Page 203 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

‘Right. Thank you,’I answered.

“That’s the exam. I’ll have the nurse remove the wand, and we’ll print some of these off for you. You can get cleaned up anddressed, and your sister changes,” the doctor explained, giving Bells a gown to change into. I nodded and sighed with relief when I sat back up on the chair to change. Chris stayed behind the curtain this time, helping me clean up.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. Thank you for being here with me,” I whispered, looking up at him, and trying not to cry at how grateful I was that he became my voice when I couldn’t.

“They would have had to take me out of here unconscious to get me to leave,” he chuckled.

He leaned down and gave me a quick kiss, before he opened the curtain and allowed Bells to switch places with me.

“I guess you got lucky. No twins,” Bells winked at me when she opened the curtain again.

I rolled my eyes but was secretly relieved. I wanted this pup, and I would love both pups if I had twins, but I was much happier dealing with one at a time.

The doctor and the nurse came back in with a couple of sonogram pictures a few minutes later, and handed them to us. Chris took the pictures happily and stared down at them, while the nurse and the doctor took their positions back by the monitor, and I stood next to Bells, with Adam right next to me.

“I thought we’d just keep things the same for you, Miss Salonen. It’s a good teaching moment for my nurse.”

“Not a problem,” Bells answered. The nurse inserted the wand and Bells squirmed a little at the intrusion, making me feel a little better about my response.

“So, there’s your ba—Can you move it a little to the left?” the doctor instructed, and I started laughing when the new image showed up on the screen.

“That’s what you get for trying to scare me into thinking I was having twins,” I cackled to my sister, who was staring at themonitor with her mouth hanging wide open, her eyes the size of dinner plates.

Even Chris started chuckling behind me.

“Do twins run in your family?” the doctor asked, smiling at our exchange.

“She is a twin, and her twin, our brother, already had twins himself. She thought she was safe because of it.”

“That’s not how that works,” the doctor chuckled.

“Ha!” I continued to cackle.

“Shut it, Vi,” Bells grumbled, her eyes still frozen on the screen. “How far along am I?” she asked the doctor.

“Right, sorry. Got distracted. It looks like you’re about seven or eight weeks. Not much further than your sister. You can expect to give birth around the end of July, and your sister sometime in the middle of August.”

It was more like March for our pups, but neither of us corrected him. We could get more accurate due dates when we got home, so we could plan accordingly.

The doctor and nurse left when they were done with Bells, and I grew a little more serious. I approached her, and asked, “How are you doing?”

“Okay. A little freaked out, but... this could be my only chance to have more pups. They are siblings for Adam, so I’m happy it’s twins. I’ll figure out the rest as it comes.” She shrugged before she disappeared behind the curtain.

My heart broke for my sister, and the thought that she believed she would always be alone, but I kept my mouth shut on the subject of Cade.

“We’re here for you, too. Everyone will be. Those twins will have so many people wanting to take care of them, that you’ll be fighting to get them back home some days,” I assured her.

Bells opened the curtain and hugged me.

“Thank you... for pretending you needed me here with you,” she whispered in my ear.

“You’re my big sister. I’ll always need you.”

The ride back home was a little subdued, other than Adam, who was chatting away about the three pups. Bells and I gave him a copy of the sonograms, which appeared to make his week. He was talking about where he was going to hang them, and how he was going to teach the babies everything he knew about playing and sharing toys, and he was going to show them all of his favorite movies.

Chris stopped at a creamery on the way home, and bought an ice cream cake. We had it that night after dinner as a little celebration.

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