Page 95 of Moving to Love
Jeremiah put his phone back in his pocket. “They have LuAnn. They found her in Upper Michigan, hiding in a run-down motel. She’s claiming she didn’t know what she was doing with the bike; she was just mad at Joci.”
Gunnar jumped up. “That’s fucking bullshit.”
Jeremiah held his hand up. “I didn’t say it was true, Gunnar. I was simply repeating what Tommy said. We have the video of her cutting the brake lines. We could clearly see the look on her face. She’ll go to jail.”
Chapter 40
Joci spent the next week in the hospital. She was healing and still pregnant. Things were looking up. She could now make it to the bathroom on her own. She had made the trek by herself yesterday while Jeremiah was on the phone, dealing with shop business. He was irritated with her for trying to do it on her own, but she needed to know what she could do in case she was home alone and needed to use the toilet. She was excited as hell to be able to go home today. It felt like weeks since she’d been there.
Jeremiah and the boys walked back into her room. They had taken all the flowers and gifts down to her car.
“Are you ready to come home with me?” Jeremiah asked as he walked back into the room, smiling when he saw her sitting up.
“Yes. I can’t wait to get home.” Joci sat in the chair that Jeremiah had slept in for the past week and a half. She was dressed in a clean pair of yoga pants and a new tank top, decorated with surgical tape. She was ready, just waiting for the doctor to come in and release her. Jeremiah and the boys sat in the other chairs in the room while they waited. Joci looked up when Dr. Wan, her OB-GYN, walked into the room.
“Good morning. I hear you’re being released today.”
Joci smiled. “Yes, I can’t wait to get home. Dr. Wan, I would like you to meet Jeremiah and my sons Gunnar, JT, and Ryder. This is Dr. Wan.”
Jeremiah and the boys stood up and shook hands with the petite Asian woman in the white coat. They exchanged pleasantries, and Dr. Wan glanced at Joci, a smile on her face.
“Joci, before you go, may I listen to your tummy and check on the baby?”
Joci nodded and slowly stood up. She felt a little out of balance with her arm in a cast and her shoulder in a cumbersome corset-type thing to keep it from moving. But if she moved slowly, it wasn’t too bad.
Jeremiah and the boys shot up to help her, but Joci shook her head no. She needed to do this. She limped over to the bed and sat on the edge. She pushed herself back and slowly turned into the raised head of the bed. She grabbed the controller and lowered the head down so she was lying flatter.
Jeremiah and the boys hovered nearby. Dr. Wan smiled as she pulled her stethoscope out.
Dr. Wan winked at Joci. “I probably won’t be able to hear the heartbeat, but I would like to do a sonogram to make sure everything is okay. We might be able to see the baby’s heartbeat on the sonogram. If you’re at least six weeks pregnant, we’ll be able to hear it. Do you mind if we do it right now before you leave?”
“No, I don’t mind. I want to know that she’s okay.” Joci glanced at Jeremiah, and he nodded in agreement.
“‘She?’” Dr. Wan smiled.
Gunnar spoke up. “Dad knows the baby’s a girl. I’m going to have a little sister.” His smile lit up the room.
Dr. Wan smiled and nodded. “I’ll go out and have the technicians bring the machine in, and we’ll take a look. Stay right where you are, Joci.”
She left, and Joci winked at Jeremiah. He had a huge grin plastered on his face.
Within half an hour, the technician was in the room hooking up the sonogram machine and preparing Joci. When Joci had been pregnant with Gunnar, she hadn’t done this. The technician pulled up Joci’s shirt and tucked towels around her clothing, so nothing got full of gel. They dimmed the lights. Dr. Wan and the technician were to Joci’s right, and Jeremiah and the boys were to her left, watching the screen on the sonogram machine.
The tech started pushing the probe around Joci’s tummy and stopped on a little blurb. It didn’t look like anything but a blob. The technician took a few pictures and kept moving the probe around. After a few minutes, she moved the probe around, then stopped and went back.
“Oh, well, look at that. I think I see the heartbeat. Dr. Wan, what do you think?”
Dr. Wan looked closely at the screen. The tech put a little more pressure on Joci’s tummy, and there it was! You could see movement within the little blurb. It was very faint, but there was a little flutter.
“Yes, I believe that’s her heartbeat,” Dr. Wan said.
Jeremiah grabbed Joci’s hand. “Amazing,” was all he could say.
Gunnar said, “Cool.”
Ryder whispered, “I’ll be damned.”
Joci just stared. The baby was alive. She was going to live. Her eyes sparkled with moisture; she was so relieved. She hadn’t even realized how scared she’d been. Jeremiah leaned down and kissed her forehead.
