Page 42 of Keep Me Close

“Any appointment Hallie invites me to, I’ll be here,” Chase said firmly. “I respect that it's her call.”

“Good. We're all on the same page.” She quickly summarized the basics of the appointments and the schedule before finishing with, “Now, I'm going to step out. Hallie, you can change into a gown and get comfortable on the table. The ultrasound machine is right in here. We'll do the whole thing together.”

After she left, Chase asked, “Are you sure you want me to stay?”

“Definitely. You’ve seen me naked,” I teased.

“Uh, I think this is different. It doesn't feel very sexy,” he said as he looked around the room.

I burst out laughing as I stood. I quickly stripped down and pulled on the gown keeping on my socks because the room was chilly.

“Nice socks,” he said with a grin.

I looked down at my feet. I was wearing a pair of alternating striped pink and purple socks. “Thank you. I like to keep my socks fun. Might as well.” I sat on the table, swinging my legs.

“Do we do anything?” he asked.

“No, she'll knock in a second.”

As if on cue, a light knock sounded on the door. “Ready?” she called, her voice muffled through the door.

“Yeah, come on in.”

She came in and did the exam. When she smeared the ultrasound jelly on my belly, I commented, “Ooh, that's warm.”

“I know. I love it. It's made a big difference for patients.”

“What's that?” Chase asked when she whipped out the wand.

She grinned. “It's a wand with a camera on it. “It helps me see.”

“You don’t do this on her belly?” he asked, his eyes widening.

“We actually do both. There's a camera on this and on that,” she explained, gesturing to the wand and then the smaller handheld tool.

“Holy shit,” he said. “That's kind of weird and invasive.”

Dr. Williams burst out laughing. “I appreciate your bluntness, and I agree. At the moment, it’s the only way to do it, so here we go. Your job is to look at the screen.”

Chase was completely fascinated by the process. I liked how interested he was. She explained everything thoroughly. “You two ready for the big reveal?”

“Sure,” I replied just as Chase said, “For sure.”

“Is it 100 percent?” he asked.

“It’s 99 percent accurate at this stage in the pregnancy.”

A moment later, she said, “Looks like you have a baby boy on the way.”

“Oh, my god,” I breathed.

Tears rolled down my cheeks, and Chase was hugging me. It was all a little overwhelming. Dr. Williams shifted back to business pretty quickly, interjecting, “You two can stay in here for a bit, but I have another appointment. Everything looks great, and your baby boy is on schedule so far.”

She removed the wand from inside me, wiped the jelly off my belly, and I sat up on the table. “You are totally on track. Next up is the testing. That can be stressful, so I just want to prepare you. Some people choose not to do it.”

“We're doing it. We’ve already had the conversation,” I announced.

That was one of the weirdest things about this with Chase. Even though we were fresh and this was crazy, I had felt the need to be transparent about everything. We weren't skipping any of the hard conversations.

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