Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 46461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
Doc just looked up at me with a smirk. “Right.” That was all he said before beginning.
The exam was surprisingly straightforward. Mostly health questions. Taking my blood pressure, temperature, heart rate. He drew some blood and gave me a huge bottle of prenatal vitamins.
“You just happen to have these laying around?” I looked at the bottle in dismay. It probably had five hundred pills in it.
“Had more than one woman around here pregnant at one time or another. Figured there’d be more.” He nodded to the bottle. “Take one a day. If they make you sick, let me know and we’ll figure out how to manage it. But you need those.”
“They gonna make her sick?” Gideon glared at Doc, like the man was going to make me sick on purpose.
“Hopefully not. Sometimes they do.” He shrugged. “Then again, some women get sick from everything. Can’t be helped.”
“Christ,” Gideon scrubbed his hand over his face. “We done?”
“No. Need to check one more thing.” Doc met my gaze. “If you’ll let me.”
I sighed. “Figured this was coming. Not looking forward to it.”
Doc tossed me a blanket and stepped out of the room. Gideon looked murderous but resigned. “Don’t like another man touchin’ you. Especially before I’ve had a chance to,” he grumbled, but helped me take my pants off and tucked the blanket around my hips.
“Didn’t you know this was going to happen?” I couldn’t keep the grin off my face. Gideon’s discomfort made me smile even as it confused me.
“Yeah, well, thinkin’ about it and being here when it’s gettin’ ready to happen is two different fuckin’ things.”
I couldn’t help myself, I laughed. “You need to calm down. This was your idea, anyway.”
“You needed checked out.”
“You’re grumpy.”
He lifted his chin stubbornly. “Am not.”
The door opened and Doc came back inside. “Are too.”
Gideon scowled. “No one asked you.”
With a shrug, Doc stepped up to the table. “This won’t take long. Normally I’d save it for your OB, but since you’ve not had any care and… well, just think it’s best to do it now.” I wanted to question that, but I was too nervous to concentrate on anything else.
The exam didn’t take long. Doc gloved up and was extremely professional. Didn’t stop Gideon from growling more than once. I gripped his hand and squeezed. The second Doc was done, Gideon’s hand went to the swell of my belly, rubbing soothingly.
Doc stood and turned his back, taking off his gloves, then washing his hands. His phone pinged and he took it out to check a text message. His brows furrowed, then relaxed and he nodded once.
“Well, there’s good news, what-the-fuck news, and then there’s the really horrible news that is really a two-parter.”
“Horrible news?” I squeaked about the same time Gideon snapped, “What the fuck, Doc?”
“So, the good news. Everything’s fine as can be, given your lack of care, questionable diet, and exhaustion. The vitamins will go a long way toward building you up. Depending on if you can tolerate them and if you continue to eat well.”
“So the baby’s fine?” I gripped Gideon’s hand so hard, I was sure my knuckles were white. I broke out in a sweat and couldn’t stop trembling.
“Yes, honey. The babies are fine.” Doc smiled at me.
Then it hit me.
“Uh… Babies?”
“Twins?” Gideon rubbed my belly just as one child kicked. He looked down at me and grinned. If I hadn’t actually been there when I’d gotten pregnant, I’d swear Gideon was the daddy, as proud as he looked at that moment.
“Yeah,” Doc said, rubbing the back of his neck as he grinned at Gideon. “That’d be a no. Not twins.”
“I don’t understand.” I looked from Doc to Gideon and back. “If not twins…”
“Right. This is the what-the-fuck portion of the news. You’re having triplets. All three appear to be healthy. It’s why I wanted to send the images to a friend who’s an OB. He’s much better at this than me, though I got the basics down. He wants to see you in a week and redo the ultrasound with his equipment where he can see it in real time, but he says things look fine at this point. He estimates you at about twenty-six weeks. He said he’d set your target due date at thirty-three weeks, but he’ll get you as far as he can safely.”
“So, all that’s good. I mean, I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around three babies, but I’ll figure it out.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Gideon said, interrupting me and giving me a stern look.
“Right,” Doc says. “Which brings me to the two-part really horrible news.”
“Just spit it the fuck out, Doc.” Gideon grumbled his order.
“All of your babies are girls.”
Silence.
I looked from Doc to Gideon. Doc grinned. Gideon looked ready to do murder.
“I fail to see how having three girls is horrible news,” I snapped. “It’s mean of you to say such a thing! How dare you!”