Sawyer sat back in his seat and looked around. He’d never been in a gynecologist’s office before. There were big posters on the walls with drawings that reminded him of fifth grade health class, and the exam table had handles coming out the ends like a motorcycle. “What are these?” he asked.
Kat rolled her eyes. “Stirrups.”
“Like for a horse?”
“Not exactly, but my feet do go in them. It’s for the...exam.”
Oh. Yeah, he’d definitely never been in one of these offices before. Or given much thought to what actually happened in them.
He was second-guessing his decision to crash the appointment when a quick rap at the door disrupted their conversation, and a shorter man in a white lab coat rushed in. “Hey, everyone, how’s it going today?”
“Hey, Dr. Wheeler.”
He shook Kat’s hand and turned around to face Sawyer. “Dad? Friend? Moral support?”
“All of the above,” he said.
“Okay, great,” Dr. Wheeler said without missing a beat. He sat down on his little rolling stool and flipped open the medical file he’d come in with. “So the results on all the tests from your initial appointment look normal. No concerns there. Are you taking your prenatal vitamins?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Any problems so far? Nausea? Tenderness? Spotting?” The doctor stood up and guided Kat back onto the table. Sawyer heard her respond, but at that point he checked out. He hadn’t fully comprehended what he was walking into today and realized now that he didn’t want to see the man behind the curtain, so to speak.
He let his gaze drop to his lap and tried not to think about what that man was doing to Kat. The next thing he knew the lights were dimming in the room and the doctor was spraying gel across Kat’s bare stomach.
“We’re going to take some pictures and I’m going to try to get a heartbeat on the Doppler. Hopefully we can get a good look at the little guy today.”
“It’s a boy?” Sawyer asked, perking up from his stupor.
The doctor smiled and shook his head. “We actually haven’t talked about that yet. I do have a preliminary result from the NIPT test, if you would like to know. It’s 90 percent accurate, but I wouldn’t go painting any rooms until after we do the gender confirmation ultrasound at twenty weeks. Maybe we can see something today, but that depends on the baby and how cooperative she or he is feeling.”
“I would like to know the test results,” Kat said.
“Sure thing.” The doctor picked up the folder and flipped to a page filled with lab results numbers. “Well, it looks to me like you guys should be expecting a little girl.”
Kat brought her hand up to her mouth to stifle a soft cry. Sawyer wanted to rush to her side and share in the excitement, but it felt like intruding on someone else’s moment. It wasn’t his baby or his news, despite what he’d told them in the lobby earlier.
“My sisters are going to be thrilled,” he said instead, with a reassuring nod to Kat. “And Mom and Grandma Ingrid, too. Once you know for certain you’re going to be smothered in a sea of ruffled, pink baby clothes.”
Kat laughed and he saw a shimmer of happy tears in her green eyes. He reached out and took her hand, squeezing it gently. He might not be the father, but until Finn got home, he would do what he could to support her through this.
Her gaze met his and she smiled. “Thank you for being here,” she said. “I didn’t realize I didn’t want to be alone for this moment until right now.”
He squeezed her hand again and they both turned their attention to the grainy image on the monitor. Dr. Wheeler moved the wand back and forth across her stomach while he searched the darkness for the tiny baby inside.
“Here we go. Hello, precious one.”
Sawyer narrowed his gaze at the monitor, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Then suddenly the profile of the baby came into focus and he felt the emotion of the moment hit him like a punch to his midsection.
He could see every little detail of her face, her little nose and mouth, and her hands balled up in front of her. He could see the curve of her spine and her legs drawn up to her tummy. The beating of her heart was visible, although they couldn’t quite hear it over the static.
The doctor hit the keyboard repeatedly, capturing shot after shot of the baby, and then moving the wand to a different location for a new angle. At one point, he pointed out something completely indiscernible and said, “I’d say this is a girl for sure.” He typed it on the screen, pointing out some blurry spots, and printed out another image. “You can go ahead and paint.”
Then the doctor focused on the tiny fluttering heart on the screen and suddenly the room was filled with the rapid wub-wub sound of the baby’s heartbeat.
Through it all, Sawyer held Kat’s hand, fully enthralled in the moment as though this was his little girl on the screen, whose heartbeat he was hearing for the first time. His brother had screwed up a lot in his life, but Sawyer couldn’t help but feel this wasn’t just Finn’s latest mistake. This might be the first thing Finn had gotten right.
He also felt an incredible sense of jealousy. He had no right to, really. I wasn’t as though he’d been pining for a family of his own—far from it, actually. But somehow knowing that a simple twist of fate had put this woman in Finn’s path instead of his own bothered him.