Part 2 (1/2)

I nod again and hold out my left hand, letting the gorgeous custom designed engagement ring speak for itself. This makes Dr. Qi burst into a big grin. ”I am so happy for you!” he says, and it feels like a huge weight has been lifted from the room. I know he wasn't trying to feel sorry for me, but he did anyhow.

I somehow manage to find my voice. ”Jace had to work today and he was supposed to be here but I'm thinking he got held up.”

”That's too bad,” he says.

After what is a super uncomfortable and totally awkward examination by my doctor, they move me into another room with the ultrasound technician. She's a woman barely older than I am and she smells like vanilla perfume and Skittles. She introduces herself as Jessica and she doesn't even mention how I'm alone or how I'm a teenager. For some reason, the simple act of not judging me makes me want to talk to her and explain myself. Yet when people do judge me, all I can do is sit there quietly and wish they'd go away.

”My fiance couldn't make it today because of work,” I say, watching her squirt a bottle of warm clear goo on my stomach. ”I'm really annoyed that I have to be here alone.”

”Totally,” she says. ”At least he's just working. Some guys are way too squeamish and refuse to look at the ultrasounds.”

”Seriously? It's just a grainy photo on a computer screen...it's not like you're going to cut me open and poke at my organs.”

This makes her laugh. She presses the ultrasound wand thing to my stomach and moves it around. Almost instantly I can hear a fuzzy thumping sound, rapid like a hummingbird's wings. ”There's your heartbeat,” she says. I close my eyes and listen to the sound of another human's heart beating inside my body. It is a beautiful, crazy, amazing sound.

And then it's interrupted by the heavy knocking on the door. ”What the h.e.l.l?” Jessica hisses. ”I'm so sorry,” she says to me as she storms to the door of the room and opens it just an inch. She immediately berates the person at the door and I'm grateful for it. Whoever chose to knock during my special moment should be chastised. Then to my horror, she swings the door wide open.

And Jace rushes inside.

”Jace!” In my excitement, I almost jump off the table but then I remember that my pants are pulled down a few inches and my stomach is covered in goo and disposable paper towels. So I throw my arms up instead and he finds his way into them, leaning over me carefully to avoid my stomach. He smells like exhaust fumes and sweat, but he's here. I hold him tightly to me, kissing his cheek before I let him go. ”Sorry I'm late,” he says.

”You better be sorry.” I narrow my eyes at him but I can't hold onto an angry expression for very long. I'm so overwhelmed with happiness that he showed up, and there's no way I could be mad at him.

Jessica takes up the ultrasound wand again and places it on my stomach. I'm just about to tell Jace about the rude woman in the waiting room and how I wish he could have been there to make me look better, when Jessica makes a curious sound. Her eyes squint as she stops moving the thing on my stomach, holding it precisely in place while peers at the computer screen.

”What is it?” I ask, my voice dry and panicky. Oh G.o.d, she's found something wrong with my baby. I grab Jace's arm. Jessica looks at me and then at Jace and starts laughing.

”No, no,” she says, rolling her eyes. ”There's nothing to worry about. It's just...” She turns the flat screen monitor toward us and points to the black and white image of our baby. My heart leaps into my throat. There on the screen, is a tiny baby hand. Jessica points to it with the computer mouse. ”See there? Your baby looks like it's making a peace sign. There's a fist with two fingers open.” She clicks something and the computer prints out a still image of the baby's hand. ”I just thought it was cute. Your baby might be a hippie!”

”Nah,” Jace says, squeezing my hand. ”You know what that is?” He makes the same peace-sign shape with his hand, only he holds it out in front of him with his palm facing down. ”That's a two finger clutch move. He's clutching an imaginary dirt bike.”

Of course Jace would think about dirt bikes instead of peace signs. Motocross is his entire world, besides me. Jessica lifts an eyebrow. ”He?”

Jace shrugs sheepishly. ”Well, I was just guessing.”

”Would you two like to know the s.e.x of the baby?” Jessica asks.

I look at Jace, expecting to see him nodding impatiently. We've already talked about this and h.e.l.l yes we want to know the baby's s.e.x. But when I look away from the ultrasound screen, I don't see Jace looking excited like I had expected. He's...he's crying.

”Babe?” I ask.

He swallows and blinks back his tears. ”Yes, Bay?”

”Are you okay?” I ask.

He nods. ”Yep. I just...there's a baby in there.” He runs a hand through his hair and looks at me like I'm the only person in the world. And for a moment, I feel like that's true. ”I mean I knew there was a baby in there, but now I see it. It just hit me that I'm going to be a dad and that this is real and...” He sighs and a single tear rolls down his cheek. ”I don't know, I'm just really happy with my life right now.”

”Aww,” Jessica croons. She fans herself with one hand. ”So what will it be, Dad? Do you want to know your baby's s.e.x?”

Jace glances at me for confirmation. Now I'm the one nodding impatiently. He gives Jessica the go ahead and she points to another place on the monitor. ”Okay Mom and Dad... you guys are having a little boy.”

Chapter 5.

The next twenty four hours are one of the most amazing times of my life. They're amazing not because of what we do, but because of what we don't do. Jace doesn't go to work, I don't do any house work or baby planning or wedding planning. We don't talk about the future and we don't mention anything stressful for the entire day.

Here's what we do: Sleep in until noon, cuddle and talk about our favorite memories over the last year, make love, sleep some more, order pizza and watch movies.

It is a glorious day of relaxation. I have never been so in love.

And then, just like that, the sun rises again the next morning and Jace is up at the b.u.t.t-crack of dawn. He tries so hard to be quiet as he tiptoes around our bedroom, trying to get dressed and brush his teeth without waking me up. But it never works. The moment he crawls out of our bed, I wake up instantly. It's like my body knows when he's not near me, no matter how long I've been sleeping.

Jace slips into the closet and searches for clothes to wear by the light of his cell phone. I yawn and stretch my arms above my head, twisting and sprawling until I'm taking up the entire bed. Jace's pillow smells like him so I nuzzle against it until the ache of wanting him right next to me becomes overwhelming.

”You're weird,” he teases as he pads across the room in his bare feet. I look up from the pillow just in time to see him pull off the s.h.i.+rt he slept in and toss it at my head. It covers my eyes, blinding me but I don't mind one bit because the s.h.i.+rt smells like him. Like boy and body wash and home.

”So are you,” I tease back as I roll over and squeeze his s.h.i.+rt to my chest. ”You're the weirdest.”

He leans over me on the bed, bracing himself against the headboard as he kisses the top of my head. ”I love you,” he says. ”Try to have some fun today.”

”How could I possibly have fun when you're going to be gone all day?” It's Thursday and Thursdays are Jace's busiest training day. He's usually giving lessons at the track until eight or nine at night. I used to go with him but ever since the morning sickness set in, I've been staying home more and more, trading in the bleachers for my bed. Today will definitely be one of those days.

”Do I know your schedule better than you do?” Jace says, poking me in the nose. I swat his hand away and think about his question. ”What do you mean? I don't have a schedule...I'm just a fat preggo with no job and no school until after this kid is born.”

”You are so not fat,” he says, leaning over and kissing me on the forehead and then the lips. ”But you're wrong. Becca is coming over today. It says it on your online calendar. It's a good thing we started using that thing because now one of us can remember stuff.”

”Is it Friday already?” I practically jump out of bed with excitement before I remember how early it is and fall back down into the soft mattress. I rub my eyes and admire Jace's ridiculously hot backside as he pulls on a Mixon Motocross Park s.h.i.+rt and then buckles his black leather belt.

I let out a squeal of excitement. ”Oh my G.o.d, I'm so excited to see her.”

I can't believe it's finally Friday and my best friend is coming to spend the weekend with us. Becca and I grew up as best friends in my hometown. But now she lives an hour away since I moved to Mixon with Jace, so now our friends.h.i.+p is mostly texts, Facebook posts and the random meet up at a mall that's halfway between both of our houses.

”I love you,” Jace says. Right about now, I realize he's been talking for the last few seconds but I wasn't paying attention to any of it. I was trying to remember all the things Becca and I planned to do in the emails we exchanged while planning for this weekend. ”I love you, too.” I say quickly. I grab his hand and pull him back onto the bed with me and kiss him like I'll never see him again. He smiles and trails a hand down my cheek. ”I gotta go, babe. You get some more sleep and call me when you wake up.”

The apartment is so boring when Jace is at work and I'm pacing around like a weirdo, anxious and excited for my best friend to get here. According to my online calendar, which I checked because I was too embarra.s.sed to call Becca and ask because then she'd know I forgot, Becca is supposed to get here around ten in the morning. We planned a big day of wedding planning, gossip, and eating junk food.

I'm getting a start on the day by baking half a dozen apple turnovers, using my mom's recipe. They're actually so easy to make that a kid could do it, but Jace and Becca practically wors.h.i.+p me when I make them, so I keep the recipe a secret in order to preserve my perceived baking skills.

While they're in the oven making the kitchen smell amazing, I start making a dish of seven layer dip for us to snack on after lunch. It always tastes better if it's made in advance and refrigerated for a few hours, but I'm so tempted to eat it now. Stupid pregnancy cravings.

We call it seven layer dip because it started out having seven layers when my mom used to make it for holidays and parties. But she included things like salsa, jalapenos and these weird yellow peppers that Becca and I can't eat no matter how hard we tried. When we were old enough, we dove into the kitchen unsupervised and created the greatest layered chip dip known to man: a bottom layer of refried beans, a thin layer of grated cheesesharp cheddar, hand grated only, another layer of thinly sliced avocados, then sour cream, then more cheese, then a final top layer of sliced black olives. So it's technically six layers but sometimes we add extra cheese layers to make a legit seven layer dip.