Blocked Shot

by Amber Lynn

  Curtis kissed her head and held her a little tighter. She felt safe in his arms, even if she was scared to death.

  “Thank you all for coming to this somewhat impromptu party. I know there have been lots of questions as to why Brady decided to throw a party in the middle of the day, on a Wednesday no less. I told him we didn’t need anything special, but a lot of you know how he is when he gets an idea.”

  “Get on with it,” someone hollered. “We’ve heard enough from Brady today to last us a lifetime.”

  “Okay, okay. I’ll make this as short and sweet as I can. As everyone here knows, I asked this wonderful, beautiful, intelligent woman to be my wife a couple months ago, and about an hour ago, she made my dreams come true.”

  Brady took the mike back and smacked Curtis roughly on the shoulder. The repercussion actually trickled through to Hannah.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re making your wife there uncomfortable, so we’ll stop you from going too overboard with the gushing. You guys heard him, right? Our little Curtis and Hannah got hitched, and even though my signature’s on the paperwork, they tell me it’s official. So, let me introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Curtis Power.”

  There was a short moment when Hannah thought maybe it didn’t register or make sense, but after a few seconds, the clapping started. Then the hooting and hollering got underway. They were in a room with at least two dozen hockey players, so one could imagine the ribbing being yelled out.

  Amongst it all, Curtis turned Hannah to face him and bent down to give her a quick kiss. There were kids in the crowd, so he kept it moderately PG.

  “He stopped me from saying how much I love you.”

  Hannah shook her head. “No, I heard you loud and clear.”

  Chapter 28

  There were quite a few times in Curtis’ life when he thought he hadn’t been more nervous. He’d gone through at least five of them since the night of his tenth high school reunion. A new moment was quickly being added as he waited for the first sonogram of his and Hannah’s first child.

  Their appointment was early in the day, but somehow the doctor was already behind schedule and they weren’t called back until fifteen minutes after their appointment. If that wasn’t bad enough, being called back mainly meant going through a bazillion health questions, only to wait longer.

  Curtis liked to think he was patient, but there was only so much he could take. He wanted verification that his baby existed and he wanted to know whether she had red hair. The latter probably wasn’t going to be shared that day, but it wasn’t going to stop him from asking the doctor once she had a picture of the baby on the screen.

  “So, morning sickness and some tender breasts, anything else you’re concerned about?”

  Hannah was laid out on the exam table with the doctor standing over her as she asked the question. Curtis had been offered a chair, but he stood, hunched over, opposite from where the doctor stood.

  “Nothing I can think of. Everything else has seemed pretty normal, right?”

  Smiling at Curtis, Hannah looked to him as if he had a say in the answer. He was hyper-aware of everything going on with Hannah and her body, but he couldn’t say if there were other pregnancy symptoms. Her moods were steady and her libido hadn’t changed. There was one thing that had, but Hannah didn’t like mentioning it.

  “You do seem to have the weirdest food cravings. It started out with her all of sudden liking onions, but it’s expanded to her pretty much liking onions on everything, even caramelized onions mixed in with her ice cream.”

  Hannah scowled quickly before returning the smile to her face. He’d probably get scolded for bringing it up, but it was her own fault for looking to him. It didn’t make sense that she got all disgruntled about her cravings, even if the ice cream thing was weird. She’d asked for it just the night before. At first, Curtis had assumed she was joking, but come round three of their sexscapade, she was demanding food.

  “Really? I have a patient who started craving snails, so onions are a little mundane.”

  “Please don’t give him ideas. I’ve hated onions since I was a girl, so it’s a little unnerving to start asking for them on everything.”

  The doctor smiled and laughed quietly. She seemed nice enough, even though she’d made them wait forever. Curtis was saving judgment until they got to the sonogram part.

  “So you think it’s a boy, or are you referring to me not giving your husband ideas about new things to try to feed you?”

  Curtis wanted to jump in and offer his opinion, but he let Hannah run things. He wished the doctor would stop with the twenty questions and get down to business.

  “I’m calling the baby a boy because I’m the only girl among five siblings and he’s an only child,” Hannah said, nodding her head towards him. “He thinks it’s going to be a girl for some reason. I think that would be a miracle.”

  “Shall we see if we can tell anything at this point? You think you’re around nine weeks, which usually won’t tell us much, but we might get lucky and the stars will be lined up just right.”

  Screaming yes seemed uncalled for, so Curtis kept his mouth shut. After all the questions and drawing blood and such to test for things hopefully meant to just give Curtis an anxiety attack, he was ready for some answers.

  “I’m pretty sure that if you don’t give my husband some kind of visual confirmation that our child is in there, he’s going to grab the machine and figure out a way to do it himself.”

  Hannah knew him way too well. Curtis figured he’d watched enough movies with sonograms in them that he could perform the basics. Turn the machine on, put some jelly stuff on the little wand and then search around for the baby. It seemed simple enough.

  “I’m used to anxious fathers, which is why I always lock the machine.”

  She turned her back to them as she messed around with said machine. Curtis didn’t see anything that screamed it was a lock screen, so he assumed she was joking. It didn’t matter, she was touching the machine and that meant the show was about to start.

  He squeezed Hannah’s hand tighter and helped her roll her t-shirt up. The doctor hadn’t asked for it yet, but anything they could do to speed things up, Curtis was there and ready to help.

  His hand lingered on her stomach. He swore he could feel the slightest bump in her normally flat stomach. Hannah didn’t believe him, and since the first time he’d mentioned it coincided with the onion ice cream incident, she wasn’t in the mood to let him convince her.

  “Okay,” the doctor said as she turned around. “Clearly, I don’t have to ask you to lift your shirt, but you will have to move your hand.”

  Curtis hurried to follow directions. It was quickly replaced with the wand, pre-jellied and ready to go. He saw Hannah take a deep breath and hold it in, while he did the same. He wanted to hear their baby’s heartbeat without too many external noises polluting it.

  “Hmm.”

  The doctor didn’t make any other noises or say anything. She just hummed softly. If the next noise hadn’t been the swooshing sound Curtis knew was a heartbeat, he would’ve demanded more information immediately.

  “It looks like you’re in the ballpark for growth here. I know you were talking about what sex you thought the baby was, would you like to know?”

  “You can tell?”

  There was clear surprise in Hannah’s voice. Curtis’ eyes had been glued to the screen, and he had no idea what he saw. A lot of dark grayish stuff filled the screen, with lighter shapes in the middle.

  “Sort of, and to explain that answer, I need you to say yes or no.”

  Hannah looked to Curtis, as if she needed to ask what his choice would be. He just widened his eyes more and glanced back at the screen.

  “Yes,” Hannah whispered.

  Curtis didn’t know how she could keep the excitement in. He’d been prepared to hear they wouldn’t know the sex until at least the next appointment. There had even been some fear that the baby would spoil all the fun and never
be in the right position.

  “Things are really just developing in that area, but I think I can say with pretty high certainty that this here tells me this little one is a boy.”

  She pointed at a spot, making Curtis lean over Hannah to try to get a clearer look. No matter how he squinted his eyes, he couldn’t make out anything that looked like male genitalia.

  The doctor moved the wand and the heartbeat stopped for a second before starting back up. It sounded different, though. The flutter sounded a little lighter, which caused Curtis to instantly worry.

  “No matter what you said about the sex, I would’ve explained my initial reaction when I looked at the sonogram. I thought maybe your timing was off because the quick blood test we ran showed higher levels of the hormones that indicate pregnancy and I’m seeing a slight rounding to your stomach that I didn’t think was normal for your body type and how far along you are.”

  Curtis nudged Hannah to make sure she was listening. The doctor had barely looked at her stomach, so he was surprised she’d noticed. It felt good to know he wasn’t hallucinating.

  He wasn’t sure he liked the doctor’s bedside manner. First there was the hum, and she was talking about something being off, yet she didn’t sound worried. Hannah had been sure they’d gotten pregnant after dinner with her parents. There had been times before that they may have slipped, but he trusted she had a pretty good handle on that stuff.

  “This here,” the doctor said pointing at the screen again, “is a second baby. I can’t exactly make out whether it’s a boy or girl yet, but it looks just as healthy as what I believe is your boy.”

  Staring at the screen, Curtis took in the words and again tried to make out what the doctor was showing them on the screen. She’d said there were two babies, right? Curtis had to ask himself, because he wasn’t sure if that’s what she said or not.

  He was pretty sure she kept saying he was going to have a son. The initial news that it was a boy and not a girl wasn’t hard to stomach. He teased that he wanted a girl, and he wasn’t going to stop trying for one, but a healthy child was his main priority.

  “Did you just say we’re having twins?”

  It was Hannah who asked the question. Curtis was still too confused to string words together. The screen was mesmerizing him as he tried to make out the different babies and their body parts.

  “That’s exactly what I said. Baby two is turned, so we’ll have to see if we can tell the sex next time, but for now, I see two healthy children.”

  The wand was taken away from Hannah’s stomach. The image and sounds disappeared with the motion. Curtis filled the absence by looking to his wife. He already felt teary, and it didn’t help that Hannah had tears streaking down her face.

  She was staring at him. He wasn’t sure what to say or if his mouth could move. He proved his head and neck were at least capable as he leaned down and brushed his nose against hers.

  “We’re having two babies,” she whispered.

  “That’s the rumor. I told you your belly was swelling.”

  “Why don’t you go ahead and wipe your stomach off. I’d like to schedule your next appointment four weeks from now.”

  Curtis wanted to remain in the moment with his wife, but evidently the doctor had other things to do. He took the offered tissue before Hannah could and used it to follow the doctor’s instruction. There was less jelly than he’d thought there’d be. It was still kind of messy, though, and he liked being the one to clean it up.

  Taking care of Hannah was easily one of his favorite things to do. He couldn’t wait for her to get deeper in the pregnancy and hopefully need him even more.

  “I’m guessing we talk to one of the people up front about figuring out a time?” Hannah asked.

  She propped herself up on her elbows to get a look at what Curtis was doing. The jelly was all taken care of, but he couldn’t get enough of the touch of her soft skin under his fingertips.

  “Yup, they’ll get you all set. Congratulations, you two. I know first-time parents often feel like the task ahead is daunting, especially when those parents hear they’re having twins. Remember to take time to relax and I’d suggest enrolling in some classes if you haven’t already.”

  “Shouldn’t we wait until we’re past the first trimester for that?”

  Curtis agreed with Hannah. If they weren’t telling people about the babies yet, he didn’t think it was a good idea to start going to classes and such.

  “I’ve looked at a lot of babies this early in a pregnancy, and granted things can happen that can’t be explained, but everything looks really good to me. I don’t think three weeks will make a difference in you two preparing to welcome your children. You obviously have plenty of time to get everything in order. I’ve just seen it fly by while people wait for certain milestones before doing things.”

  “You’re guaranteeing we’re not going to lose the babies?”

  It wasn’t something Curtis liked to think about, but he couldn’t help it. He’d read over the stats a million times and prayed they’d be on the side of everything going smoothly.

  “I can’t guarantee anything. I wish I could, but I have seen unexplainable things happen. They’re rare, so I wouldn’t worry about them. Everything indicates you’re a very healthy woman and your children are just as healthy. I have to go see my next patient, but if you have any questions or concerns, call the office and I’ll get them answered for you.”

  The woman didn’t know what she was offering there at the end. Curtis came up with new questions almost every day. He usually hit the internet to find his answers, but a real-life doctor was probably a little more accurate.

  “Thanks, Doctor Wallace, we’ll let you know if anything comes up.”

  Hannah sat up as she smiled and thanked the doctor, taking away Curtis’ ability to rub her belly. She straightened her shirt and rotated towards Curtis to get off the exam table. The doctor didn’t waste any time exiting the room, so Curtis held Hannah in place. They were alone and he wasn’t ready to run off about their day.

  “We’re having babies,” Curtis whispered.

  He was still letting that revelation process. He’d been so excited about the one that he hadn’t considered there’d be two. Twins didn’t run in either of their families as far as he knew, so it was unexpected news.

  “And at least one of them is probably a boy. I’m hoping that the other is a girl now. I’d resigned myself to raising one little hellion. I don’t know if I can handle two.”

  Curtis laughed and leaned in to kiss her forehead. He let his face linger next to hers as he rubbed it against her cheek.

  “You can handle anything, because you are going to be a super mom. I’ll get you a cape and everything, so you better get your order for color in early. I’m with you on the girl, though. I’ll be happy either way, but I still want a little you.”

  “It would only be fair, since I’m going to have a little you.” Hannah pushed him back so she could stand. “What are your thoughts on the doctor’s advice to go ahead and start planning for the babies in earnest? I kind of still want to wait for the first trimester to be over.”

  “I’m fine keeping it mostly our secret for as long as you want. We’ll just have to make sure no one else notices the onion thing, and any other cravings you decide need to be tried.”

  It’d be even better if Nina hadn’t found out, but so far she’d been able to keep her lips sealed. After the reception the day before, it was pretty clear she was going to have her hands full with Brady for a little while.

  “That should be easy enough. We just won’t invite anyone over and I won’t leave the house for the next three weeks. That should do it.”

  Other than the fact he wanted her to come to games with him, Curtis was perfectly fine with that plan. Her friends at the games weren’t close enough to notice weird new habits, so he was fairly certain they could make it work. Her work could all be done from home, so there was nothing blocking her if she really wanted
to never leave the house.

  “I have a feeling you’re going to want to have some outside contact. Now that I know there are two babies, I have to up my game to make sure they are both getting plenty of my love.”

  Hannah rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand, dragging him to the door. She didn’t need to drag him. Even before they said their vows, Curtis would’ve willingly followed her into a fire. The woman was still a puzzle at times, but he figured they had at least sixty, maybe seventy, years for him to try to figure her out.

  About the Author

  Amber has always had a passion for the written word. Along with that, she’s always had ideas for stories swimming around in her head. It finally got to the point where she couldn’t take it anymore and had to start getting her thoughts down on paper. There are still too many ideas, but she is working to get them out as fast as she can. Her hope is that one day her brain will be hers again.

  Other hobbies of Amber’s include: drawing, baking, arts and crafts, motorcycles, hockey and archery. She likes to think she has eclectic tastes where her hobbies are concerned. She loves to laugh and tries to make herself smile at least once a day. With the crazy thoughts going on in her head that usually isn't hard.

  Follow Amber on social media

  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AmberLynn00

  Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amberlynnbooks

  Blog: http://amberlynnsbooks.blogspot.com

  Other books by Amber Lynn:

  Delay of Game

  Too Many Men

  Splitting the Defense

  Five for Fighting

  Game Misconduct

  Blue Lines

  Empty Net

  Top Shelf

  Dropped Gloves