CHAPTER 11 KAYLEE
I blow out a breath as I sit in the waiting room. I glance around the busy area. I’m too nervous to scroll my phone, so instead I silently make up stories in my head about each of the patients waiting their turn.
One couple sits with a little girl who looks to be around JJ’s age. She keeps dropping a book, giggling, and picking it up before repeating the process over again. I bet the woman is having another girl.
Another woman with an enormous belly that looks ready to pop any minute sits with her hand locked tightly in a man’s hand—presumably the father of her unborn child. I bet it’s their first as they both look a little dazed.
A few women wait by themselves as they scroll their phones, and I wonder if they’re in early stages like me or if they’re just here for their annual exams. I pick out one who I think might be pregnant, not that I’ll ever know.
“Kaylee?” a voice calls from a doorway, and I stand and walk over toward her. I feel as dazed as that one couple looks. When I stop in front of her, she checks the clipboard in her hands. “Last name?”
“Dalton.”
She nods and ushers me through the door and into a room with a large television screen perched on the wall in front of the exam table. A woman sits behind a large machine that sort of looks like a computer but sort of doesn’t.
“Hi, Kaylee,” the woman sitting in there says. The woman who brought me back here leaves.
I smile a little timidly.
“I’m Patrice, and I’ll be your ultrasound technician today.”
Ultrasound? I didn’t realize I was getting one of those today.
“Have you ever had an ultrasound?” she asks.
I shake my head.
“I’ll walk you through it. I’m going to squirt some cold gel on your stomach and use my wand to see what’s going on in your uterus. Can you lower your pants to the top of your pubic bone?”
I do as I’m told, and she stuffs what feels like a large napkin into the top of my jeans, probably to protect them from the gel. She squirts the gel on my skin, and she’s right. It’s cold. She moves it around with the wand, and then she starts to nod, not saying anything at all.
“Let me just take a few measurements.” She moves the wand around and draws some lines on the screen. I watch but have no idea what I’m looking at.
“Does everything look okay?” I finally ask.
She smiles. “The doctor will explain everything.”
Dread filters through my veins. Why isn’t she saying anything? “Is that normal?”
She nods. “Oh, yes. I just take the measurements. The doctor goes over them with you.” She squints at the screen and moves the wand around a little, pushing it harder into my uterus.
It’s uncomfortable, and I almost wonder if it’s going to hurt the baby with how much pressure she’s putting on it.
“I do want to get a better look, so if it’s okay with you, I’d like to do a transvaginal ultrasound. ”
My brows dip. “Transvaginal?”
“I’ll insert the wand into your vagina and have a look that way.”
My eyes widen. “Oh!” Right. “Okay.” Well, this is awkward.
She steps out of the room for a second so I can take my pants off and cover up with another large napkin, and when she returns, she coats the wand with extra gel.
She shoves it in and starts moving it around.
I stare blankly up at the ceiling as I wait for this to be over, and then she takes it out.
She presses some buttons on her computer and hands me a strip of photos of my uterus.
It’s black and white and I have no idea what the hell I’m looking at.
“You did great, Kaylee. I’ll step out so you can get dressed, and you can wait in the lobby for the doctor to call you in.
If you haven’t left your sample yet, you can do that in the bathroom through that door. ”
Right. More peeing in cups. Okay then.
I get dressed, leave my sample, and head out to the waiting room.
“Kaylee?” another tech calls a few minutes later. I give my last name now that I know the drill, and this one ushers me to a scale. We stop to check my weight, and then she shows me to an exam room. She takes my blood pressure and other vitals before she tells me the doctor will be in shortly.
Great.
More waiting.
More time alone with my thoughts and the fears that have been racing around my head since she shoved that tube up my hoo-ha.
Thankfully it’s a short wait, and the doctor is smiling as she walks in, immediately easing my fears. “Kaylee, so nice to see you. And for your confirmation appointment! Congratulations.”
“Thanks,” I say, tears filling my eyes.
Emotions are normal at these appointments, right?
“Does daddy know yet?” she asks with a twinkle in her eye.
Ah fuck. The tears that filled my eyes spill over as I shake my head.
“Is everything all right?” she asks.
I shrug. “Daddy and I broke up not so long ago,” I admit. “I haven’t told him. He’s, uh…he doesn’t want kids and this is all just a very unexpected surprise. I haven’t figured out when or how to tell him yet.”
“Oh,” she says, nodding. “We have plenty of support and resources for you whatever you decide. Now shall we get to the good news?”
My brows dip. “The ultrasound?”
She nods. “Did you get some pictures?”
“Yes, but I have no idea what I’m looking at.”
She chuckles. “First time moms rarely do,” she says.
“As you’ll see, much of parenting including these sweet first moments is very much a learn as you go sort of thing.
You’re measuring seven weeks, four days, which puts you at February twenty-fourth for your due date.
And I suppose if you didn’t know what you were looking at, that means you didn’t see both of them. ”
“Both of what?” My brows knit together as I try to puzzle out what she’s talking about. I have a stack of six photos in my hand—maybe that’s what she means. “The pictures?”
She chuckles. “Both of the babies.”
“Both of what babies?”
“The two babies you’re carrying.”
“Two babies?” I ask, my brain fogging over with confusion.
“Kaylee, you’re having twins.”
“Twins?” I practically screech. But twins don’t run in my family. Do they run in Ben’s? I’ll have to ask him.
Holy shit.
Twins.
Oh…and I can’t ask him.
We’re not talking. We broke up.
Oh my God.
Twins?
Two babies?
I feel like I might pass out.