "The doctor will be in to speak to you in a few minutes."

Marilyn left and my chest went tight, my throat dry. "Why does the doctor need to speak to us?"

Jenna worked her hand free from mine with a wince, and I realized I'd squeezed too hard. "The ultrasound tech isn't supposed to make a diagnosis or tell us anything other than the sex of our baby. The doctor will probably just come in and tell us everything is great."

She was so calm, so laid back about everything, but of course she'd had months of these sorts of appointments. "How have you done this by yourself? All these appointments. All the things that could go wrong. Did you tell anyone?"

She frowned and wrapped her arms around her belly. "I realized pretty quick I didn't really have any close friends as soon as I found out about the pregnancy. There was no one I wanted to tell, no one I trusted to understand and help me through this. Jared is probably my best friend in the world, but I didn't want him to feel bad about not being able to tell Mom. I didn't even tell him until last month. All the rest of my friends were work colleagues and most of them were men. They were great for a beer after work or dinner out or a movie, but I didn't want to talk to them about how sore my boobs were in the early months of the pregnancy or about how badly I wanted—" She stopped and pursed her lips together. "Food. They wouldn't understand the food cravings."

"That's not what you were going to say." I was glad for the distraction from worrying about what the doctor might tell us.

"Hmmm?" She pretended to be absorbed in studying the picture of our baby and, for a moment, I got drawn back into trying to make out a baby from the amorphous shapes.

"What did you want so badly during your early pregnancy?" I should have been there. I would have made sure she had everything she needed and wanted.

"Sex." She rolled her head to look directly at me, her cheeks and neck bright red. "Pregnancy makes me want sex all the time."

And all the blood rushed immediately from my brain to my dick. "Uh… Is that still something you, um—"

"All right folks." Dr. Garrett swept into the room. She was a tall woman with smooth brown skin and an unfamiliar accent, her smile wider than Jenna's on her best day. "Looks like you have a perfectly healthy baby boy. Congratulations."

I let out a breath of relief and grabbed Jenna's hand again like she was my anchor in this new reality. "He's okay?"

"He's great, Dad," Dr. Garrett said.

My eyes burned, and I swallowed hard. It was the first time anyone had called me Dad before and the word landed hard on my solar plexus and sank into my heart.

"His weight and size are where we want them to be. His organs and limbs are in the right places, and he has all his fingers and toes. He is one healthy baby."

"That's great news," Jenna said. "Thank you."

"You're very welcome. Do you have any questions for me?"

I had so many questions I couldn't settle on just one. I was going to have to buy a library's worth of books about pregnancy and babies.

"No questions," Jenna said.

Dr. Garrett said goodbye and swept back out of the room.

"Okay," Jenna said. "Spin around so I can get dressed."

I did as she asked. "You know I've seen you naked before."

"Not since I've grown a big bump on my middle."

"You're always beautiful. The first time I saw you, I thought you were the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. I didn't know you could ever be more beautiful, but that bump makes you so gorgeous it hurts my heart to look at you."

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