Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
I felt what felt like a lead balloon fall in my stomach.
“Kris…”
“Just go.”
Chapter 14
I regret nothing.
-Krisney after she eats an entire family size box of Lucky Charms
Krisney
Avoiding him was incredibly hard when all I wanted to do was go to him.
The first time I felt the babies kick, I’d picked my phone up to call him, to tell him he needed to come over immediately. But then remembered that I needed to move on with my life and calling him to tell him wasn’t a good idea. It was just letting the door swing back open when I’d tried with all my might to close it.
When I’d wake up in the middle of the night, my heart pounding a million miles an hour from a nightmare, I’d wanted nothing more than to call him and tell him about my dreams.
I never did.
Then, when I’d see everyone in town and take in their judgment—I wished for nothing more than to have him at my side.
He’d tried to be there.
After the day Pepé died, he’d tried relentlessly to insert himself back in my life, but I’d done everything in my power to make sure that that didn’t happen.
The only thing I wasn’t able to accomplish was getting a new doctor.
Torres and the other doctor practicing with Reed in the office wouldn’t take me as a patient.
I’d heard through the grapevine that Reed had told them in no uncertain terms that if they took me on, he’d leave.
And since the practice was so swamped, they’d refused to take me on.
Meaning that three months after telling him that I wanted nothing to do with him, I still had to see him at least once a month.
This would be my third month seeing him, and I’d been shoring up my defenses ever since the last appointment.
***
“They’re moving well?” he asked excitedly.
I nodded, unwilling to speak unless I absolutely had to.
I didn’t want to chance telling him that I loved him, I missed him, and I wanted him to move in with me so I didn’t have to have his babies alone.
Hence the staying quiet bit.
My emotions were fucking everywhere, and I knew that if I could just get through this appointment, that I would make it another day without him.
I would.
He started to massage my stomach, and I had to clench my legs together to keep from jolting at the contact.
I knew this wasn’t anything sexual in nature in the least, but all he had to do was touch me, and I was panting for him.
I gritted my teeth when he moved down to just above my pubic bone.
“You feel this?”
My hand automatically went to his, and he guided my hand and pushed. I felt something round and hard.
“Yes,” I croaked.
“That’s a butt.” He laughed. “And this up here…” He moved my hand to a spot just above that. “That’s the head of baby A.”
The head was sideways by my lower ribs on my left side.
“This is baby B, head here.” He moved my hand again to my upper ribs, then pressed. “And this is the back.”
“How do you know this?” I blurted as he moved my hand down the length of the baby’s back.
“Practice,” he said, his eyes meeting mine.
They were happy.
He was happy.
And if I was being honest, I was the happiest I’d been since the last appointment.
“I start a new job on Monday,” I told him.
He held my eyes.
“Where?”
“At the dentist on Main Street. His old dental hygienist quit.”
Reed’s laugh was happy.
“That’s good news. I wasn’t sure you were going to get to utilize your degree.”
I’d gotten my degree in dental hygiene while in the Army and then had practiced somewhat in Alabama when I was in the Reserves. When I was sent to Germany, it’d been for my old job—which was a whole bunch of office work that I realized rather quickly that I was no longer cut out for.
That’d been the deciding factor to wait until I found a job that I knew I’d stay at, and not do one just for the temporary while I looked for a new one. That wasn’t fair to the employer or to me.
“I’m thinking it's good news, too. He also said that maternity leave won’t be a problem, because the old dental hygienist is willing to come back while I’m out for the six weeks.”
He nodded, giving my stomach one last press, before he pulled away.
“You know what today is?”
I nodded.
That’d been another reason why I was anxious.
It was the exam that would tell me what the sex of the babies I was carrying were.
After one more lingering glance at my belly, he stood up and walked to the sink where he washed his hands out of habit.
I tried not to be offended that he would think he’d need to wash his hands, and struggled to get up.