Page 20 of Faith Notes
Chapter 8
Georgia
20 Weeks
“Ithink I’m going to puke.”
“From morning sickness or nerves?” Grayson asks the question like he doesn’t already know the answer, placing his hand on my knee to keep it from shaking.
We are sitting in the waiting room for our twenty-week ultrasound appointment, and I’m a bundle of nerves. So far, I haven’t felt the baby kick yet, and from everything I read, I should have. So, keeping my mind from wandering down dangerous paths is hard.
“Nerves,” I answer, my stomach jolting. “definitely nerves.”
“Everything’s going to be fine.” Grayson’s voice is warm and soothing, taking the edge off a little bit.
Leaning over, I lay my head on his shoulder and let myself sink into him, taking comfort in his presence.
“Georgia.” The nurse calls my name, and my legs tremble as I stand.
Grayson laces his fingers with mine, and we walk together to meet her.
The hallway back to the room is long, and my heart beats hard with each step we take. The nurse chatters away, with Grayson answering most of her questions because there’s a ringing in my ears that makes it hard to hear her properly.
When we reach the room, the lights are already dimmed, ready for us to see our baby.
“Just make yourself comfortable,” the nurse says, gesturing to the exam table in the middle of the room.
There’s a chair set up beside it for Grayson to sit in, and as soon as I lay down, he’s there, never leaving my side for a second.
A television sits on the wall in front of us, where we can see everything the ultrasound tech sees.
Cool gel hits my skin, followed by the ultrasound wand, and then a baby fills up the screen, moving limbs and squirming.
My soul sighs in relief.
I turn my head to look at Grayson, who is staring at the screen, tears filling his eyes.
“That’s our baby, Gray.”
He swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he fights back the tears.
“Yeah, Peach,” he croaks, “it is.”
His hand squeezes mine, but his eyes do not move from the screen.
I can see it now, the way Grayson’s love looks. It’s soft and palpable, and all the times he’s looked at me this way come flooding back. Even before Nate died, Grayson looked at me the way he’s looking at our baby, but I mistook it for friendship when it was love all along.
I return my attention to the screen, watching as she moves the wand over my stomach to all the parts that make up our baby.
The monitor stops over the heart, and with each beat I watch, my own grows a little bigger.
The ultrasound tech is quiet as she takes a few more measurements, and when she turns to us, a big grin on her face, I finally feel the joy of this pregnancy.
I’ve been holding my breath, waiting for something to go wrong, but in one fell swoop, all the air rushes back into my lungs.
“Would you like to know the gender?”
“Yes.”
