Chapter Nineteen
Oren
“Are you sure we need to do this now?” Noble dug his heels in outside the healer’s office. “I feel fine.”
“And we are going to be sure you continue to do so.” Already four months along, he should have had this appointment weeks ago, but he’d come up with one excuse after another.
“He’s not going to do anything to hurt you, omega mine.
We just want to be sure the baby is growing properly and that you don’t need to make any changes in diet or anything to keep you healthy. ”
“Shifters have been giving birth for thousands of years without healers.”
“Not strictly true. They may not have had ultrasound machines, but packs back into eternity have had healers on hand, doing the best they could with what they had available to them.”
“What if he wants me to give him all the details of my accident? I don’t want to relive that today.” His lower lip trembled, and I gathered him close. “What if there’s something wrong with me that hurts the baby?”
“Remember all those forms we filled out together online?” I kissed his forehead.
“Yeah…”
“And you didn’t want to read every word of the releases, so you asked me to do it?”
“Uh-huh.”
I reached for the door and opened it, guiding him in with an arm still around him.
“One of those was for your previous medical records. So, they have all that. And they did have some questions about the accident, ones I happened to know the answers to…so I replied for you. I hope I didn’t overstep. ”
“Overstep?” He pulled back and looked up at me. “You did that for me? Knowing how much I hate talking about that day?”
“I did. And they replied that there was nothing in your records to indicate any concern for pregnancy. If I’d realized that was why you were putting off coming, I would have told you but I foolishly was trying not to upset you with talk about that day when you weren’t feeling well.”
A nurse in scrubs opened the door across the waiting room. “Noble? The healer will see you now.”
Noble slipped free of my arms and sailed past the nurse into the back area. “I can’t wait to talk to him and find out everything I need to know about being a new dad.”
I followed, shaking my head at the switch of mood. It might be a pregnancy thing, but I was taking some credit for fixing a problem before I even knew there was one.
After his vitals were taken and an exam in the stirrups, the healer pushed back on his stool. “Let’s get that ultrasound done. Want to know the sex?”
“No,” we said together then laughed.
“I’d rather be surprised,” Noble added. “Is that all right?”
“Of course it is.” The healer stepped out into the hallway and returned with the nurse.
“We’re being top secret here,” he told her.
“Honestly, I like the surprise aspect, but my mate wanted to know ASAP, after our first one. He’d had it in his mind that it was a boy, and we decorated with fish and sailboats.
Then it was our little Christina…and as a young couple, we couldn’t afford to change it all out. ”
“I thought we’d do neutral in the nursery,” Noble said. “But did your little girl like the room?”
He pointed to a framed picture on the wall. “She’s a champion sailor, wins races all over the world.”
So it had all worked out.
While we chatted, the healer had been getting ready for the ultrasound, wheeling the machine into place, plopping a glob of gel on my mate’s tummy, and all other technical things I didn’t really understand.
But it didn’t matter because once we saw the tiny being on the screen, my love magnified in ways I hadn’t known were possible.
We sailed out of that appointment on a cloud of hearts and flowers, laden with vitamins and pamphlets and future appointments. “Lunch?” I asked him.
“Yes, please.” Noble had only recently regained an appetite after nausea abated. “Can we get fried chicken?”
“If you think your tummy will tolerate it?” I had my doubts, but the healer had said he should eat what appealed to him.
“Let’s hope so because I want a five-piece meal and mashed potatoes, cornbread…” As we climbed into the car and I drove toward the little family owned chicken place we loved, he was still listing everything he wanted to order.
And did order. Fortunately, he quickly realized that his imagination was bigger than his stomach and agreed to have about three-quarters of it boxed to go for later. “We will need dinner anyway,” he mused.
“Yes. The movers should be arriving any time.” I glanced at my watch. “Maybe now. Ready to go?”
When we arrived at the convenience store, there were two burly bear shifters waiting by the back staircase. Noble didn’t have a ton of stuff, but with him being pregnant and me currently working two jobs, we’d agreed it was the better part of valor to pay to have everything packed and moved.
“It feels wrong somehow,” Noble said, sitting in a chair and telling the workers what to do. “I shouldn’t be lazy.”
“You’re not lazy,” I insisted. “You’re pregnant.”
“And you already paid us to do the job,” the larger bear growled. “So, if you do the work, you’re just throwing the money away.”
Noble’s eyes widened. If there was one thing I’d learned my omega hated, it was waste. And somehow that bear had known just what to say. Noble leaned back in his seat and grinned. “All the dishes go in the donate box.”
By nightfall with our helpful moving team, we had everything Noble wanted at my place and the rest being dropped off at the donations center. We ate the leftovers from lunch and went to bed early, holding one another long into the night.
My wolf had never been happier—and neither had I.