“My sister knows?”
“Not about you. I went to see her on Monday to figure out why the hell I’ve been so sick. I haven’t been to an OB yet. My appointment is in Lawley tomorrow.”
“What time do we leave?” He’d cancel or reschedule whatever he had to.
“We?”
Mitch leaned in to cup her face, running a thumb along the arch of her cheek. “I’m in for this, Tess. One hundred percent. You’re not alone.”
After a long moment, she slid her arms around him, resting her cheek against his shoulder, but he could tell she didn’t quite believe him. He didn’t know yet how to make this easier on her. For now, he’d simply be there, every step of the way.
“You can keep your top on, but remove everything on the bottom and take this drape and have a seat on the exam table. Dr. Jenkins will be with you shortly.”
“I’ll just be over here.” Mitch sank into the visitor’s chair.
As soon as the door to the exam room shut, Tess scooped up the drape and slipped behind the curtain to change. She was acutely aware of Mitch on the other side. She couldn’t decide if it was better or worse to have him here. It was one thing to talk abstractly about the possibility of miscarriage. But somewhere in the midst of the eleven thousand questions about her medical history and his, she’d started to worry about what they’d find out on this visit. Whether this pregnancy was viable or not, it changed things between her and Mitch. There was no going back to the way things were before, and that scared her to death, making her wish she’d confirmed things for sure before bringing it up and bought them a little more time to be…just them.
Feeling self-conscious, Tess clutched the edges of the drape together like a wrap skirt and circled around to sit. The crinkle of paper and creak of vinyl was too loud in the exam room. Rearranging the drape across her lap, she was acutely aware of her bare butt against the paper. Really, nobody should have to face life-changing news without pants. She didn’t know what to say. Small talk hardly seemed appropriate right now. So she stewed in silence, thinking of her mother.
What had she felt in this moment? Was she scared? Angry? Had she been excited, despite the less than auspicious circumstances of her pregnancy? Tess realized she didn’t even know if her dad had been at that appointment, if he’d even known about her yet. She definitely hadn’t been planned. They’d already been on the verge of breaking up. And then Tess had come along and they’d gotten married instead because Mom came from a good Catholic family and her dad had an iron-clad sense of duty. And now here she was, twenty-six years later, as history repeated itself. Like mother like daughter.
Her chest went tight.
The scrape of the chair had her looking up. Mitch dragged it beside the exam table and sat again, reaching over to fold the hands she’d been wringing in his.
“Look at me.”
She lifted her head to meet his clear, steady gaze.
“Everything is going to be fine.” His tone held conviction and maybe a promise.
Tess wanted to relax, wanted to trust him. But she couldn’t let go of the fear. What if it’s not?
The door opened and the doctor came in. A petite African American woman, with short, natural hair, shot through with gray, and fathomless dark eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses, Gloria Jenkins radiated calm. Tess felt like maybe she’d seen everything in her thirty years of practice and would know what to do. She really wanted somebody who knew better to tell her what to do.
They made introductions all around.
“This is your first child?”
Tess found she couldn’t actually speak, so she just nodded.
“Okay. The initial tests look good. I’ll get through the physical exam as quickly as possible, and then we’ll do an ultrasound to verify how far along you are.”
“Do you want me to step out?” Mitch asked.
Did she? This was a weirdly intimate thing. And yet there was no part of her body he hadn’t seen before. If he let go of her hand, she might start freaking out again. Tess shook her head, and he squeezed her fingers.
She scooted to the end of the exam table and stared up at the ceiling. It wasn’t much different from her annual gynecological check-up, except for the fact that Mitch was here. He watched her face, not what was going on down by the stirrups. Ever the gentleman.
“We should start talking about names,” he said.
“Names?”
“Sure. I’m partial to Delbert Bodine for a boy and Orpha Louise for a girl.”
Tess stared at him in horror. “If you’re serious, Mitch Campbell, I’m walking away from you right now, pants be damned. You can’t be trusted.”
He cracked a grin, the corners of his eyes crinkling. That smile did something to her, unraveling some of the knots of tension.