Page 83 of Free to Run
“Wait just a second and I’ll explain.” After rolling a condom on the probe and lubing it up, he hands it to the nurse before typing some information into the ultrasound machine. Pulling on gloves, he asks me to slide forward.
I do.
“This is going to feel a bit odd.” Understatement. “Now reach down and take the probe and insert it for me, Ali.”
I do, and the next thing I know, there’s this whooshing sound in the room. “What’s that?” I whisper, awed.
“That, Ali, is your baby’s heartbeat. Perfectly in range for an eight-week-old baby. Or as I said before, a little grape.”
I look down at my stomach in awe. “That’s how big he is?”
Dr. Donnelly and the nurse laugh. “Or she,” he says. He moves the probe around.
“What are you looking for?” I ask curiously.
“I’m making sure there aren’t two sacs.” My face must show my confusion. “Two babies,” he clarifies.
Holy shit.
“One,” I croak. “I think that’s all I can handle right now.”
Laughing, he pulls the probe out slowly and removes his gloves. Hitting a button on the ultrasound, he turns back to me with some wipes. “Then you’re lucky all I found was one sac—baby,” he corrects himself.
I close my eyes. One is going to be hard enough to tell Keene about, but remembering how he reacted when he heard about Cassidy’s twins? No. Just no.
“Here’s your pictures, Ms. Freeman,” the nurse says to me kindly. “You need to make an appointment every month while you’re pregnant, and then at twenty weeks for another ultrasound.” Her pretty face gets excited. “If you want to know what you’re having, that’s when they may be able to tell.”
I can hardly catch my breath with all of this being thrown in my lap at once. “Thank you,” I say softly.
She smiles reassuringly before she turns to leave.
Holy crap, how could I forget? “Wait! I forgot to ask about exercise!” I call out.
Dr. Donnelly ducks his head back in. “Yes, you can run, but don’t push your body. Drink a hell of a lot more fluid than you are now, and watch out for your joints. There are some brochures on exercise that we’ll give you.” He pulls his head back out.
I slide from the table and move over to where my panties and shorts are. Absentmindedly, I put them on.
I’m having a baby. I’m having a baby with the man I love. I want to shout it from the rooftops, but I only have to hold it in for a week.
Keene is going to have the most insane birthday ever; I can guarantee that.
34
Keene
My phone rings on the conference room table. “Tell me you’ve got good news,” I bark at Kevin, one of our lead analysts.
“Sir, I have better than that. We have a lock on where Ms. Dempsey is staying. I just sent over two men to track her.” Kevin’s voice sounds half-exhausted and half-relieved at the news.
Thank God. I rub my hand over my forehead. Finally, this nightmare is coming to an end. “Do they have the processor with them?” I ask wearily.
“They do, sir. Ms. Dempsey will be served with the restraining order within the hour. Hold on, sir.” Kevin types on his keyboard. “I just received word she’s been served. I can upload the video to you and Mr. Lockwood in the next few minutes.”
“Do that. And Kevin—” I hesitate. Even though it was a personal attack against me, our team treated it as a threat against the entire company. “I appreciate everything. All the extra overtime all of you have done to resolve this problem.”
“You’d do the same for any of us, sir” is his swift reply. It’s no less than the truth. Caleb and I built the company based on the same basic principle we learned in the Army; these are more than people you work with. This is your extended family, and you put your life on the line with them day in and day out.
They proved that to me over the last two months.
