Chapter 22
FLYNN
“It looks like your due date aligns perfectly with your suspected date of conception,” The doctor told us as she moved the wand around on Courtney’s belly. You’re just about at the eight week mark now, and listen.” She hit a button on the machine and a fast-paced whooshing noise came through the speakers.
“Is that?” My wife asked. Tears formed in her eyes as she looked back at me after the doctor nodded her head. “Our baby’s heartbeat, Flynn.”
“Yeah, sweetheart, I caught that.” I tried to choke back the emotion in my own voice. The baby had been this idea, an object that was beyond comprehension because it was out of sight. Somehow, hearing the heartbeat did more to make it real than anything else.
“That’s our baby,” Courtney blubbered as her eyes moved back to the screen. I wanted to look too, but I couldn’t take my eyes off my wife. When I glanced over at the doctor, she was watching me with a big smile on her face.
“I’ll get some pictures printed off for you. There will be a prescription for a good prenatal vitamin at the counter when you check out. You can opt for one that is over the counter, but I really like this one because you get more of the vitamins mom and baby need and less of the extra junk that they don’t.”
“Then that’s what we’ll get,” I assured her.
After the doc left us alone in the room, I helped Courtney wipe all the goop off her belly. “We’re probably lucky she was able to see the baby this way.”
“What way?”
“With the wand on my belly.”
“Is there another way?” I asked because I honestly didn’t know. I thought all sonograms were done with some gel splashed on the belly and the little wand pushing uncomfortably on someone’s bladder. That’s what all the pregnant women I had ever known led me to believe anyway.
“Yep, in the early stage of pregnancy, they usually have to do a transvaginal ultrasound.”
“Trans-vag-” Is that what I think it is?” I asked, almost horrified to think that they might have shoved what amounted to a camera up my wife’s pussy.
“Yes, it means they stick a condom on a wand and insert it inside a woman to see the baby.”
“It’s for the best that they didn’t have to do it that way, sweetheart.”
Courtney chuckled and then held her hands out to me, so I could help her down from the table. “I guess this makes it official. We’re going to be parents.”
I pulled her into a hug and didn’t even want to let go. “What would you say if I asked you to go out on a dinner date with me tonight?”
My wife grinned up at me. “We’re married, Flynn. You don’t have to ask me out on a date.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. We’ve never really gone out on a date before because we got married first. I think we need to have a designated date night at least once a week until the baby gets here and then again after he or she is a few months old. I don’t want you to ever feel like you’re not a priority to me. You are and we need to keep a healthy balance in our lives.”
“Best to start the habit now, huh?” She teased.
“Exactly. So, what do you say? Are you feeling up to dinner?” I glanced down at the time on my phone as we walked to the reception desk to make Courtney’s next appointment and pick up her prescription.
“As long as we can go within the next hour or so. I’m starving.”
“We can go whenever you’d like.”
We had only just sat down and ordered our drinks when the waitress came back to our table and smiled as she started to pour from a bottle of wine neither of us ordered. Courtney couldn’t even drink it, for obvious reasons.
“We didn’t order wine,” I reminded the woman, thinking she had the wrong table.
“Oh, no it was a gift from…”
“Stephie, please come help!” A frantic woman called out as our waitress turned her way. She glanced across the room and groaned audibly.
“Not again!” She set the bottle of wine on the table along with the one glass she managed to pour, and took off with a quick, “So sorry, I’ll be right back.”
“Well, I guess the wine will remain a mystery for now.” Courtney giggled as she picked up the bottle and stared longingly at the label. “It was Satan,” She announced.
“What was Satan?”
“The one who sent our table a bottle of wine. It had to be Satan. Who else would send my favorite wine when I can’t drink it?”
I glanced around to see if I noticed anyone familiar, but no one stood out. Courtney picked up the filled glass, but I stopped her before she could take a sip. “You can’t remember?”
“I was only going to sniff it. Can’t I just…” She held it up to her nose and closed her eyes as she took in the delightful scent of tropical fruits and honeysuckle.
When I got it back from her, I also scented some sort of spice mixed in with the rest. My wife watched every move I made as I sipped the rich white wine.
“I can see why it’s your favorite.
“You don’t like wine, do you?”
“I don’t dislike it.” She smirked at my answer.
“You prefer to drink liquor or beer though,” Courtney encouraged.
“Honestly, I don’t have an alcohol preference because I rarely drink.”
“Wait, seriously?”
“I don’t dislike it.” My wife smirked at my answer.
“You prefer to drink liquor or beer though.” It was a statement, not a question, but I felt the need to correct her assumptions, since we needed to do better about getting to know one another.
“Honestly, I don’t have an alcohol preference because I rarely drink.”
“Wait, seriously?” She asked. When I gave her a non-verbal yes, she asked, “How did I not know this? I always thought you were a partying playboy through college.”
“No. I don’t know why everyone assumed that. I spent a lot of time playing Designated Driver for friends, so maybe they assumed I was drinking with them.”
“Huh.”
“Is that a good ‘huh’ or a bad one?”
She laughed at me. “It’s just a ‘learned something new about you’ sound. It’s good to know, though.” Courtney stared at me thoughtfully for a few minutes and then grinned as if she had a secret. “You only had one glass of champagne at our wedding reception.
My cheeks burned red-hot at her proclamation. It was true, but I hadn’t realized she had been paying such close attention. “Yes.”
“It’s weird that I only just now realized that, even though I watched you all night.”
“You watched me all night, huh?”
“Well, you were my new husband. I was trying to figure you out.”
“I’m not a stranger. You already know me.”
“I knew you as a friend, not a husband. They’re totally different.”
I took another sip of the wine and looked back up to meet Court’s eyes. “This reminds me of summer for some reason.”
“It’s the honeysuckle. It always makes me think of sitting on a porch swing and watching kids play before a barbecue kicks off or a relaxing summer night out in the field stargazing.”
“One day soon, you’ll be able to watch the kids play from a porch swing.” My house didn’t have the swing, but it did have a wrap-around porch, so I hatched a plan to make sure she got one, so when next summer came, she could sit out there with me and have a glass of wine as we tended to our son or daughter. They would be too young to play on their own in the yard by next summer, but those moments would come with time, and I couldn’t wait to share them with her.