Chapter 38 Verbal Understanding
VERBAL UNDERSTANDING
“Are you going to let me go in with you?” Arik asked ten days later.
Natalie had gotten an appointment but not on the island. She had to go to their satellite office for the first visit or wait another two weeks. Neither of them wanted that, so she’d taken the appointment first thing in the morning and would go to work after.
“If you want to,” she said. “I’m glad it’s not with Ava.”
“Who’s Ava?”
“A distant cousin. And though she’d keep it to herself I was pregnant, I’d like to tell my family first. After this I’ll schedule everything else on the island and it will be easier.”
They’d just pulled in front of the building, him shutting his SUV off. His hand reached for hers between them on the seat.
“Are you feeling better about things now?”
“I’m not sure better is the right word but calmer for sure.”
He’d take that.
Once he found out she was pregnant, he’d been reading everything he could, making plans he wasn’t sharing with her, and imagining his life with a family he’d always dreamed of.
“We need to talk more once this appointment ends, remember? That was the agreement.”
He hated to come up with another “contract” but that’s what he did. Or what she did.
Nothing in writing. No signatures required.
More like a verbal understanding. No baby talks until it was officially confirmed.
With the amount of work he’d been doing for the past ten days, the time flew by.
He’d taken Don up on the offer. He wouldn’t regret it. It was six months tops. The time he’d signed his lease for. It’d work out well and he’d be done before his child came.
“We will,” she said. “I promise.”
They got out of the car and made their way into the building.
He took a seat while she gave her name; they’d said she was all set and she sat next to him.
Neither of them spoke, which he was fine just watching the news on the TV.
“Natalie?”
She stood up. “That’s me,” she said. She hadn’t said he could go with her and he wasn’t sure what his next move should be. She turned to him. “Are you coming or did you change your mind?”
He jumped up like a kid being told it was time to open all the gifts under the Christmas tree.
He wanted to hold her hand, but she was a few feet ahead of him and then off to the side with the nurse stepping on the scale.
They got to the room and he sat in the chair in the far corner, Natalie being attended to, then told to change in the adjoining bathroom.
He was going to pull his phone out but saw the note on the wall that it wasn’t allowed. He had nothing to check or track, just didn’t want to be sitting there staring at the wall.
She came out in a gown, holding it together with her hands. She looked ridiculous.
He kept his lips sealed tight.
She was on the table with her legs swinging nervously. “You doing okay?”
“Sure. Nothing to be nervous about. I’m only going to spread my legs and put my bare feet in those metal stirrups while you watch a woman put her fingers inside of me.”
His jaw hit the floor. “Wow. Look at you cracking jokes. I didn’t think you had it in you for something like that.”
She let out a little giggle. “I didn’t mean to say it as a joke but what was on my mind.”
“The fact you shared it and didn’t sugarcoat it to some professional response says it all.”
That her walls weren’t just crumbling. They were falling.
It was time one of them took the next step.
He wasn’t going anywhere.
He didn’t even want to consider that what they had would fizzle. It wasn’t an option.
If he wanted her to continue to open up, his words had to come, not just his actions.
He knew how he felt.
He was positive she felt the same.
The door opened and a doctor came in smiling. “Hi, I’m Dr. Weber. It’s nice to meet you.”
Natalie shook hands, then the doctor came over and shook his. “Arik,” he said. No reason to give a last name.
“Your urine came back positive for your pregnancy, but I’m sure you already knew that.”
“Yes,” she said.
“Based on the last date of your menstrual cycle, your due date is January twentieth, but I’m going to do a quick exam and ultrasound to compare. Why don’t you slide down and put your feet up?”
The doctor put on a pair of gloves and Arik had to decide if he wanted to look away. Not that he could see anything.
The wind from his rapidly bouncing knee was the only sound in the room.
The doctor pulled over the ultrasound machine, covered the long probe with a condom that had him cringing over the size of it.
But the minute he was told where to look and saw the tiny little circle on the screen, everything changed.
Every thought in his head fled.
Every breath was exaggerated.
His heart wasn’t just fluttering, it was racing.
“Is that our baby?” he asked, his voice full of wonder.
“It is,” Dr. Weber said. “You’re a little over seven weeks, so the due date will stand.” She turned a dial. “Let’s see if we can hear the heartbeat.”
It took five seconds to find. Five seconds of hell as he’d held his breath.
But it was there. Faint but strong.
The doctor removed the wand from Natalie and pushed back.
“Everything looks good. Why don’t you get changed and we’ll talk some more.”
Natalie stood up and pulled the gown closer, her eyes landing on his. They were dewy like his. The smile the same too.
Twenty minutes later they were in his SUV and heading for the docks. They had almost an hour before the next ferry, giving them time to sit and talk.
“Do you want to get something to eat?” he asked.
“I could use something. I’m glad the ferry is running more frequently now or we might wait two hours.”
“It’d be horrible to be pregnant if there wasn’t an office or hospital on the island,” he said.
“Tell me about it. Things have gotten better over the years making it easier to live there. More job opportunities, things to do, better education. Even having a vet on the island.”
“You don’t have to sell me on anything,” he said. “I love it.”
“Do you?” she asked. Her voice was full of doubt. He wouldn’t let her carry that weight any longer.
“I do. Not as much as I love you, but it’s catching up.”
Her eyes filled with enough water that he worried he shouldn’t have said it yet. Or said it that way.
She wasn’t repeating it either, just staring at him as if he’d lost his mind.
“You’re not just saying that because I’m pregnant?”
“No,” he said. He hadn’t started the vehicle yet and he was glad.
He reached for her arm and pulled her as close to his seat as he could.
“I felt like this about you weeks before you said you were pregnant. I’d like to think you felt the same, but maybe you don’t.
I guess time will tell. I can be pretty irresistible. ”
She ran her fingers down the side of his face. “I feel the same. And I have. I told myself it was too fast, too soon. That I wasn’t sure I could trust you’d stay even though you’re doing all the right things to prove otherwise.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I told you that.”
“I believe it now because I love you too.”
He went in for a kiss with his heart happy. His life content.
Until he had to break the news to his family.
They wouldn’t be happy and he didn’t care, but he’d have to prepare her for the drama that would ensue.