“Okay. Good news, everything looks absolutely fine, CVS shows no chromosomal abnormalities and the ultra sound shows that your babies are growing exactly as they should, with good strong heartbeats.”
The rest of what she says blurs through my brain. Our babies are fine, fit, healthy twins, one boy, one girl, growing by the day, inside of me now. Gabe is squeezing my hand so hard that I think he has cut off the circulation; I am starting to get pins and needles in my fingertips, I look across at Gabe to tell him to loosen his grip when I realise he’s crying, he leans across and wipes a tear from my cheek with his thumb, because apparently, I’m crying too.
He pops his thumb into his mouth and sucks away my tear as he winks at me. “Told ya Lauren, Bruce and Sheila are doing just great.”
I shake my head at him. He has crapped himself over these results as much as me this week, Cooper sent him home from work three days because he was such a mess and he only went in four days.
Rachel stops what she’s saying and looks between the two of us. “Look, I could waffle on for an hour about what these results mean, but the long and the short of it is, as far as we can tell, your babies are fit and healthy. Go away and enjoy this pregnancy, enjoy being spoilt and treated like a princess Lauren, because believe me, you will have precious little time for yourself once they arrive.”
We leave her surgery in our little bubble of domesticity and head for the shops with ridiculously stupid grins on our faces. Gabe has his works Christmas do at some fancy club in the city tomorrow night and I have nothing to wear, nothing that fits how I want it to anyway. Amazingly, the very first shop I walk into on Main Street, I see exactly what I want, we are in my very favourite shop, it sells mostly second hand, retro and vintage high end clothing and I rarely come in here without buying something. The dress is cream silk, it has long sleeves that are split from the shoulder to the cuff, allowing my bare arms to be seen, it has a low square neckline, that should contain my every growing boobs and it’s shaped empire style from under my chest, I’m not worried about looking pregnant in it, because as soon as we get home today we will be telling everyone that matters to us our fantastic news, I try the dress on and it fits so perfectly that I don’t even bother stepping out of the dressing room to ask for Gabe’s opinion, which pisses him off no end and he whinges about continuously as we drive to Nina’s to pick up Ava for the weekend. Gabe has decided he wants to tell Nina face to face about the babies and not leave it to Ava to tell her when he drops her back Monday. By the time we pull up outside, Gabe’s hand is at his jaw.
“Why are you stressing?” I ask him, he moves his hand away from his jaw instantly. He knows that I know that’s his tell. He puts it back and rubs over his sexy stubble, raises one eyebrow as he looks at me and says, “Come on, you know what a bitch she can be.”
I shrug, “Then let her, I’m walking on air right now, there’s nothing she can say or do to harsh my mellow, let’s just tell her, grab Ava’s stuff and get out of there, it’s nearly time to get her from school anyway so we can’t hang around and listen to her crap. As much as I would love to.” I add sarcastically.
Nina pulls back the front door and looks from Gabe to me and back to Gabe again. “What do you want?” Charming.
“Can we come in? We just wanted a quick word before we collect Ava.”
Nina turns around and heads into her family room without saying another word, she leans against the bench top with her arms folded across her chest in a typically defensive stance; I can’t help but notice her eyes go from mine and Gabe’s joined hands to my left hand where my engagement ring is.
“If you’re going to tell me you can’t take her this weekend, tough, I’ve already made plans.”
Gabe frowns and shakes his head. The idea of not having Ava for the weekend is alien to him, he loves having his daughter stay, she would be living with us full-time if it were up to him.
I interrupt. “Look Nina, we’ve got some news to share with Ava and we just wanted you to know that we would be telling her over the weekend, well tonight actually so when she gets back here Monday, you’re already clued up.”
“What news? The wedding’s off? Couldn’t keep it in your pants again Gabe?”
I want to smack her right between her skinny eyes, on her skinny head, I feel my finger s flex and jaw tighten as I fight to get a grip, all that’s stopping me right now is the fact that it would cause one almighty shit storm of a custody fight for Gabe if she reported me to the police and pressed charges. I take a step back.