We dressed in silence the next morning, her nerves palpable in the penthouse. She asked Maksim to cover again as we loaded up and drove to a small practice on the outskirts of town.
We filed into the small brick building. The bushes and foliage around it made it appear like a little house. The lawn was well kept and the porch had baskets of petunias of all colors hanging from hooks in the roof.
The man that answered the door wasn’t the regular doc we saw. “You must be Katalina.” He held his hand out to her.
She stepped in and shook it. “You must be my OBGYN.”
“For now.” He chuckled. “I’m retired so I’m not technically going to deliver any baby you might have in there.”
“Let’s make sure there’s a baby first, no?” She raised her eyebrows and motioned at all of us. “They’re a little presumptuous.”
“Ah. I see. Can I get any of you a drink, and can I ask who you’d like in the room with you?”
She turned to look at Dante standing there with his arms crossed, Cade with a small smile on his face and a phone in his hand. Bastian leaned against the doorframe, one side of his mouth lifted like he was enjoying the show.
The woman, she smiled too like she knew just what button to press. “They can all come in if they want.”
“You are out of your fucking mind,” I growled.
“What? Don’t you all want to see the little thing?”
The doctor backed away, hands up, and said, “I’ll grab everyone waters and leave you to discuss. Cade, I assume this goes on the books as a visit and there’s insurance if anything happens.”
“As always, Doc.”
“No one’s going in that room with you except me.” I grabbed her elbow and steered her toward the couch so I could shove her down into the seat. I sat next to her and pulled her up against my side where she belonged.
“Oh, don’t be so damn conservative. It’s not like they haven’t seen a woman before.” She held a finger to her chin. “Well, actually, I’m pretty sure he has to stick a pretty big wand up me to figure this out.”
“I’m there,” Dante joked and Cade laughed.
“I’ll pass.” Bastian suddenly looked a little queasy.
“You?” I laughed at his squirming. “Of all people, I thought you’d be fine with it.”
“With an old man sticking something up you?” His nose scrunched up. “I’m good.”
“If it was a young man, would you feel better about it?”
“For fuck’s sake,” I said to myself. This was the shit I would be dealing with for the rest of my life. I knew it. “We’re trying to have a damn baby together. Me and her. You think that shit is something you say?”
“Rome, if you think for a second all these guys aren’t going to be privy to the shit I’m going through during this pregnancy, you got another thing coming.”
“We need to figure out how long you can keep working out,” said Dante.
“She can’t work out starting today,” I answered for everyone. The doctor didn’t need to give an answer to that.
“I can work out all the way through my pregnancy.” Katie rolled her eyes and completely ignored me.
The doctor walked in carrying a large ceramic tray of waters in his wrinkled hands. “I’m happy you’re optimistic about this, Katalina.”
He passed the glasses out, and we all mumbled thank yous, but none of us took sips. We weren’t easily trusting. He looked like Santa Claus, big and burly with rosy cheeks and a white beard. He could have looked like Jesus for all I cared. I didn’t trust anyone outside the family. It was a necessity to have him, and Cade had vetted him. I didn’t care. Even though I had to trust him to stick whatever the fuck he was going to into my girl’s body.
“You can potentially work out if there are no complications,” Dr. Santa Claus continued. “I’ll need blood work from each of you to test for any genetic complications, and we should figure out if you will want genetic testing which can identify abnormalities quickly.”
“Supposedly that gives us the sex of the baby too?” Katie asked, taking a big gulp of her water. She waggled her eyebrows at me as she did. That woman knew we were all treading lightly but she was throwing it in my face like she could read the man better than each and every one of us.
Maybe she could.