CECILY SAT IN the waiting room of the fancy doctor’s office on the Upper East Side, clasping Liam’s hand. The overhead lights shone on her large diamond engagement ring and wedding band, flashing bright white. She’d worn it to Paris and to London, and then eventually to Tokyo. She still couldn’t believe all the things they’d managed to do in so short a time. Her head was bursting with memories, her heart filled with love for her husband, and for all that they’d done together. This was more time than she’d ever thought she’d have, and every new day that dawned, brought her more gratitude.
“Mrs. Lange?” the medical technician, a woman with short dark hair wearing blue scrubs, called from the door, and Cecily started. Even now, she was still getting used to her new name. Liam squeezed her hand and they both stood, following the medical technician to the exam room.
“Nervous?” the woman asked her. She read her name tag: Aliyah Jennings.
“A little,” Cecily admitted.
“A lot,” Liam added, and they both laughed.
“My husband is always brutally honest, Ms. Jennings,” Cecily explained.
“Call me Aliyah, and I don’t mind at all. But y’all have nothing to worry about. This is the easy part.” She indicated the gurney in the room. “If you would, just take off your top and put on this.” She held up a short hospital gown. “With the ties in the front.”
Cecily glanced at the blue cloth shirt with the white ties and remembered all the times she’d been in hospital gowns over the last two years. The surgery in Tokyo, the recovery, and, then, the second surgery. Aliyah left the room and Liam shut the door. She tugged off her sweater, aware of the scar along her torso. Small, but there. The doctors had managed to get the cancer. She’d been cancer-free for more than a year. So far, that is. She’d have to have regular medical checkups maybe for the rest of her life to make sure the cancer didn’t come back.
“Need help?” Liam asked, moving toward her as she unlatched the back of her bra.
“Not your kind of help,” she teased, and he flashed her a wolfish grin. If he had his way, they’d be naked and doing it on the exam table in five seconds flat. Not exactly what the medical technician would expect, she thought.
“I can restrain myself,” Liam said, taking her lacy demi-cup bra as she slid into the gown, tying it at the front.
“Can you?” she asked, skeptical.
“Maybe,” he said, sliding a hand around her back and tugging her to him, laying a long, slow kiss on her lips.
A hard knock came at the door then. “Ready?” Aliyah called.
Reluctantly, Cecily broke the embrace. “Unfortunately, too ready,” Liam complained, rubbing the fly of his jeans. Cecily giggled, and gave him a playful slap on the arm.
“Ready,” Cecily said. The medical technician bustled in, smiling at them both.
“If you would, just go ahead and lie down on the gurney here,” Aliyah said. Cecily obeyed, and the technician undid the lower half of her gown, so that her belly was exposed. Cecily wondered about the white scar of her surgery, wondered if Aliyah noticed it. If she did, she didn’t say anything. Liam moved to her side, to hold her hand.
“Now, I’m just going to put some gel here on your belly,” Aliyah said as she spread the gel around Cecily’s torso. Then, she grabbed a wand and held it against Cecily’s belly. The medical technician flipped the ultrasound machine on and studied the monitor.
“What do you see?” Cecily asked, inwardly sending up a prayer.
“Well, this is unexpected,” Aliyah said, squinting at the monitor. Cecily grasped Liam’s hand tighter. Liam moved toward the screen.
“Is something wrong?” Bad news was what neither one of them wanted. Not after more than a year of being cancer-free. They desperately wanted good news. But, Cecily worried, had their good luck run out?
“Not wrong,” the medical tech said. She turned the screen toward both Liam and Cecily. “But did you know you were having twins?”
“What?” Cecily arched her neck and glanced at the screen. There, on the fuzzy ultrasound monitor, she saw two distinct babies, not one. They were small still, but she saw tiny hands and the shape of two distinct bodies.
“We are?” Liam’s joy came through in his voice.
“Looks like a boy and a girl,” Aliyah said, glancing at the fuzzy images. “So, congratulations, Mom and Dad, you’ve got a set, one of each.”
Cecily laughed. A boy and a girl. Liam beamed at her, and she grinned back.
“You wanted an instant family,” she told him.
“I did.” He almost seemed to be reeling from the news. “And now we’ve got one.”
“You okay with that?” Cecily asked, studying his face.
“More than okay with that,” Liam said, grinning at her. She saw the pure joy on his face, and his happiness was contagious. “I told you everything would work out. And you doubted me.”
“Is he always so cocky?” Aliyah joked.
“Always.” Cecily grinned at him, tears of joy in her eyes. “You were right, and I was wrong.”
“Can I have that put in writing?”
Aliyah shook her head. “You are pushing your luck, mister,” she warned him. “This lovely lady is carrying two of your babies.”
“And I couldn’t be happier about it,” Liam said.
“Then you’d better get over here and kiss me,” Cecily said, feeling one happy tear slip down her cheek. Liam wiped it away.
“You don’t have to ask me twice,” Liam said, and bent down to give her a kiss filled with love, promise and, most of all, hope for the future they’d share together—with their new family.
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