Bootscootin' and Cozy Cash Mysteries Boxed Set (Books 1-6)

by Scott, D. D.

  “I know, Baby, I know,” she answered him, running her hands through her hair like she did sometimes when she was uncomfortable and searching for solutions.

  Seeing her scrunch up her nose and make a funny face, probably after realizing it wasn’t her real hair her fingers had a hold of but rather the new red wig, made Damian’s heart pinch in a tight twist. He so wanted her to be able to live a life as herself. And it hurt worse watching her struggle to accept the fact that, at least for now, she couldn’t.

  He reached for her hand and held it tight against his chest, kissing her knuckles then kneading them to let her know he was there for her, hoping she now knew that he always would be. But just in case she doubted him, he planned to show her every day, forever more, that he would always be there to take care of her and their child, no matter what she looked like or what identity she’d had to assume.

  The door to the examining rooms opened, and in an odd way, even with the uncertainty lying in wait for them on the other side, crossing that threshold seemed a bit more comforting and reassuring than thinking about what kind of life their current future paved the path for.

  They stood up, and together, walked into a future that at least could be tested and shown to them on a thousand tiny screens and monitors.

  And when he’d been thinking of a thousand tests and screenings, he was so not off base.

  He followed Audrey and their nurse around the office for what seemed like endless data gathering. A marathon of a million questions, a million pieces of paper, and a ton of literature packs that they were supposed to read. And he’d thought reading that gigantic book on their Kindle was time-consuming. He’d never seen so much information. He thought this whole process was to take nine months, not nine years.

  As he held onto their vast pile-up of plastic bags stuffed with paper, Audrey went through a battery of tests, including blood work, a urinalysis, and a pap smear that he quickly learned he never wanted to watch again. Although seeing Audrey in those stirrup contraptions would probably be something he’d have to get used to. Ugggh.

  Damian sat in a chair right across from the end of Audrey’s exam table.

  Maybe next time he’d move his chair a bit.

  Seeing another man, even though he knew Dr. Gupta had spent a career lifetime looking at these things, just didn’t feel right. After already examining Audrey’s heart, lungs, and breasts — another area Damian cringed knowing someone else’s hands were on — the doc then took her blood pressure and checked her arms and legs for varicose veins and swelling.

  Now, he explained to them, he’d be examining her vagina, cervix and pelvic organs, further determining how far along in their pregnancy they were.

  Dr. Gupta placed one of his hands inside Audrey’s vagina, causing Damian to pay much more attention to the birthing posters on the exam room walls. Then, at the same time, the doc gently pressed Audrey’s abdominal area, assessing the size and shape of her pelvic region so he’d have a better idea of the structure their baby would eventually try to exit.

  With their doctor kind of mumbling to himself while he was doing all his poking and prodding, Damian did his best to keep his eyes on Audrey, noticing for the first time that he could recall, she seemed almost afraid.

  Even after all she’d been through with her handlers and identity changes and crazy paparazzi, he’d never seen her look this unsure of a situation.

  He smiled at her, then blew a soft kiss with his hands and winked, feeling a little relief relax his own concerns when she returned his smile. The fear and uncertainty were still there, but her sweet spirit, a kindness and zest for life he’d come to count on and thrive on, returned, even if only a bit.

  “Audrey’s blood hCG level is high. That’s the hormone in her body that says yeah you’re pregnant. Now this can be elevated and not mean anything unusual, but it can also mean a few other things. And I think, considering the over abundance of stress in your lives, plus factoring in your ages, I’d like to go ahead and do an early ultrasound,” Dr. Gupta said.

  Damian saw Audrey’s chest rise and fall as she took a deep breath. And he could feel his own breath catch a bit too. An ultrasound sounded like a good plan. Yeah. If Dr. G thought that was the way to go, that’s what they needed. Right. Right.

  Damian flipped through their pregnancy notebook, trying to remember what all they’d learned about that screening. His mind too scattered to find anything, and afraid he’d miss out on some part of the exam, he tossed the book onto the floor and came to stand next to Audrey as Dr. Gupta ordered.

  He listened as the doc explained how using sound waves, they could basically examine and see the fetus.

  Damian winced a bit. He just couldn’t get used to considering his child as some scientific name. That was his baby. Not just a fetus. That was his son or daughter.

  Dr. G explained that he was concerned, based on Audrey’s higher levels of hCG, coupled with her age, that those signs put them at a higher risk of Down syndrome. He said that by doing an ultrasound, he could measure some sort of fluid layer in the back of their baby’s neck which would tell him if their child had an increased risk of chromosomal abnormalities like Down syndrome or congenital heart defects.

  Damian felt his knees tremble and shake, almost to a point where he might need to sit down. He’d never told Audrey, so as not to worry her, but he was horribly scared at the prospect of their baby having these kinds of issues because of his old sperm and Audrey’s older eggs, although quite a bit younger than his swimmers.

  He stretched his hands and cracked a couple knuckles then took Audrey’s closest hand and held on tight.

  “Since we’re doing this ultrasound so early, I’ll need to place the transducer, that’s the name of the gadget that catches the sound waves, into your vagina, Audrey,” Dr. G said in the soft but all-knowing and confident tone Damian was learning to be quite comfortable with. “You won’t feel any pain, just a slight discomfort in your bladder area.

  “As the transducer records the echoes of sound waves bouncing off parts of your baby, this machine will translate those waves into the picture were viewing on this monitor.”

  Damian and Audrey followed Dr. G as he nodded his head toward the monitor.

  “Is that a heart beat?” Audrey asked, her eyes for the first time since she’d been in the exam room, filling with the sparkle Damian was so relieved to see back in place.

  “It is,” Dr. G said, a small, almost quirky grin starting to spread across his face. “But so is this.”

  “What? I’m not sure I follow you,” Audrey said, looking from Dr. G to Damian and then back to the screen.

  “Well, my dear, and Damian too,” Dr. Gupta said, shaking his head and smiling even bigger, “the proof is in the picture. First, let me assure you that I don’t see anything abnormal here, so at this time, no worries on any chromosomal or heart defects.”

  Damian and Audrey both let out a huge sigh of relief, almost instantaneously. And Damian squeezed her hand and was tickled to get her return squeeze. He stroked her hair, still not used to the whole wig thing.

  “The other reason I wanted to do this early ultrasound, based on the elevated hCG levels, however, was to determine whether or not we’re dealing with a multiple birth situation,” Dr. G said.

  “As in…,” Damian couldn’t get the word out of his mouth even though his mind knew exactly where the good doctor was headed. Damian had read that hCG level part in their book too.

  “We’re having twins?!” Audrey asked, although, semi-shouted was more like it.

  Evidently she’d also read that section, Damian thought, knowing he now needed to find that chair fast and use it, even if it was still aimed at Audrey’s vagina.

  “Twins indeed,” Dr. Gupta said. “Now we’ve got lots more to talk about.”

  Damian slumped into the chair, glad Dr. Gupta was done with Audrey’s cervix exam, and glad her legs were also back together and covered once more with the exam sheet.

  He bri
efly thought he’d kind of wished he’d kept the covers on in their bedroom a few weeks back too, then they wouldn’t be sitting here right now.

  Talk about seeing double.

  Damian saw stars alright. Forget having a baby. They were having Baker Ba-bies.

  He’d skipped that chapter of the pregnancy bible. Now, he’d be reading it as soon as they got home.

  Chapter Nine

  Luxury had been the primary substance of Audrey’s childhood. Certainly not love. But as she sat on their bathroom floor, her knees against the cold tile and her head hanging in the toilet, she was dealing with all new substances and certainly not feelin’ the love.

  Morning sickness was a bitch.

  And now that she and Damian were seein’ double on everything, it didn’t appear that would ease up any time soon.

  Damian, one damn fine man for even thinking about hanging around for this, but then not just thinking about it, but actually hanging tough right beside her, was amazing. Bless his heart, while he was busy trying to hold her hair back — her real hair — she kept wrestling with the porcelain God. Screw the wigs, she hadn’t had to wear one of those monstrosities for a few weeks now.

  Her handlers, well, she knew they were thrilled. Hell, she hardly left the toilet, let alone stepped out their front door.

  Dr. Gupta had warned them that because of the higher levels of hormones circulating her system due to their twins-in-the-making, her morning sickness would start earlier and last longer. And damn. There was no double your pleasure double your fun to be had with a having twins nightmare.

  Coupled with the other tummy problems she now had, namely heartburn, indigestion and constipation, she should just move into their bathroom.

  Just like their pregnancy bible said, she was on gastric overload. But how her stomach could be overloaded when she was constantly unloading from the front-end was a mystery.

  Done with the latest empty, she kept her head in the toilet while Damian got her a nice cold washcloth from the sink. He brushed her head, face and neck with the cool comfort of the cotton cloth.

  Audrey had never liked being members of a club. So her new rise to stardom in the Queasy Club was not settling well with her at all.

  “I think we got this round done, Baby,” Damian said, rinsing out the washcloth then helping Audrey to her feet. “Let’s get you onto the couch and your feet up.”

  At least a few times a day now, Audrey thanked her lucky-as-hell karma that Damian could be there for her as much as he was. They were fortunate to have a fabulous crew working for them to keep the construction company going while he took extra time off to take care of her plus work his ass off to finish their new home at the back of the property.

  He had wanted to work on the nursery design today, but so far, she hadn’t even made it to the table in his office where he had everything so wonderfully laid out for her to review.

  So what the hell was up with calling the nausea and vomiting Morning Sickness?!

  Morning sickness her ass.

  Her sickness lasted all day and sometimes reared its ugly self at night too. Their babies weren’t even the size of peas yet, and their mom couldn’t keep peas or anything else down.

  And while most moms-to-be got rid of this part of pregnancy by weeks twelve to fourteen, since she was having twins, Dr. G told her she might suffer from this sickness well into their third trimester.

  Oh God. Sooo not good.

  And so help her, if Roman or Zoey came in one more time, and with what Audrey swore was a wee bit too happy response to their check to see if she was still sick, she was going to let ‘em have it…projectile style.

  Yeah. Not very ladylike. But ladylike had left, and nasty ass huge hormones were firmly taking over the throne now reigning over her system and bodily functions.

  Poor Damian. Poor, poor Damian.

  He had her by the arms and was leading her to the sofa. Home sweet home to her lately.

  “How ‘bout some Naked Juice? You know you need to drink up,” Damian said, settling her into the plush pillows on the sofa and covering her with her favorite blanket.

  “Yeah. That would be good,” she said, needing something to get rid of the nasty taste in her mouth.

  “Be right back, Baby.”

  Damian left for the kitchen and her giant glass of green goddess nectar, her new favorite craving, thanks to Zoey’s recommendation.

  Never one, pre-pregnancy, for all-natural smoothies like Naked Juice, now that she was an expectant mom, Audrey downed ‘em like a champion. Sometimes she drank straight from the gross-colored green, swamp juice-looking jug. Not couth. But couth had gone down the toilet with most everything else.

  At least she was able to get vitamins and minerals via Naked Juice. It sure wasn’t staying put in solid form.

  And Damian sooo knew better than to let them run out of Naked Juice. In fact, she’d had to laugh when she saw him and the handlers return from the last trip to the local wholesale club with a case of the all-things-green elixir.

  Guess she had them convinced it was good for her, and thus good for all of them, to keep the frig well-stocked with swamp juice.

  Damian came back into the great room with her tumbler full of juice.

  She ran the edge of the glass under her nose like she used to do with a good wine, savoring the smell. Oh God. The thought of wine…just about made her sick.

  She quickly took a deep inhale, relaxing into the scent of the fruit and vegetable smoothie.

  Their pregnancy book said her nose would know. And it sure did. That was one of the few body parts working well.

  Every scent was now magnified like she couldn’t even imagine.

  Some days it felt as if she were walking into a gigantic candle emporium, which, actually, kinda made her sick even when she wasn’t pregnant. There were just too many scents overloading her circuits all at once in those shops.

  In fact, she and Damian had gone through the house and attempted to de-scent-sitize everything they could.

  If she couldn’t take the smell, the item was gone or at least put away so she wouldn’t be overcome by it…even remotely overcome by it.

  No more perfumes or colognes.

  No more hanging around in the kitchen while Jules and Cody whipped up something Audrey knew was fabulous tasting but couldn’t stand to be around because of the smell.

  No more candles…anywhere. And she used to love those soy-based country apple or pear scented jar candles. No more. They were gone too.

  They washed their clothes every day…no more maybe wearing something twice before laundering. The pregnancy book said, and Roxy confirmed, that fibers often held whatever smells they’d been around that day.

  For example, poor Damian had to strip to his skivvies in the cold garage because any of his construction sawdust, paint, or oily and greasy after effects did her in.

  So it was down to her sniffing Naked Juice to soothe her nose and her psyche.

  Audrey sipped her juice. Okay. So she alternated between sipping and chugging. The stuff just tasted so good. And its smooth texture coated her fire-roaring belly. Wouldn’t it be funny if their babies were born loving Naked Juice too?

  She yawned and tried to stretch out her body on the sofa without dumping her juice. Breathing in and out, letting the hormones have ample chance to escape, she thought about taking a nap. But that’s all she did. If she wasn’t next to the toilet, she was sleeping.

  Hearing Damian come back into the room, she pushed herself up on her side of the couch, giving him room to join her.

  Seeing that he’d brought in a box full of all the nursery ideas he’d so painstakingly set-up in his office for her to look at when she felt like it, she smiled.

  Her heart held then skipped a beat, hoping he wasn’t upset with her for never making it in to peruse what he’d worked so hard to gather up for her.

  “I thought, if you felt like it, maybe we could go through some of this stuff, and make a few decisions,” he s
aid, looking at her as if he hated to bother her but needed her to at least make an effort.

  Her heart squeezed again, seeing the hurt he’d never admit, but the hurt that was so clearly clouding his beautiful blue eyes. Eyes she would love if their children were blessed with.

  “Of course I want to see it, Baby,” she said, sitting up the rest of the way, but doing so a bit too quickly and burping. “Excuse me. Sorry about that. God I’m pregnant and a pig.”

  Damian laughed and shook his head. “You realize I’ll never again look at you the same way.”

  As soon as he’d said it, Audrey saw him jerk back and reassess how that had sounded. Yeah. Not so good was pretty much right.

  But she knew what he meant. And she also knew he’d never ever hurt her. And let’s face it. There’s probably only so many times you can hold your partners head over the toilet and still think of him or her in the sweet, innocent way you once did.

  “I sooo didn’t mean…”

  “No worries. I know what you meant. And you’re right. After this, we’re both going to be scarred forever,” she said, trying to make light of his innocent comment.

  “Not scarred. We’re going to be even closer than we are now,” he said, putting his arm around her and pulling her closer to him. “It is really terrific sharing all this with you. I want you to know that.”

  Audrey pulled back her head, tucking her chin into her neck in mock disbelief.

  “No, Baby, I’m serious. Sure I’m scared shitless. But I’m also getting more excited with every day that passes,” he said then laughed with that full, all-natural, nothing held back way she loved.

  “I’m very excited we’re closer to being out of morning sickness mode,” he said, his ornery eyes and smile, too cute to resist.

  “But I’m also excited to welcome our babies. And excited to show them, and you, our new home.”

  With that, he picked up a pile of magazine clippings and paint samples from out of the box. After handing the small pile to her, he then carefully unrolled a blueprint he’d done for their nursery.