WMIS 01.5 Under The Mistletoe With Me (8 page)

“Nice to
meet you. Okay, have a seat, the doctor will be right with you.”

“This
place gives me the heebs,” Brynna remarks after the nurse leaves. She shivers
and looks at a plastic vagina. “What the fuck do they put these things out here
for, anyway? I don’t want to see a plastic model of the jay-jay.”

“It’s to
scare us into not having sex anymore.”

“It’s
working.”

There’s a
brief knock on the door, startling Brynna and then the door swings open, and my
handsome doctor, Dr. Delicious Wilson briskly walks in the room.

“Thanks
for coming in, Stacy.”

“Sure.
This is my cousin Brynna.”

“Brynna.”
He automatically shakes her hand, not looking up from the chart in his hand. Bryn
catches my eye, her own big brown eyes wide and mouths,
Holy shit!

I know!
I respond.

“So,
Stacy, I know we discussed yesterday that the headaches are most likely due to
stress, and not related to the minor gestational diabetes that you had in the
latter part of your pregnancy.”

“Right,” I
nod.

“And that
may still very well be the case because your labs are perfectly normal in
regards to your blood sugars.”

“Good.” I
smile and drape my handbag over my shoulder, expecting to leave with the
results of my test.

“However,”
he continues and I halt my movements. “You’re pregnant.”

“The
fuck?” Brynna mutters and then breaks out into hysterical giggles.

Chapter
Nine

I stare at
Delicious for a few seconds, my mouth gaping, my eyes wide, and then Brynna’s
giggles break through the fog surrounding my brain.

“I’m
sorry, what did you say?”

“You’re
pregnant.”

And just
like that, just as the giggles were under control, Brynna lets loose again.

“Has she
been drinking?” the doctor asks.

“No. This
is just crazy. You might want to double check those lab results, doc. I’m not
pregnant.”

“Uh, yeah,
you are.”

I’m
stunned. I blink at him.

“Only you,
Stacy.” Brynna takes a deep breath and wipes a tear from her eye. “Only you
would struggle through infertility treatments for three years, finally have a
baby, and then get pregnant again right away without even trying.”

“I’ve seen
it before,” Doc responds. “Sometimes a woman’s system sort of ‘resets’ itself
after a pregnancy, and she’s able to get pregnant right way.”

Huh.

“When was
your last menstrual cycle?” he asks.

“I don’t
remember. Probably before I got pregnant with Sophie. I just thought my
hormones hadn’t leveled out from the pregnancy yet.”

“So you
probably got pregnant a couple months ago.”

“Tahiti?”
Brynna mutters.

Tahiti.

“Shit,
I’ve had alcohol! I wasn’t breast feeding Soph, so I’ve had drinks here and
there since Tahiti.”

“More than
a few on a daily basis?” he asks.

“No, more
like a few a month.”

“You’re
fine,” he smiles reassuringly. “You know the drill. Call your OB and set up an
ultrasound and consult.”

“So,
everything else is okay?” I ask.

“Yep,
you’re great. Best of luck to you.”

I stare at
Brynna for a minute, my mouth opening and shutting like a fish out of water.

“Lunch,”
she says and takes my hand, pulling me out of the office. What is it with
everyone pulling me all over the place lately?

“I have to
take my groceries home and get Sophie.”

“We’ll
take your groceries home, put away the perishables, and then go to lunch. Your
mom is enjoying Sophie.”

“Okay.”

“Can you
drive?”

“Yeah,
why?”

“Because
you’re trying to unlock your car with your lip gloss rather than your key fob.”

I look
down at the lip gloss in my hand. “Shit.”

“I’ll
drive, we’ll leave my car here, and I’ll have my dad come get it later.”

“Okay.”

“How do
you feel?” she asks as we pull in the driveway. I’m still staring numbly ahead
in shock.

“Not
pregnant.”

“Come on,
let’s do this so we can go.”

We quickly
unload the bags of groceries from the car to the kitchen and stow all the food
that belongs in the freezer or fridge away, and before I know it, we’re back in
the car and pulling into a nearby Mexican restaurant.

“We’re
getting margaritas.” She grins over at me. “We’ll make yours a virgin.”

“Fuck, no
alcohol for another year.”

We’re
seated and I greedily dig into the warm basket of tortilla chips and salsa.

“Nothing
wrong with your appetite,” Brynna states dryly.

“Shut up.”
I eat two more chips and take a sip of my virgin margarita. “This is no
margarita.”

“So…”
Brynna lifts an eyebrow expectantly.

“So what?”

“Don’t be
stubborn. Talk.” She takes a bite of a chip and a long sip of her slutty
margarita and smiles smugly.

“I hate
you right now.”

“No you
don’t.” She waves me off with a flick of the wrist. “How do you feel about the
baby?”

“Oh,
Sophie’s great. She’s so funny, she just giggles all the time. Here, I’ve got a
video on my phone I want to show you…” I look up into Brynna’s wide brown eyes.
“What?”

“Stace,
are you having a seizure? Do I have to take you back to Dr. Delectable?”

“He’s Dr.
Delicious.”

“Whatever,
I’ll take you back to Dr. Sex-on-a-stick if I need to. You do remember that
tid-bit about you being preggers, right?”

“Oh.” I
sit back in the seat, a chip hanging limply between my fingers. “Yeah.”

“Right.”

“I’m
pregnant.” I say the words again in my brain, letting them sit there and
percolate. “Without meds, or shots in the hip, or being told, month after
month, that it didn’t work.”

Holy
shit.

“What do
you think Isaac will say?” she asks.

I flinch.
“Well, coincidentally, we talked about this a few weeks ago. We were gonna wait
to have more, but I’m quite sure he’ll be happy once the shock wears off.” I
shrug. Yes, Isaac will be great. We’d planned to have a whole houseful of children
when we first got married.

“Oh, God.”
I swallow another chip and take a sip of water.

“What?”
Brynna asks.

“I’m going
to have two babies under eighteen months old. Two babies in diapers. Two
babies…”

Her
eyebrows are raised and she’s grinning. “I wouldn’t know what that’s like at
all.”

“Damn, I
was not expecting this.” I laugh and take a deep breath. “Sophie’s gonna be a
big sister.”

“How are
you going to tell him?”

“Oh, I
don’t know. It should be something fun.” I clap my hands excitedly.

“I know!
Christmas is just a few days away.”

“I like
where you’re going with this.” I sip my margarita impostor and lean forward,
listening intently.

“Okay, I
saw this on that pinning board online. Have you seen that site?”

“I’m
addicted to that site.” I waste many, many hours on that site.

“Here’s
what you’re going to do:  call Natalie first. Then…”

***

“How was
your day?” Isaac asks and pulls me in for a kiss. He’s just come in from work,
and brought Italian with him, God love him.

“It was a
good day,” I smile to myself and jump up and down in my head. “Pretty
standard.”

“Anything
new happen?”

You
have no fucking idea, babe.

“Not
really.” I shrug and kiss him chastely and then start pulling Styrofoam boxes
of delicious food out of a brown paper bag. Isaac walks into the kitchen for
plates and silverware and pulls down two wine goblets and a bottle of Merlot.

Shit.

“No wine
for me, Eyes,” I say as nonchalantly as possible.

“You sure?
I know you love this with the chicken parmesan.” He frowns and tilts his head.
“Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m
fine,” I wave him off and dish up our plates, smiling over at Sophie who is
sitting in her bouncy seat on the table, blowing raspberries and playing with
her feet.

“No more
headaches?” he asks and returns the wine and goblets to the kitchen, bringing
us each a bottle of water instead.

“No, not
in a couple days.” I grin at him. “Definitely no headache tonight.” I wiggle my
eyebrows, making him chuckle and doing my best to distract him from talking too
much about my day.

“Did the
doctor call with the results of yesterday’s tests?” he asks and takes a bite of
salad.

So much
for that.

“Yeah,
everything’s fine.” I can’t look him in the eye now. I hate lying to him, even
if it’s to surprise him. And this is a
big
deal, and I’m so excited!
Maybe I should tell him…

“So, the
headaches were probably from stress then?” he asks, looking thoughtful while he
chews.

“That’s
what the doctor thinks.” I take a sip of water and dig back into my saucy
pasta. God, it’s good.

“I know
you’ve had a lot on your plate, Stace. Maybe you should take a break from the
blog for a while.”

Huh?

“Why would
I do that?” I ask with a frown.

“Because
you obviously have a lot going on, with Sophie and Brynna being home and
everything.” He shrugs like this makes perfect sense to him.

“I love my
blog. I love to read. The authors depend on me to help them promote their
books, and write reviews, and I don’t want to take a break from it.”

“I’m not
saying you should give it up altogether. Maybe just slow down. It takes up a
lot of your time.”

“Are you
saying that you don’t want me to keep doing the blog, Isaac?” I put my
silverware down and stare at him. He’s never voiced this to me before. He’s
always seemed to be so proud of me.

What the
hell?

“No,” he
frowns at me. “Jesus, I’m not an asshole. If you love it, keep doing it. The
doctor said your headaches are caused by stress, and I’m just trying to think
of ways to reduce your stress.”

And I’m
deliberately trying to start a fight. Great way to reduce stress. I take
another drink of water and pull in a deep breath.

“Well, I
don’t think the blog is stressing me out,” I reply calmly.

“Okay.” He
finishes his pasta and pushes his plate away, watching me closely. “Is anything
else going on?”

I shake my
head and purse my lips. “No.”

He tilts
his head, those ice-blue eyes watching me closely. “If you say so.”

“Did your
mom call you today?” I ask, changing the subject as I rise and clear the table.

“No,
what’s up?” He stands to help me and we make quick work of tossing the take-out
boxes and loading the dishwasher.

“We’re
having Christmas Eve dinner at Luke and Nat’s this year, since they have a
bigger living space for all of us.” I turn around and lean against the kitchen
counter, and smile as Isaac lifts Sophie from her bouncy seat and kisses her
little cheek, whispering in her ear, making her giggle.

He is
such a good dad.
I have to grip the countertops at either side of my hips
so I don’t unconsciously rub my hand over my stomach.

The
Montgomery’s usually all gather together for both Christmas Eve and Christmas
Day, but we exchange gifts on Christmas Eve, and I’m so damn glad because I
don’t think I could wait another twelve hours this year.

Not to
mention, this way the three of us can have our own private Christmas morning
here in our home together.

“Oh, okay.
That works. Are you and I exchanging presents there or are we going to wait until
Christmas morning here?” He nibbles on Sophie’s fingers, making her laugh some
more. “Should we make mommy wait for her Christmas presents, peach?”

“I’d like
to give you one gift there, and we can do the rest here the next morning,” I
murmur and his eyes find mine, his head tilting again in thought at the tone of
my voice.

“Are you
sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine,
don’t be a nag, dear,” I reply sarcastically.

“See,
there’s that mouth again. Santa can still return all those prettily wrapped
presents under the tree, babe.”

I grin
sweetly. “I love you.” I bat my eyelashes playfully and Isaac laughs, causing
Sophie to laugh too.

“Mommy
pretends to be a good girl, but she’s naughty, Soph. Don’t let her fool you.”
He kisses her cheek again and smiles over at me. “Come here.”

“What?”

“Just come
here.”

I walk
over to my two favorite people and he drapes an arm around me, plants his hand
at the small of my back and pulls me in for a kiss.

“This is
the best Christmas present, right here,” he whispers against my mouth. “Just
being with my girls.”

Oh, I
think that what I have for you comes close.
I grin up at him and kiss
Sophie’s soft cheek.

“It’s
going to be a great Christmas,” I murmur.

Epilogue

I squeeze
Stacy’s small, smooth hand in mine and kiss her fingers before I leave her with
Sophie and join Caleb by the Christmas tree. I nudge my brother’s shoulder and
offer him a beer and follow his gaze up the tall evergreen parked in Luke and
Nat’s living room.

“Dude, who
decorated this tree?” Caleb asks Luke, looking up at the tallest Christmas tree
any of us have ever seen in a private home. Luke and Nat went all out on the
décor; the huge tree climbs all the way to the cathedral ceiling, and is
brightly lit with multi-colored lights and draped in bulbs and garland and
tinsel. It’s massive. Lights are hung outside as well, and garland with white
lights is draped around the entire living space.