Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
Jamie surprised them with lobsters to celebrate New Year’s Eve and his first anniversary with Frannie. Jack and Andi had offered to babysit so they could go out for their anniversary, but they preferred to stay home with the babies.
After dinner the kids went off to watch a movie until the midnight festivities. Jack followed Jamie upstairs to check on the sleeping twins while Andi helped Frannie clean up from dinner.
“No wine for you tonight, Andi?” Frannie asked.
“Not in the mood.” Andi avoided Frannie’s probing stare as she dumped lobster shells into the trash. She hadn’t had any wine in more than a week, but in all the holiday craziness, no one had noticed.
“Since when are you not in the mood for wine?”
“My stomach was bothering me earlier.”
“Kind of like my stomach was bothering me that day at your house when you thought the same thing I’m thinking?”
Andi’s heart began to race. “What’s that?”
“You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”
“Who’s pregnant?” Jamie asked as he returned with Jack right behind him.
Jack laughed. “I don’t believe it! You didn’t even last a day!”
Andi wondered how she’d ever expected to keep a secret in this group.
“And you thought I’d be the weak link,” Jack added.
“I didn’t say a word.” Andi tossed a look at Frannie. “She guessed.”
Frannie clapped her hands. “I knew it!”
Andi shushed her. “I’m only like five minutes pregnant, so we aren’t saying anything for a while…or we weren’t going to.”
Frannie hugged her. “We won’t tell, will we, Jamie? I’m so glad our kids will have a cousin almost the same age. Congratulations, Jack,” she said, hugging her brother.
“Bit of a surprise, old man?” Jamie asked Jack.
“Just a bit, but a good one.” Jack put his arm around Andi. “The best kind of surprise.”
“God, I hope you’re not sick like I was,” Frannie said with a shudder.
“I wasn’t with Eric, so I probably won’t be this time, either.”
That turned out to be wishful thinking. Andi was so sick one day that Jack stayed home from work because he was afraid to leave her alone.
He called Jen to let her know Andi wouldn’t be into work.
They’d had no choice but to bring Jen in on the secret.
Fortunately, her assistant was happy to cover for her.
They’d told the kids she had a stomach bug but would have to tell them the truth if it kept up much longer.
Jack ran a cold cloth over her face after she was sick again. “Let me call the doctor.”
“No.” Even her voice was weak. “I don’t want to end up in the hospital.”
“But you can’t keep anything down. I can’t stand this. It can’t be good for you or the baby.”
She started to get up from where they sat on the bathroom floor. “It’s stopped now. I want to go back to bed.”
“Wait.” Scooping her up, he was alarmed by how light she was. He carried her back to bed and tucked her in with an extra blanket since she was shivering. She was asleep the moment her head hit the pillow, and he prayed the vomiting had passed—for now.
Except for Frannie, he’d never heard of pregnancy making anyone as sick as Andi had been for weeks now. Clare was never sick with the girls, and Andi hadn’t been with Eric, either. While she slept, he went downstairs to call Frannie.
“How’s she doing?” Frannie asked.
“Not so good. I don’t know how much longer this can go on.”
“Months, I’m afraid.”
Jack groaned. “I can’t imagine that.”
“Try to get her to eat—anything. Just a few crackers and some ginger ale or something like that. I found it helped to feed it, as odd as that sounds.”
“I don’t think she could keep it down.”
“It might be time to call Dr. Abbott.”
“She’s afraid she’ll end up in the hospital.”
“I felt better after. Maybe you should call her anyway.”
“I think I will.”
“Let me know if you need anything. I know how miserable this is.”
“Thanks, Fran.”
He hung up and stared at the phone for a minute before he picked it up again to call the doctor. Andi wouldn’t be happy, but he wasn’t risking her or the baby.
Jack went back upstairs and found her awake but still in bed. He brushed her hair back from her face. “How you doing?”
“I’ve been better.”
“I called the doctor.”
She whimpered. “I told you not to.”
“I’m worried, Andi. You have to be dehydrated by now. Dr. Abbott wants me to bring you in.”
She began to cry. “I don’t want to.”
“Honey, think of the baby. Frannie was much better after she was in the hospital. Let them help you. Please. I can’t stand seeing you so sick. It’s scaring me.”
A sob hiccupped through her. “Okay.”
Jack got her dressed and into the car without her doing a thing, which was just as well since she couldn’t have anyway.
Dr. Abbott took one look at Andi and ordered IV fluids.
Frannie had recommended the doctor to Andi, who was now almost through her sixth week. They’d postponed their trip to the Virgin Islands until she felt better, and the one-year anniversary of the day she moved in with Jack had passed without fanfare earlier in the month.
“Not feeling too hot, Andi?” Dr. Abbott asked after the nurses had settled Andi into a bed.
“No,” Andi said.
“We’ll do what we can to help you, but you’ve got another few weeks to go before you’ll start to feel a lot better.”
Andi groaned.
“Weeks?” Jack asked.
“I’m afraid so. Moms who’re this sick are often stuck with it for the first trimester. But we’ll get you some fluids to help you get your strength back. I also want to do a quick ultrasound to check on your little one. Nothing to worry about, though. Be right back.”
Andi reached for Jack’s hand. “I hope the baby’s okay.”
“I’m sure he’s fine.”
“You’re quite sure it’s a he.”
“There’s no way it can be another girl.”
“Actually, there’s a fifty-percent chance.”
“That much?” He brought their joined hands to his lips. “I’m so sorry you’re going through this, honey.”
“This is what I get for being stupid.”
He chuckled as a nurse wheeled in the ultrasound machine.
The doctor came back a few minutes later to take a look. She tilted her head and moved closer to the screen.
Jack never had seen anything resembling a baby on those screens, and this time was no different, but he could make out a strong heartbeat. And then he saw another one. He looked up at the doctor just as she looked down at him.
“So Frannie tells me twins run in your family,” she said with a smile.
“That’s what my mother says,” Jack stammered.
“Looks like she’s right.” The doctor pointed to the screen so Andi could see. “One heart there, another there.”
Andi let out a gasp and tightened her grip on Jack’s hand. “Two?”
Amused by their shock, the doctor held up two fingers. “Although, if they’re identical, it’s sheer luck, not heredity.”
Jack let out a long deep breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
Andi eyes were riveted to the screen. “Can you tell whether they’re boys or girls?”
“It’s still early—you’re right at six weeks.
This one here could be a boy.” She pointed to the screen.
“But don’t buy anything blue just yet. They look great.
Their heart rates are very strong, and they seem to be growing, despite how sick Mom’s been.
That means we have to make sure you’re getting what you need, Andi, because they’ll take what they need from you. ”
“She can’t keep anything down,” Jack said, still trying to comprehend that there were two babies.
“We’ll do what we can for you while you’re here. In about four or five weeks, you should start to feel much better.”
“I hope so,” Andi said, her eyes still glued to the monitor.
“Will she be able to carry twins?” Jack worried that Andi’s willowy frame wouldn’t be able to withstand the weight of two babies.
“The last couple of months will be tough, but she’ll be fine.”
The doctor left them, and Andi turned to Jack, her eyes wide with disbelief. “First Jamie and Frannie and now us,” she marveled. “What’re the odds?”
“I can’t believe it. We had no idea how strong the twin gene is in our family.”
“Oh my God, Jack! We’re going to have six children!”
“Two are technically adults,” he reminded her. “I was all set for five. What’s one more?”
“It must’ve happened the night of the gala.”
“Which is entirely fitting, since the hotel brought us together, and now it’s brought us the twins.”
They told the kids the news when Andi ended up in the hospital for several days to treat the dehydration.
Like Frannie, Andi felt much better after she was released and soon turned a corner where she was sick in the morning but better by noon.
By April she finally felt well enough to go on their long-postponed trip to the Virgin Islands.
The night before they left, Andi called her mother to tell her about the babies.
“Twins?”
“That’s what they tell me, Mother. Apparently, they run in Jack’s family. Remember last summer when his sister had twins? Ours will be born just about a year after theirs.”
“You’ll sure have your hands full.”
“I hope you’ll come be part of it. I’ll need your help.”
“I’ll be there, Andi, and I’ll bring Auntie Lou with me. Will you still send Eric out this summer?”
“Jack will probably bring him. I’ll be disappointed to not get to see you, but I won’t be going too far from home by then.
” Eric planned to spend two weeks with his grandmother in July, and Andi had promised him he’d be home long before the babies were born in late September—if she made it that far.
“We’re looking forward to it.”
“So is he. Well, I’d better go. Jack and I are leaving tomorrow for a week in the Virgin Islands we’ve had planned since December.
I’ve been so sick with this pregnancy we couldn’t go until now.
” She hadn’t told her mother she’d been in the hospital, knowing how she’d worry.
“But I’m much better now and looking forward to lounging in the sun. ”
“Send me a postcard, honey. Enjoy yourself.”
“I will. You take care, Mom. Give Auntie Lou a hug from me,” Andi said and ended the call.
“How’d she take it?” Jack asked.