Page 34 of Wrapped Around My Heart
Resting against my car, I watch her walk away. The entire time she’s inside, I stare at her front door, waiting on bated breath for her to appear again. I try to remember the last time I felt this nervous, only to come up blank.
All I know is that there are two things that seem to silence my worries. Hockey has always been my outlet, my way to forget everything and anything that wasn’t the game.
Now Ari has the same effect.
“Do you want me to drive?” she asks as she approaches.
I shake my head. “Not unless you need to drive so you don’t get motion sick.”
Pushing from the car, I round the hood and meet her by the passenger side door. As I open the door for her, Ari laughs.
“You will never find me fighting to be the one to drive.”
I grin down at her, my hand resting on top of the door as she buckles herself in.
“So it’s the passenger princess life for you?”
She groans, dropping her head back against the seat, and levels me with a serious look.
“That is literally my dream.”
Bending down, I steal a quick kiss from her lips before whispering, “Good thing it’s my goal to make all your dreams come true.”
“And that right there”—the doctor pauses to point to a blob that looks remarkably like a really tiny kidney bean—“is the baby.”
“Wait, we can actually see it?” Ari gasps, staring at the screen with tears in her eyes. “I didn’t think we’d be able to see anything since it’s so early.”
I reach for her hand, which she immediately holds tightly.
The doctor chuckles lightly. “Yes, we can see it. And if I do this…”
She taps a couple buttons and the sound that plays through the room changes my entire life. I stare at the ultrasound, listening to the heartbeat of our baby while clinging to Arianna.
“Holy shit. It’s actually there,” Ari whispers, tears free-falling down her cheeks. “I took like four tests, yet even with all those positives I still…”
She trails off and I don’t need her to finish her sentence to understand what she means. For as much as I’ve spent the past week diving into everything baby related, having the pregnancy confirmed makes it real.
“I just need a couple different angles for measurements to confirm how far along you are, then I can print out some copies for you to take with you.” The doctor continues to tap away on the keypad, adjusting the ultrasound wand with practiced ease, while Ari and I stare at the screen in awe.
“We’re having a baby,” I whisper.
Arianna squeezes my hand, finally drawing my attention back to her just as she tilts her head in my direction. “I might need you to pinch me. It definitely feels like I’m dreaming.”
Leaning forward, I press my lips to her forehead before resting mine against hers.
“Not a dream, Freckles.”
We stay like that for a few more minutes while the doctor finishes up. Once she’s done, she hands us a strip of stills, each one showing a slightly different angle of the ultrasound. She confirms Arianna is about seven weeks pregnant.
Both of us are silent as they wrap up the appointment. It isn’t until we’re in the car and heading back to her place that I finally speak.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but this means that Thanksgiving was…”
“Yup.” Ari laughs and from the corner of my eye, I see her turn to me. “You took the term ‘jealousy bang’ to a whole new level. Got so jealous you hit that one percent chance of getting pregnant while on birth controlandusing a condom.”
I can’t help but grin at that. The idea of that day being the one that got us here makes my chest fill with pride.
“Oh, don’t look so smug,” she sasses, weakly whacking my arm.
