Page 301 of Steamy Ever After

“Will you stay?” Peyton held her mother’s hand and wouldn’t let go.

“Of course, sweetheart.”

The doctor stretched latex gloves over his hands and asked Peyton to rest her feet in the stirrups. Tears streamed down her cheeks. There was physical pain as he performed the examination, but it was a fraction of the emotional pain she felt.

The doctor removed her feet from the stirrups, told her to ease back, and covered her with the blanket. He left the room and, when he returned, ran the fetal monitor over her abdomen.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Peyton heard the sound of her little girl’s heartbeat.

“Order an ultrasound,” he told the nurse.

Peyton’s mom held her hand tightly and smiled when Peyton looked up at her.

“There are times we can’t find the heartbeat,” the doctor started to explain. “You remember from your first pregnancy.”

The same doctor with her today had been her obstetrician with both Jamison and Finn.

“With the amount of bleeding?—”

She held up her hand. “I understand.”

The tech rolled the ultrasound machine in, then spread the cool gel over her tummy. He ran the wand back and forth, stopping to tap the computer’s keyboard or to click the mouse. Peyton recognized that he was taking measurements, and also movement.

“Do you want to know the baby’s sex?” he asked.

“It’s a girl,” Peyton responded.

“It’s early, but I think you’re right.”

“I’m sorry you were put through the scare,” the doctor said when he came in after the tech finished.

She understood. Sometimes, the symptoms indicated more than what actually happened.

“I want to admit you. At least overnight. Maybe longer.”

She’d be on the labor-and-delivery floor, where she’d been the last two times they had admitted her, far away from where they’d bring Brodie, but in the same hospital, nonetheless.

The aroma of clam chowder and garlic bread filled the hospital room.

“I love you so much right now.” Peyton smiled at Alex.

“You only say that when I bring you food. It’s starting to bother me.”

“Get over it.” Peyton laughed. “How many people are you planning on feeding? The entire nursing staff?”

Alex was unpacking brown paper bags emblazoned with the Sea Chest’s logo.

“Is that all chowder?”

Alex pulled out four quarts, along with several foil-wrapped pans.

“And other delicacies. Your parents will be here shortly with the boys.”

“I do love you, and not only because you bring me food.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. Don’t start in with all that pregnancy-induced, emotional shit.”

Jamison tapped Alex’s shoulder and held his hand out. This time when she reached into her pocket, she pulled out a twenty. “Can that cover my bad language at least for tonight?”

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