Page 37 of The Boss's Triplet Surprise

They grinned at each other, then Dan offered Leah his arm. “We’d better get going.”

Leah threaded her hand into his elbow. Dan felt a rush of warmth at her touch and her nearness.

Together, they walked fifteen minutes to the clinic. It was a warm day and Dan enjoyed the fresh air. Usually, he might have been worried about missing this much work, but today he was too preoccupied with the exam to think about it.

At the clinic, they waited only a few minutes before Moira called them back. They weren’t in Moira’s office today, as they had been previously, but were in an exam room instead.

“Hi, Leah, Dan. Come on in.” Moira gestured for them to enter. “Leah, you can have a seat on the exam table. I can offer you a gown to change into, but you’re also welcome to wear your own clothes as long as you can pull your shirt up over your stomach.”

“No problem.” Leah perched on the edge of the exam table. “Will you be doing the ultrasound?”

“Yes. Techs often do this, but in my practice I like to do all twelve-week ultrasounds myself. This can be a tense time, as a lot of parents are on the lookout for problems, so I try to be involved to keep everyone calm.”

“Problems?” Dan bit his lip and glanced at Leah. “I read that some genetic disorders are visible at twelve weeks, but are you expecting problems?”

Moira shook her head. “I’m not expecting anything. In most cases, this ultrasound just confirms the pregnancy and helps me line up a due date.”

“What kind of problems could there be?” Dan asked. Until now, his excitement about the ultrasound had outweighed his nerves, but now he felt the balance shift. If their child was sick, he didn’t know what he’d do. He sent a worried look at Leah, who gave him a reassuring smile. She didn’t seem too concerned.

“In rare cases, we could see signs of a miscarriage or a genetic or developmental disorder,” Moira said calmly. “But truly, those are only in rare cases, and Leah hasn’t mentioned any unusual symptoms. Is that still the case?”

“Yes. I’ve been feeling fine, except for some morning sickness. Don’t worry, Dan.”

They began to prepare for the ultrasound. Leah lifted her shirt to reveal her stomach, which Dan could see was ever so slightly curved. Moira squirted some blue gel onto Leah’s stomach and lifted a wand. Worried that he might miss something, Dan got up and hurried to Leah’s side, his gaze fixed on the monitor screen.

As Moira slowly panned the wand across Leah’s stomach, Dan’s tension grew. He was no expert, but the gray swirls on the screen didn’t look much like a heartbeat. There was a long pause as the wand swept slowly from one side to the other. Then it paused.

“There’s your baby,” Moira said, her voice as full of enthusiasm as though this was the first baby she’d ever spotted. “Two legs, two arms, one head, and there’s that perfect heartbeat.” Sure enough, at that moment, a whooshing sound came across the monitor. Dan could hear the baby’s heartbeat.

In that moment, everything else fell away. There was just him and Leah and their healthy, tiny baby. Moira said something else, about how everything was looking good, but the baby’s position was a little odd, but Dan barely heard it. He was so focused on the grainy image on the screen that nothing else mattered. Without even noticing, Dan must have taken Leah’s hand, because he was holding it now. Their fingers were linked together and they squeezed gently as they both stared at the screen.

To Dan’s surprise, he felt almost… teary. He wasn’t sure where this rush of emotions was coming from. He’d known Leah was pregnant, but actually seeing the outline of a small head and limbs on the screen and hearing the heartbeat brought it home in a way he hadn’t expected. They’d created a life together. It felt magical.

“That’s our baby,” Leah whispered.

“That’s our baby.” They squeezed each other’s hands again. In that moment, Dan knew he would do anything for that little baby and for Leah. Anything.

“I’m just going to move the wand a little,” Moira told them. “I need to confirm why the baby’s position is unusual.”

Dan snapped back into the present.

“Unusual? Does that mean there’s a problem?”

“Not at all. But in most cases like this…” Moira trailed off as she moved the wand down slightly. Then she paused and the sound of a heartbeat came across the monitor again. “Yes. As I suspected. In most cases, when the baby’s position is off center, it means that there’s another baby. You can hear the heartbeat now.”

“Another baby?” Dan’s jaw dropped. “You mean… twins?”

“It’s looking that way. Baby number two is also healthy. I’ll need to take a few measurements of both fetuses now, just to make sure they’re developing as they should be, but they look well.”

“Twins?” Dan repeated.

Moira chuckled. “I know it may come as a bit of a shock. Do multiple births run in either of your families?”

“I have twin cousins,” Leah said. To Dan’s surprise, she didn’t seem as shocked as he was. She appeared to be taking all this in her stride. “And twin aunts as well.”

“As I’m sure you know, twins aren’t exactly common, but with a history of multiple births in your family and you taking Forenal, I’m not surprised.” Moira panned the wand across the second baby’s outline.

Dan turned to Leah. He felt a little panicky. One baby he’d been ready for, even excited about. But two babies? He wasn’t sure how to manage that. Would they each need to be holding a baby all the time? But they didn’t live together, so that wasn’t possible. When Leah was alone, how was she going to manage two babies at once?

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