The Truest Thing (Hart's Boardwalk 4)
“When I was seventeen. Car accident. I broke a few ribs.”
Jack’s chin jerked back in surprise. He hadn’t known about any car accident.
“Have you had any pain or problems with your ribs since?”
“No. Is it an issue?”
“No. But sometimes there can be stress on the ribs during pregnancy and I just want to make sure there are no underlying issues we need to know about.”
“Okay.” Em bit her lip.
Dr. Britt placed a reassuring hand on her arm. “It’s nothing to be concerned about.”
Jack tightened his grip on Em’s hand and she seemed to relax.
“Are you taking any medications?”
“Does copious amounts of caffeine count?” she joked, making Jack chuckle.
The doctor raised an eyebrow. “Yes. You’ll need to cut the caffeine intake. One cup a day at the very most.”
“I was joking. I knew that.” Em looked up at him solemnly. “I knew about the caffeine thing. I’ve been cutting back.”
Smiling and trying not to laugh at the same time, Jack wrapped an arm around her and pulled him into his chest. His tone was filled with humor. “I believe you, sunrise.”
“Any allergies to medication?”
“None that I know of.”
Dr. Britt asked a few more questions about Em’s family medical history. Whether she’d been experiencing any bleeding or cramping, which thankfully was a no.
“I see from the records your doctor sent over that you’ve already had all the tests for sexually transmitted infections done, so we’ll just take a blood sample and do some screens. I’ll explain what they’re all for as we go along.”
The reminder that Emery had Jess run STI tests was an unwelcome one. They needed to have a real conversation about that. But obviously now wasn’t the right moment.
Just as Em was beginning to look a little pale and tired, the real discussion started about … well, it felt like everything. They talked about what medications Em could take, things like prenatal vitamins and supplements, as well as exercise and expected weight gain. Emery asked questions about her diet, about who she should call if she had questions, what she should do if she did experience bleeding or cramping, what did the doc consider an emergency, what miscarriage precautions she could take, how the doctor felt about natural childbirth, what was the doctor’s policy on labor induction …
It went on and on, and Jack realized that for all his worries, Emery was carrying about a million more.
He was woefully un-fucking-prepared.
And he needed to do better.
Listening intently, attempting to retain every bit of information the doc gave them, Jack realized he had a lot of reading to do.
He didn’t want Emery shouldering the burden of these worries alone.
“I should buy some books,” he said after five very long minutes of silence as they walked out of the building.
“What?” She frowned in confusion.
“Books. I realized in there that I have no fucking clue about any of this. I need to do some reading.”
“I have books,” Em offered. “You can borrow those.”
“That would be great.” He studied her carefully as they stopped at his truck. “You doing okay?”
“Tired,” she admitted. “It was a lot of information. And I’m hungry. I only had a rice cracker this morning.”