Page 153 of Never Forever

“You’ve been out of Maine too long,” I said. “You’ve gone soft.”

She arched an eyebrow at me and I took it back.

“People bring blankets,” I reminded her. It was part of the fun. “There’s the bonfire after, remember?”

She rolled her head on the headrest and looked out the window. The trees were turning, glowing red and yellow where the sun hit them.

“I can’t imagine you not in Maine,” she said.

“I can,” I said.

“Where?” she asked with a smile. “Like New York City? Do you know how loud Manhattan is? At least there is water in Vancouver, not so much in Atlanta though.”

“I don’t need the ocean,” I said firmly, just in case this was a fishing expedition about my willingness to leave Calico Cove. “I just need you and the baby.”

She was silent long enough that I knew I’d been right.

“What if I wasn’t pregnant?” she asked. Her eyes pierced me in the chest. “Would we be having this conversation?”

“You are all I have dreamt of for years,” I told her. “If you weren’t pregnant, I’d be trying to get you pregnant.”

She laughed, which was a relief.

“You’re like Claud inMidnight and Madness,” she said. She was on book two of the series while I was patiently waiting for book five. “I think you might have a breeding kink.”

“Carrie! That is a book for young adults.”

“It’s a sexy book with horny ghosts and fairies. Claud would have Ursula pregnant every damn day if he could.”

“Well. I don’t know about Ursula. But if it’s you, I definitely have a breeding kink.”

“Now,”the doctor said as she sat down on the wheely stool and made her way over to the bed where Carrie lay with her shirt pulled up and her leggings pulled down, revealing the soft curve of her belly. “A lot of parents can’t make heads or tails of these ultrasounds.”

This was why it was our big day. Almost six weeks to the day I’d knocked her up, we’d scheduled the ultrasound for as soon as we could.

“I’ll know,” Carrie said, with the confidence of a person who was about to lie and pretend she knew what she was looking at even if she didn’t.

“We’ll see,” Dr. Wai said. She turned off the lights, squeezed some goo on Carrie’s stomach that made her jump.

I put my hand on her shoulder and she laughed nervously. “It was just cold.”

“Okay,” Dr. Wai said, moving the wand around. She tilted the screen so she could see it better. “Here is… wait a second.”

Every muscle in my body froze. Suddenly, I was ice standing there. Carrie’s hand lifted to clasp mine. We held onto each other like there was a storm threatening to tear us apart.

“Is everything okay?” I finally asked, because the silence seemed to go on forever.

“Well,” Dr. Wai smiled and turned the screen to face us. “Do you see this here?” She circled a bunch of grey and white fuzz on the screen. “That is your baby’s nose and head.”

“Yes,” Carrie said, but I knew she was lying. She couldn’t see anything in the weird images. I was certain of it.

“But…” Dr. Wai laughed and circled another spot on the screen. “This is another nose and head.”

“Oh my God, our baby has two heads?” Carrie screeched.

“No!” Dr. Wai laughed and then looked very serious. “Congratulations, Matt and Carrie. You’re having twins.”

Carrie

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