Page 53 of Love From the Ashes

I burst out laughing at his excitement. He’d been this way since learning I was pregnant, putting every fear I had to rest. He was thrilled to be a father and went out of his way to care for me, sometimes to the point he treated me like I was going to break. He’d insisted I move in with him as soon as we’d returned to Boston from Samantha and Ryan’s wedding. Of course, I had to tell him I’d already made that decision. I’d been here for three months, and everything had worked out better than I could have ever dreamed.

“You’re obviously amused, but you haven’t answered me. So what do you think?”

“I think your idea is wonderful, and we’ll know in about an hour or so which theme to go with since my sonogram is today. Or did you forget?”

“I haven’t forgotten. I’ve been waiting for this appointment. I hate to admit it, but my mind drifted at work all week as I wondered whether we were having a boy or a girl.”

“Well, you’re about to find out. Let me put the bag of baby stuff away, and then I’ll be ready to go.” I picked up the bag I’d left in the hallway and placed it in the walk-in closet with the rest of the baby stuff we’d collected. After quickly freshening up, I met Reid downstairs by the front door.

“Come here.” Reid took my hand in his and pulled me toward him. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” I wrapped my arms around his neck as he leaned down to kiss me, his hands caressing my rear. His kiss and his touch were so full of love. They went far beyond anything physical. It was like we’d become a part of each other.

Reid escorted me to his car, telling me to be careful because of the layer of snow on the ground. We had to go to the hospital’s radiology department for the sonogram, and I was thankful Reid had taken the day off to join me. Ginny was originally planning to be there with us but ended up going back to work to take care of a few issues that had unexpectedly come up.

“I’m nervous. How about you?” Reid said, holding my hand while we sat in the waiting room.

“I think I’m more excited than nervous.” I turned toward Reid, spotting the lines on his forehead. The sonogram seemed far more stressful for him than it was for me. I squeezed his hand and smiled at him.

A woman in scrubs came out a side door and glanced at the paper in her hand. “Sofie Fletcher?”

“That’s me.” I got up from my seat, and Reid and I followed the woman to an exam room.

“My name is Kelley. I’m one of the ultrasound technicians here, and I’ll be performing the sonogram on you today. I understand you’re twenty weeks along. Is that correct?”

“Yes, that’s correct,” I said.

“Great, we should get some nice images of the baby. Okay, Mom, I’ll need you to lie on the exam table. I want you to pull your shirt up to your bra and your pants down low on your hips. I’ll place a paper cover and sheet over your clothes to protect them from the gel I’ll be using on your abdomen. Dad, you can sit in the chair next to the table.”

Reid sat down after helping me get comfortable on the table. He watched me adjust my clothes as instructed, and then he reached for my hand. He looked incredibly nervous.

Kelley applied a glob of gel onto my baby bump and picked up a handheld piece of equipment. “I’m going to move this probe around your abdomen using the gel. It won’t hurt. Using high-frequency sound waves, we’ll capture images of your baby, which will display on the screen.” Kelley placed the probe in the gel and moved it around my stomach. She pointed to the monitor. “There’s your baby. Here’s your baby’s head, and there’s an arm. I’m going to zoom in. We can see the heart beating. I’m going to do a heart tracing and get measurements.” A graph became visible below the image. “The beats per minute are perfectly normal.”

I turned to look at Reid, seeing him intently focused on the screen and appearing almost teary-eyed. I squeezed his hand, and he looked at me. He brought my hand to his lips and kissed it, and then his gaze went right back to the monitor.

Kelley pointed to the screen again as she moved the probe around my abdomen. “There’s the baby’s spine. Oh, the baby is stretching! Look at that.”

“That’s incredible. Sofie, look at that,” Reid said in awe, his gaze still frozen on the baby.

“I know. I can see it too,” I laughed, thoroughly enjoying Reid’s reactions.

After checking the baby’s placement and the placenta, Kelley stopped for a moment and turned to the two of us. “I have in my notes from your doctor that you want to know the gender of your baby. Is that still your decision?”

“Yes, we want to know,” Reid said, the pitch in his voice rising with his excitement.

Kelley smiled and pointed to a spot on the screen. “This little spot at the end of the spine is called the caudal notch. Based on the way it’s pointing downward, we can say the fetus is a girl.”

Reid got up from his chair and hovered over me. “A girl, Sofie. We’re going to have a little princess.” He squeezed my hand and brushed my hair from my face. Then he leaned down and kissed me. “I love you,” he whispered in my ear.

“I love you too.” I was thrilled he was so happy.

After cleaning the gel off my stomach, Kelley printed pictures of the baby and handed them to Reid. Finished with the appointment, we left the hospital and headed home. We were almost there when I turned to Reid.

“Promise me something.”

“What’s that?”

“You’ll never let anyone hurt our little girl.”

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