MARCH

It has been three weeks since Valentine’s Day and I am not sure that the high of telling Wes that we were going to have a baby has worn off at all. I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous to tell him. I know that things with Annabelle’s mother didn’t go as planned and part of me worried that he’d hold that grudge towards me, thinking that I was going to give him another baby out of wedlock.

Instead, he was the most excited I have ever seen him about anything and it makes me fall in love with him all over again. For the last three weeks, we have kept the secret between us, well almost just us. I did tell Stacy because she is my best friend and I couldn’t keep it from her. Other than Stacy though, we haven’t said anything to anybody.

Today we’re heading to my OB in Waldorf and afterward, we plan on telling everybody about the baby. Betsy is going to be on cloud nine as she is already excited about Jimmy and Tiff’s new addition who should be here any day. Wes stayed at my place last night since he wasn’t going to work on the ranch today. He told his parents I had a doctor’s appointment that I couldn’t drive myself to. I think they just assume it had to do with the accident soon. Regardless, they didn’t ask any other questions.

Wes pokes his head into the bathroom as I get out of the shower. “Hey, darling. I made you breakfast when you’re ready.”

“You made breakfast?”

“Don’t be so surprised, I’m a man of many talents.” He sneaks up behind me and kisses the back of my neck. “Just like last night.”

I swat at him, just be dodges out of the way. “Pervert.”

“Love you.”

“Uh-huh, sure.”

I get dressed in a maxi style dress with a denim jacket and make my way out to the kitchen where I see him standing at the toaster with waffles.

“Oh hey! Here you go, love.” Wes hand me a plate of waffles.

“You made frozen waffles?”

“I did, what’s your point?”

“Oh, I don’t have one. I love you.” I reach up and kiss him on his cheek.

I dig into the plate of waffles when a thought comes over me. “Wait, I didn’t have frozen waffles.”

“I ran to the market when you were in the shower.”

“All of this for me?” I tease him and he looks back at me with a joking scowl.

“Your sarcasm is noted, princess. Now eat something so we can get going.”

“Yes sir.”

After cleaning up from breakfast, I grab my purse and follow Wes downstairs to his truck. He opens the door for me and I use the side handle to pull myself into the truck with an extra groan. “Are you okay, Holls? Was that too hard?”

“Calm down, daddy, I’m just fine.” I rub my belly, “Although in a few months I doubt I’m going to be able to do this.”

“I already thought about that.” He shuts the door and comes around to his side and hops up into the driver’s seat.

“Thought about what?” I ask him when he gets into the driver’s seat.

“I talked to Tyler and he’s going to order those step bars to put on my truck. It should help a lot.”

“You told Tyler about the baby?”

“What? No! I just said that with Annabelle getting to the point where she likes to buckle herself in that it would be nice if she could get up herself.”

“Oh,” I take a deep breath, “that makes sense actually.”

“I know, right?”

We begin our drive to Waldorf and I notice that Wes’s leg is bouncing up and down. I reach over and place my hand on his thigh. “Hey, you nervous?”

“Maybe a bit.’ He says just a few words and then shuts down again.

“Wes, babe, talk to me.”

“I just...I missed all of this with Annabelle and I don’t know what to expect with all of this pregnancy stuff. I didn’t realize how worried I was going to be about things.”

“I for one am glad that you are here for every bit of this adventure with me. I wouldn’t want to do this with anybody else.”

“Me neither, darling. Me neither.”

I have a lot of paperwork to fill out when we get to the doctor’s office. I’ve been to this one for my yearly exams, but I guess it is a totally different monster when you’re pregnant. They even want Wes to go get his blood drawn. He’s not happy about that, but when I read the pamphlet that explained why, he was ready to leave right then and get it done. About twenty minutes after finishing the paperwork, a young woman calls me into the back room. There is an exam table facing two large monitors and the ultrasound machine.

“Your doctor will be in soon. She’s going to try and do an abdominal scan, but she may need to do a vaginal one if it is too soon. So if you want to remove your underwear and put on this sheet and gown, that way she’ll be able to do whichever.”

I take the items from the nurse and smile, “Thank you.”

She smiles back at both of us, “You’re welcome! Congrats mom and dad.”

The nurse leaves the room and I slip off my panties and tuck them into my purse. Wes has a horrified look on his face. “What’s wrong?”

“What the hell is a vaginal ultrasound?”

I point to the large probe that is on the ultrasound cart. “That thing. I knew this might happen after reading some stuff online. I just wanted to be prepared.”

“And they put that...up there?” He winces.

“Yes, dear. Are you jealous?”

“Pssh, it may have length, but I’ve got the girth and you never complain about.”

I roll my eyes and shake my head at his dirty talk. Right then the doctor comes in and shakes our hands.

“Hello, Holly. It is nice to see you again,” she says in a cheery voice.

“Hi Dr. Neil. This is my boyfriend Wes Brown.”

“Good to meet you, Wes. I’m glad you could join us for this appointment.”

“I wouldn’t miss this for anything.”

Dr. Neil puts some gel on my stomach and uses the abdominal probe to scan across my stomach. After a moment she turns on the large monitor and I see a lot of black, but within a white circle, I see a little thing that looks like a lizard almost.

“Is that?” I gasp, unable to finish the sentence without beginning to tear up.

“That’s your baby.,” Dr. Neil finishes the sentence for me.

Wes has a hold of my hand, but he squeezes a little tighter. Dr. Neil turns on the sound and we hear a little thumping sound come through the speakers.

“And that is a strong heartbeat.”

I can’t take my eyes off of the monitor, but I can hear Wes sniffle and I know he’s crying. I can’t say anything as I have tears falling down my cheek as well. He wipes them with his thumb and kisses my cheek. “That’s our baby, Holly. We did that.”

“He or she is totally perfect.”

Dr. Neil prints out a few pictures and even promises to send the video to my email so I can have it to look at a few times. She goes over some general pregnant “rules” with me. She said that it looks like I’m about 12 weeks, so just entering the second trimester. Thankfully, I didn’t have any morning sickness. I did have that one time on the drive home from Fargo, but it easily could have been motion sickness too.

I get cleaned up and slip my underwear back on and we go to check out and make our next appointment Wes’s phone rings and he steps outside to answer it while I make my appointment. I’m just finishing up when Wes comes back in with a huge smile on his face.

“Are you ready?”

I take his outstretched hand, “Yeah, what’s up?”

“We need to go.”

“Where?”

“The hospital. That was Jimmy, the baby is going to be here soon!”

I gasp in excitement and quickly say goodbye to the receptionist. We hurry to the truck so we can drive to the other side of town where the hospital is. This is so amazing. We get a family member today and I get to tell everybody about ours!.