Page 29 of Masked Indulgence
“No reason to be. Nothing bad will happen to you. Come on, be brave. For our baby, be brave.” He kissed my cheek once more and in wewent.
The doctor was a man in his late fifties. He passed us in the hallway and stopped to introduce himself. “You’re new.” He extended his hand, and we took turns shaking it. “I’m DoctorSheffield.”
Nix took the lead. “I’m Nixon Slaughter, and this is KatanaReeves.”
“Nice to meet you both. Do the deal with the nurses, and I’ll come see you soon.” He walked away, leaving us to follow the nurse oncemore.
“He seemed nice,” I said, and felt a tiny bit better about this wholething.
“I’m sure he’s very nice. And he had many high recommendations. I think we picked the right man for the job, baby.” He gave me a confident smile, and I had to smileback.
After an hour of being weighed and measured, and giving urine and blood samples, I was handed a paper robe and Nix and I were sent to a room to wait for thedoctor.
I undressed behind a little curtain while Nix looked at the posters on the walls, which depicted the stages of a developing fetus. “Let’s see here,” he said as I changed. “It’s now the twelfth of December, and that means we’re six weeks. That means we should be able to hear the baby’s heartbeat, according to thischart.”
I came out wearing the unflattering paper robe and looked at the table I had to climb up on. Then I felt hands on my waist, turning me around. Nix lifted me up, putting me on the table. “Thank you.” I couldn’t help the smile that took over my face. The man was just too damngood.
“You look adorable. Can I take a picture of you? I swear I won’t post it on anything; I just want to chronicle everything.” He pulled his cell out of his jacket pocket and cocked his head as he waited for myapproval.
“Swear to make me look good in this silly thing?” Iasked.
He nodded. “You’ll look like a pinup girl, Iswear.”
With a nod, I gave him approval and found him snapping a ton of pictures and taking selfies with me in the pictures too. He had me laughing and feeling a lot less nervous in no time atall.
When Doctor Sheffield came in, he wore a wide grin on his face. He pushed one hand through his salt and pepper hair as he came to us. “Glad to see you two having a good time. It’s nice to see people celebrating bringing a new life into the world.” He opened up the folder with all my information and looked it over. “Says here you two are certain about the date of conception and that some people must’ve had a fun time on Halloween.” He grinned knowingly atus.
“That we did,” Nixon confirmed. “So when are we going to be seeing our little baby’s face,doc?”
“If everything goes right, you’ll see your baby on the twenty-fourth of July. How does that sound?” The doctor walked over to the counter to put on a pair ofgloves.
My heart began to pound then. I knew what the gloves meant and wasn’t real keen on Nix being there while the doctor poked and prodded me. But I guessed that would be something I’d have to get used to. Nix did seem set on being a part of every little bit of the pregnancy—as much as he could be, atleast.
I must’ve had a wild-eyed look on my face as the doctor came and pushed me gently back. Nix took the place on my right, holding my hand and smiling at me reassuringly. “You’ll be just fine,baby.”
I nodded but didn’t feel just fine as the doctor placed my feet in the stirrups. Then he pushed something cold inside of me as he said, “We’ll just get this Pap smear out of the way, then I’ll do a transvaginal ultrasound and see if we can hear aheartbeat.”
My entire body tensed as he cranked the mechanism, opening me up so he could do the test. “Ow,” I whined when it pinchedme.
“Almost done, Katana,” the doctor assuredme.
When I looked at Nix, I saw he wasn’t even breathing as he stared at the top of the doctor’s head. He was nervous too. He never said one word about it, but I could read his body language. All the while, his only mission seemed to be trying his best to keep mecalm.
I had lucked into getting the best baby-daddy in the whole world. I had no idea what I’d done to deserve all of this. But I was thankful for it all. I squeezed his hand, and he looked at me. “Thanks again for being here forme.”
He nodded. “Thanks again for including me.” He leaned over and kissed myforehead.
The doctor finished with the uncomfortable procedure then pushed something else inside me before flipping a switch on a small screen on his left. We could see the screen too, but I had no idea what we were lookingat.
He moved the device inside of me as he searched for our baby. “Here we go.” He smiled at us as he pointed to a small orb on the screen. The orb pulsed as the doctor turned up the sound, and there was the tinyheartbeat.
A tear fell, and I gasped. Nix squeezed my hand and looked at me. “So there it is. Our baby,Katana.”
My heart filled with love. Love for the little orb, and love for NixonSlaughter.
God help me, how can anyone fall in love thisquickly?
Chapter19
