Intrigue

We walked out of the bedroom hand in hand. There were three people in the living room and they all meant a lot to me. The first was my friend Ryan. We had grown up next door to each other and had been friends basically since birth. I gave him a hug and also gave his sister Megan a hug as well. I hadn’t seen her in three or four years and she had really grown up. The other guy was my friend Dan. We had been friends throughout peewee hockey. It was really nice to see all three of them.

I introduced Alex to all of them and we sat on the deck for a while, us guys drinking a beer and talking. “Brent we so should go to the bar tomorrow night.” Megan said to me and I readily agreed.

“Sounds good, we have a doctor’s appointment in the morning but that is all we have planned for tomorrow. Alex is pregnant so we are still trying to figure out things to do but I’m sure Alex won’t mind taking one for the team.” She looked up and smiled at me.

“I would hope not. Just because her summer is ruined doesn’t mean yours should be.” Megan said and I could feel Alex’s blood start to boil. Ryan threw her a death glare and she quickly squeaked out “sorry”.

We talked for a while before they left and we went and laid down for the night. “Well Megan is just a sweetheart huh.” She still seemed pretty upset about the comment.

“Aww babe, she is just young. She is only twenty-three. All she does is party. She doesn’t know any better.” Alex never said anything else and I figured she had let it go. I knew she had fallen asleep by her breathing.

We got up early today, knowing we had the appointment. My mom was watching Madi, feeding her breakfast when we left. Alex was so shaken up she was almost pale. We left the house and arrived at the doctor my mom had recommended in minutes. After filling out paperwork, we were shown into a room to wait for the doctor.

He came in smiling, introducing himself as Dr. Carson. He looked about fifty or so and was very energetic. “So Ms. Soon to be Seabrook” he said and we both laughed. “What is going on?” he asked and she explained about the miscarriage and taking the test and the positive result. “Ok, let’s do an ultrasound then. That should confirm it for us.” He said, taking a wand looking thing out of the drawer.

I nearly passed out when I realized it was an internal ultrasound. She looked relaxed and barely gripped my hand when he inserted the ultrasound inside of her. Within seconds, an image appeared on the screen. “See that flickering.” He pointed to a spot on the screen. We both nodded. “That is your baby’s heartbeat.” I took a deep breath and looked at Alex who didn’t even attempt to hold back the tears.

She cleaned up and we spoke to the doctor for like an hour in his office. He explained he didn’t think Alexa needed to worry but he did want her to take it easy and not stress. She appeared to be eight weeks pregnant, which surprised her as she thought she had only missed one period. He also explained to us that miscarriages tended not to happen as much after the twelfth week. She seemed calmer as we were leaving the office.

I pulled her into my chest and she smiled at me. “So you ready to go home and be bombarded with questions. You know my mom is going to freak out and be so excited.” I asked and she just kissed me softly.

We walked through the door at my mom’s house. Keith was laying on sofa hung over. “Yo dude, you ready for another niece or nephew?” I asked him and flung a pillow at his head. He jumped up.

“That’s awesome, better be a freaking boy Brent. When do you find out?” He asked throwing the pillow back.

“Not until the end of June. I’m going to go crazy until then.” I said as my mom gave us hugs and congratulated us. We sat down and ate the breakfast my mom had made while we were gone. I had to laugh. My mom babied us like we were all little kids. She had even made our plates complete with condiments and all. She knew how each of us ate the food. I ate it with ketchup, salt and pepper and so did Keith. Alex did only pepper. She made Alex’s toast with strawberry jam, mine was plain and Keith’s with grape jelly.

“So how are you know going to occupy yourselves this summer. Water sports are out. Snorkeling, all that stuff. You shouldn’t really be sunbathing for long periods of time either.” My mom asked. I just groaned.

“Alex, you are taking away all our fun babe.” I said and she laughed.

“I have to work a few days a week anyway. Besides, I’m taking away my fun, not yours. You can still do all that stuff.” I gave her a hug and Madi walked towards us.

“Hug” she yelled and threw her hands up in the air at Alex and I. I picked her up and she planted a big kiss on Alexa’s nose. “Mommy, paint” she said showing Alex her nails that needed to be re-painted. Alex went into the bedroom and grabbed a bottle of pink polish. Madi climbed right on her lap and stuck her nails out. I was really hoping for a boy. I could see how close her and Madi had gotten.

While Alex and Madi were playing salon, I sat with my mom on the back deck. “So you excited son? Another baby is a big responsibility.” She said quietly.

“Yeah, I’m nervous. I missed a lot with Madi because of the season. I just feel bad because I know Alex gets stuck with her all of the time and I get a lot of free time. With two it will be that much harder.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “I’m scared mom. Scared I won’t be a good dad because I am gone too much, scared Alex will eventually resent me for her giving up her career.”

My mom just hugged me. “Son, everything will work out honey. It’s normal to be scared and Alex is a good mom, just look at them.” I looked in the window and had to smile, Madi was painting Alex’s fingers a horrible shade of red and Alex was all smiles. Maybe things would all work out.

Notes

Second thoughts ?