Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81182 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81182 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“Okay,” Hanna agrees, glancing over at me, and I force a smile.
When he opens the door and calls out for someone, the woman who checked Hanna’s weight joins us. I feel a little bit better when she stands next to him as he goes through Hanna’s exam, but only a little. My hands are balled so tight that my circulation is cut off as I watch him touch her.
“All right.” He takes off his gloves after doing something between her legs that has me feeling crazed with rage. “Everything looks good.” He glances at the nurse, who without being told takes a large wand off the machine in the room and rolls a condom down it while he changes his gloves.
“What is that?” I don’t mean to bark the question, but seriously, the thing looks like the curling iron Hanna has on the counter in our bathroom.
He smiles at me. “At eight weeks, we like to do a transvaginal scan. This allows us to see things a little more clearly.”
“You’re going to put that inside her?” I watch him squirt clear lube on the end.
“Walker,” Hanna says quietly, and I focus on her. She doesn’t say a word, but it’s written on her face that I need to calm down and shut up.
“Right,” I grumble. “Never mind. Proceed.”
Dr. Potter laughs, then the lights go out, and he tells her that she might feel some pressure.
Standing, I walk over to Hanna and take her hand as I look at the image on the screen. I can’t make anything out in the grainy black-and-white image until it moves, and suddenly there is a white mass in the dark, and I can just make out a head and what looks like legs. Then, within seconds, I’m dizzy as the steady sound of a thudding woosh fills the quiet room.
“He has a strong heartbeat.”
“He?” I look at the doctor.
“Sorry, it’s a habit. It’s too early to know the sex. You have a few weeks to go before we’ll be able to tell that, but Dr. Shelly was right in saying you’re about eight weeks along.”
Eight weeks. I found out this morning that a pregnancy lasts about forty weeks, so she has thirty-two to go. I look down at Hanna, who isn’t looking at the screen but is watching me. Even with the room mostly dark, she’s never looked more beautiful.
When the doctor is done, he tells her she can get dressed and that he’ll be back.
Alone, I lean over the table Hanna is still lying on and kiss her, but it’s not a soft, sweet kiss. I knot my fingers in her hair and nip her bottom lip, and when she gasps, I take advantage and tangle my tongue with hers. I kiss her until she latches onto me and only stop when she moans against my tongue.
“What was that?” she asks when I lean back, placing one last soft kiss against her lips.
“I fucking love you.”
“So that kiss wasn’t your way of remarking your territory?” She shoves her fingers through my hair as her eyes search mine.
I don’t answer. Instead, I help her sit up, then take her underwear from my pocket and help her get dressed before Dr. Potter comes back.
After I spend about thirty minutes asking him questions mostly to do with Hanna’s job and how safe it is for her to be traveling as much as she does, we leave the room. We then walk to the front desk to make an appointment for four weeks from today.
As we’re talking to the receptionist, the door to the main clinic opens, and a man with dark hair holding the hand of a very pregnant redhead walks in. Hanna’s response to their presence is instant. Her spine straightens, and her mouth turns down at the corners as she starts to turn away from them, but then she stops and makes direct eye contact.
“Hey, Benjamin.” Benjamin, her ex, the guy who cheated on his wife.
“Hanna.” He glances at me quickly then looks away.
She skates her eyes down to his hand wrapped around the other woman’s. “How’s your wife?”
The woman at his side turns a bright shade of red, almost matching the color of her hair, while he bristles but doesn’t respond.
Pressing my lips together, I place my hand on Hanna’s back, then slide it around to her hip and squeeze.
“All set,” the receptionist says happily, grabbing our attention. Then passes over an appointment card. “See you in a few weeks.”
“Thank you.” Hanna smiles, taking the card from her. Then, without sparing Ben another glance, we leave the office.
When we step into the elevator in the hall I crowd her against the wall. “Do you feel better?”
“I should have punched him in his stupid face,” she grumbles, and I laugh before dropping my mouth down to hers for a hard kiss.