Itried to smile at his attempt to ease my worry. “I really hope you're right.”
Click.
“Youfelt him move?”
Inodded. “Yeah, a little bit.”
“See?That's a good thing.”
Click.
“Girlfriend,you'regonnapass this shit with flying colors.”
Ilaughed, shaking my head. “I just can't get rid of this feeling that somethingisn't right. It's just … Idunno, I feel likesomething isreally wrong. I feel like the baby is—”
“Hey,so how have you been doing lately? I mean, besides all of,” he waved a hand inmy direction, “you know, this.”
“Well,I, uh,” I shrugged and clicked the button again, “I did my glucose test lastweek.”
“Oh,shit, I remember Krystal telling me about that one and how she puked all overthe place when she had to drink that crap. How did you do?”
Imanaged to smile, as my anxiety settled just a little to a more manageablelevel. “It really wasn't that bad. Everybody had horror stories for me, but Idunno. Ikindaliked it.”
“That'sbecauseyou'rebadass. Krystal, though,” he laughed, shaking his head.“There'snothin' badass about that woman. She's laidup for a week if she stubs herfreakin' toe.”
Click.
“You’venever really talked about her before.”
Heshrugged, lifting the corner of his mouth in an easy smile. “Nothin' much to say. We knew each other in high school,dated for a few months before graduation, then broke up when I found out I'd begoin' to Iraq—”
“Wait,why did you go to Iraq?”
“Itold you I was in the Army,” he answered without hesitation.
“Oh,right, I remember you saying something about that. But you didn’t tell me youwent to Iraq. You were in combat?”
Click.
Henodded in reply, then said, “Like I've always told you, everybody'shidin'somethin'.”
Suddenlyrealizing just how little I knew about this man, and just how little thatseemed to matter, I nodded, not knowing what else to say.
“Anyway,”he continued, clasping his hands between his knees, “after I came home, we gotback together, got married, and got pregnant. A few months later, we weredivorced, and I was in rehab, trying to get my shit together. Now, we're reallygood friends who happen to share a pretty awesome daughter.”
“Youdon't think you'll ever get back together?”
Click.
Hepursed his lips and shook his head. “Nah. Some people are just better offnot being romantically involved,you know? That was me andKrystal. We were never a great—”
“Okay,Kendall, let's have a look,” the nurse said, announcing her return to the room.
Sheheaded toward the machine the monitor was attached to and quickly scanned thestream of paper that had draped itself over the table and onto the floor. I watchedas her forehead crumpled and listened as she muttered a quick and unhappy,“hm,” before running out the door in a hurry without another word.
Myheart raced inside my tightening chest. “Oh, God,” I groaned, as I clicked thebutton again. “Something's wrong. I told you, something is—”
“Hey,you haven't guessed why they call me Goose in a while,” he cut me off, leaningcloser to my feet.
