Chapter 17
CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN
Prophet
My hand grips Phoebe’s as I watch the ultrasound screen and hear the whooshing of our baby’s heartbeat as it fills the room.
Granted, I can’t see anything that even remotely resembles a human, but Phoebe had already told me that initially, babies look more like aliens than anything, so I’m not particularly worried.
“Let me print off a few copies of your little one before I let you get dressed,” the ultrasound technician says. Once she’s done and has left the exam room, I wet some paper towels and help get the goop off of Phoebe’s abdomen before she puts her clothes on again.
“I’m so excited,” she whispers as we wait for the doctor to come in and see her. “Cami’s going to be a big sister.”
I missed out on all of this the first go around and have no intention of letting Phoebe do anything baby-related on her own.
Whether it’s holding her hair back as morning sickness hits, like I did this morning, or sitting next to her while we wait to see her doctor, I plan to be by her side.
Thank fuck that Holly was able to get her an appointment relatively quickly, because now we’ve got a pretty good idea of when our baby is due.
“And we’re going to be parents,” I reply.
“This might delay things for me a little bit,” she muses. Then she shrugs and grins before she adds, “And that’s okay. I don’t think I want to be too far from our family.”
“Gotta agree with you there,” I admit. “But I still think that there’s time for you to take on at least one assignment so you can knock out some of the clinical hours you need.”
She shrugs. “I feel like everything is going at warp speed sometimes, Eli. Who knew that I’d practically have what I needed to get my master’s degree in such a short amount of time?”
“Your own desire for more knowledge is what helped you with that, sweetheart.”
She’s about to reply when there’s a knock on the door and the doctor comes in, smiling. “Well, Mom and Dad, let’s see what we know so far,” she says.
Thirty minutes later, my head is swimming, Phoebe is softly laughing at my expression, and we’re on our way back to the clubhouse. Because of the upcoming changes, we’re going to have church while Holly and Marnie start planning a baby shower.
“I need to get one of those books,” I mutter as I help her into the truck. “I’ll one-click it when we get to the clubhouse.”
“Just saying, but that one gives pretty much every scenario that can happen, Eli. You heard the doctor, I’m young, healthy, and we should have no problems at all,” she says.
“I need to be prepared,” I reply as I slip into the driver’s seat and start the truck.
“Eli,” she drawls out. “We can prepare all we want, but at the end of the day, whatever is gonna happen will happen.”
“At least we have an automatic litter box already for Kevin,” I muse. “That’s one less worry, right?”
“Yes, it is,” she states. “And as far as the foods I should either limit or avoid completely, I don’t usually eat most of them anyhow.”
“I’m still checking the cupboards and pantry out and tossing any of it I find,” I firmly state. “Why take chances?”
I may be watching the road, but I know she’s rolling her eyes at me right now, and maybe I am being ridiculous, but I’ll do whatever I can to make sure our baby is healthy. I’m already making mental notes about things I need to do around our house.
“Will this make it easy for you to cope?” she asks. When I nod, she says, “Then you do what you feel you have to, Eli. If I think you’re getting too out of control, I’ll ask Holly to talk to Rebel so he can rein you in.”
I can’t help it, I start laughing and soon, she’s joining in as her hand reaches out to clasp mine. “Maybe I am being a bit over the top,” I admit. “I missed out on so much not knowing about Cami.”
“That still ticks me off,” she grumbles. “Which is one of the reasons I took so many videos. I know it’s not the same, but I wanted you to at least have that, Eli.”
“And I’m thankful you did that,” I reply as we pull into the parking lot of the clubhouse.
“Will Ella be there?” Data asks.
I’ve just finished filling in my brothers about Phoebe’s travel assignment. Thelma’s network is pretty awesome, all things considered, and she managed to get permission for Phoebe’s clinical hours to be done under her guidance and supervision.
Not only are we heading out next week to an area that was hit hard by some severe storms, which were thankfully not as severe as the hurricane ravaged area we were in several months ago, but apparently, Ella does plan to be there as well.
Raising my brow, I retort, “What do you think?”
He chuckles then nods. “I suspect with Phoebe being pregnant that Ella will be around a lot more than normal,” he concludes.
“What’s with the two of you?” Psycho questions.
“Not ready to talk about it,” Data retorts.
“Can we focus? With Prophet and Phoebe hitting the road, we need to make sure everything is in order,” Rebel decrees.
Turning to me, he says, “We’ll keep you in the loop as far as the tattoo shop and gym go, but you’ve got good men in place for the classes, and your artists are top notch, so focus on your woman. ”
“You gonna make an honest woman out of her?” Ash asks, grinning at me.
“Y’all are like a bunch of nattering hens,” I retort. “She doesn’t want anything fancy since she was married before.”
The thing is, I want to give her the fairytale dream, especially since she did go to the courthouse the first time around. Not only that, but this is the only time I plan to get married, so I kind of want all the bells and whistles. Not that I’ll admit that to these assholes.
“We can always do something here or even out at Esther and Paul’s place,” Rebel says.
“I’ll talk to her,” I promise. “Anything else?” I ask, eager to get home to my family.
“Yeah, we’re done. Data will make sure your laptop can handle the programs you’ll need for the bookwork for the gym and tattoo shop,” Rebel advises.
I don’t waste any time, practically running from the room.
I’ve got a lot to take care of before we leave and the sooner I get home, the better.
The RV is already there so I can start the arduous process of getting it packed up for our trip.
I won’t lie, I’m equal parts anxious and excited about hitting the road with my two girls and Kevin.
Grinning, I hop on my bike and point it in the direction of our home.
“I think this will work, don’t you?” I ask Phoebe as she stands next to me.
The RV has one dedicated bedroom which is ours, of course, but I took one of the bunk areas and created an enclosure of sorts for Cami. In fact, it kind of looks like a giant playpen now, which has me grinning.
“It should,” she replies, her hand rubbing my back. “Now, show me what you’ve figured out for Kevin.”
Chuckling, I lead her to the loft over the driver cabin and she starts laughing.
With the exception of his automatic litter box, which I have in a furniture enclosure for aesthetics, everything else for our cat is in the loft.
There’s a huge bed, which I suspect he won’t use since he typically sleeps on Phoebe’s pillow, as well as several interactive toys.
His food and water are in the kitchen area, already anchored down for the times we’re moving.
“He’s going to like it,” she teases. “Now, we’ve got a little more time before Cami wakes up from her nap. How do you feel about helping me out with something?”
“What’s going on?” I ask, now worried.
“Nothing much, just have hormones coursing through me so I thought we could christen the bed in here,” she teases, running her hand down my chest.
I don’t waste time answering her, instead I scoop her up and stalk toward our bedroom. She giggles as she bounces on the bed, but those giggles turn into moans when I follow her down, my hands and lips already moving.
Fuck, life is good these days and it’s only going to get better.