The Heart's Game (The Kelly Brothers, Book 4) (17 page)

“Maybe the case ran over,” Jason suggested.

She shook her head and hoisted her legs up. “He’s not coming.”

“I’m sorry, Jenny,” Mike said, holding her brother’s hand and reminding her of how a loving couple should be. “I thought I’d gotten through to him yesterday.”

“I underestimated how proud he could be.” She reclined against the pillows and lifted her tunic to expose her bump as the technician came in. “But please, don’t worry about me. This day is for you two. Let’s find out what you’re having.”

She tried to keep her voice cheerful, even though she was on the verge of bawling. She had a love–hate relationship with this baby. Even though it was the reason why Dan had left her—just like she’d known he would from the beginning—she still was reluctant to let go of it. It was Mike and Jason’s child, but it was still hers, too. And every kick reminded her that she would have to give it up to them once it was born.

Only after today, it wouldn’t be an “it.” They’d know the baby’s gender, making it all the more real. Soon, she’d start referring to the baby as he or she. Mike and Jason might even decide on a name today, and she would become even more attached to it. Bitterness rose into her throat. This should be her baby, not theirs. She possessively braced her hands on the sides of her belly and wondered why she’d agreed to do this in the first place.

But once she saw excitement on their faces, her anger faded. She could let go—for them.

“Hi, I’m Susie,” the tech said in a cheerful voice. “You must be Jenny.” She squirted the warm gel over Jenny’s stomach. “And which one of you is the father?”

“We both are,” Mike said, looking down adoringly at his husband.

Susie’s eyes widened, and her mouth bobbed while she tried to find something to say.

For the past five months, Jenny had dreaded this type of reaction, but now that she’d come face to face with it, it was easy to say, “I’m the auntie surrogate.”

The tech’s brows drew together for a few seconds before it dawned on her. “Oh, I see. Well, then, let’s see how this baby’s doing. You can see what I see on the TV over there.”

Jason and Mike stood in front of it, their attention fully focused on the blank sixty-inch screen. Their excitement helped dull her pain. At least she wouldn’t be able to see anything with them blocking her view.

Just as Susie placed the transducer to Jenny’s stomach, the door opened, and Dan’s shadow stretched across the darkened room. “Am I too late?” he asked.

Her pulse quickened, but she couldn’t force her tongue to work. He was here.

And if he was, did that mean he forgave her?

“Just in time,” Mike answered.

“Good.” Dan gave the men a curt nod of acknowledgment and then sat down in the chair beside the bed. He was still dressed in scrubs with a blue surgical cap covering his hair like he’d just run over from the operating room. He took her hand in his and placed a kiss in her palm, his gaze never leaving her face. “Today was more complicated than I’d first thought. I’m sorry.”

Even though he appeared to be apologizing for the ultrasound, his expression said more. The plea in his eyes, the softness of his mouth, the tender way he cradled her hand in his. He was apologizing for everything that had happened over the last few days.

Unshed tears stung her eyes. Relief flooded her, followed by a sense of peace. Having Dan by her side would make today and the rest of the pregnancy easier to bear. She might not be able to keep the baby, but she had him. “If anyone should be apologizing, it’s me.”

“Shh.” He brushed a strand of hair out of her face and tilted his head toward her brother and Mike. “We can talk about this later. Let’s not hold things up any longer.”

A series of images flashed on the screen as Susie ran the transducer over Jenny’s stomach. Shadows moved and swayed in a confusing jumble of white and gray. Then Susie stilled and twisted the transducer.

A profile came into focus.

“Oh my God, look at his little nose,” Jason said, pointing to the screen.

Jenny’s throat tightened as she looked on her baby’s face. For weeks, she’d barely believed there was another person inside her, but once she saw the face, it became real.

A glance out of the corner of her eye told her Dan felt the same way. He stared at the screen, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down, his face drawn with an unreadable emotion. She squeezed his hand, and he turned away and gave her a weak smile. He didn’t have to say what he was feeling. She saw the flicker of grief in his eyes. For weeks, he’d thought this baby was his, and he was still coming to terms with the loss.

Susie typed with one hand and clicked her mouse. The printer at the bottom of the stand sputtered to life and spat out a long sheet of paper. “Okay, we have some baby pictures here. Now, do we want to know the sex?”

“Absolutely,” Jason answered. “We have a meeting with the interior decorator tomorrow to finalize the color scheme of the nursery.”

Dan’s lips twitched in amusement, and he placed another kiss on her hand. He was probably relieved he wouldn’t have to find a bigger place and prepare a room for the baby like he’d talked about on Friday.

Susie moved the transducer further down, pausing a second to purse her lips and frown before continuing on. “Here are the legs. Let’s see if baby wants to cooperate with us.”

She rotated the device around and clicked a button, freezing the image. Then she drew an arrow to the cleft and typed, “It’s a girl!”

Mike sank into the nearest chair, his dark skin ashen. He ran his hand over his face in an uncharacteristic show of fear. “A girl?”

“I’ll be fine, Mike.” Jason gave his husband a reassuring hug. “Think about this way—we don’t have to explain liking girls to her.”

“Unless she’s gay,” Mike replied with a half laugh. He puffed out his cheeks and blew the air out. “Oh, mama. We’re having a girl.”

“Speaking of mamas, we should probably call ours and give the good news.” Jason pulled Mike back up to his feet. “Let’s go out to the waiting room so we don’t distract Susie from her work.”

“I’ll take some more pics along the way, but you’ve already seen the exciting stuff,” she said before turning off the TV and focusing on her monitor. Her smile seemed forced as they left, and it faded once she moved the ultrasound to the spot she’d paused at before.

A trickle of fear wormed up Jenny’s spine. Something was wrong.

Dan let go of her hand and rose from the chair, moving behind Susie. He stared at the screen, his hand covering his mouth while she snapped more images and typed a few words here and there.

The minutes ticked by in silence, each one multiplying the dread swirling inside Jenny’s stomach. How could the baby who had seemed so alive and perfect moments before have something wrong with it? Dozens of scenarios entered her mind, each one worse than the one before it. Finally, she found the courage to ask, “What is it?”

Both Dan and Susie snapped their heads to her, then at each other. An unspoken conversation passed between them that ended when Jason and Mike came back into the room.

“Did we miss anything?” Mike asked, clearly over his initial shock on learning he was having a daughter.

“Dan?” she asked.

The atmosphere in the room chilled, and Dan backed away from the ultrasound machine. “I’m not an OB or a radiologist.”

“But you see something, don’t you?” Jenny propped herself up on her elbows. “There’s something wrong with the baby.”

“I didn’t say that.” He took a few more steps toward the door and turned to Mike and Jason. “It’s not my area of expertise.”

Impatience lit with the fear brewing her chest and exploded. “Tell me, Dan.”

He looked one more time at the two lawyers in the room and shook his head. “I can’t.”

Mike nodded solemnly and placed his hand on Jason’s shoulder. “What he means is that from a medical–legal standpoint, it’s something beyond his training where he could be held accountable if he’s wrong.”

Dan pressed his lips together as though he wanted to tell him what he saw but was forcing himself not to speak. He looked down at the ground and took another step back.

“Damn it, Dan, I don’t care!” She sat up and jumped off the bed, pushing Susie out of her way. “Tell me.”

A stony stare was all she got in response.

His pager went off, and he lifted it to read the number. “My next case is ready. I need to go back to the OR.”

Her breath came sharp and fast, and the room spun around her. Jason and Mike flanked her and led her back to the bed before her knees gave out. A hot tear streaked down her cheek, and Dan winced.

“I’m sorry, Jenny. We’ll talk later tonight.”

He disappeared before she could say anything else. The earlier joy of having him back vanished, leaving an uncertain emptiness that would plague her until she knew the truth about her child.

Chapter Fourteen

Dan massaged the back of his neck and sat in his car. It had been one hell of a day so far, but it wasn’t over yet. He stared up at Jenny’s condo, trying to figure out how to break the news to her gently. He’d told the truth when he’d said that he wasn’t trained to read a fetal ultrasound, but he’d seen enough in his career to know what he was looking at. One glance at the screen told him what was wrong with the baby.

Intestines did not belong outside the abdominal cavity.

The light coming from her window told him she was still up, maybe waiting for him. He’d wrapped up his last case hours ago. The rest of the afternoon had been spent in the hospital’s NICU, talking to the perinatologist and gathering information for Jenny, Jason, and Mike. If he was going to deliver bad news, hopefully, he could soften the blow by letting them know what to expect. He was armed with informational booklets, names of OBs specializing in high-risk cases and pediatric surgeons, numbers for Seattle Children’s Hospital, and web addresses for online support groups. But more important, he was committed to staying by Jenny’s side throughout all of this like he would if it were his own kid.

He rubbed his chest. The ache there still lingered. The ultrasound had revived the intensity of it like reopening a half-healed wound. He’d seen the baby’s face on the screen and wished with all his heart that it had been his child’s. Even after he’d seen the bowel floating around in the amniotic fluid, he still wanted the child. It wasn’t until he was on his way over here that he realized why.

It was because the child was Jenny’s.

And even though he wasn’t going to be a father, he could still be the man she leaned on when she needed strength. He could give her that much.

And maybe so much more if she would take him back.

He gathered up the stack of papers and pamphlets and climbed the stairs to her condo, his heart thudding with each heavy step. As a surgeon, he’d given bad news more times than he’d wanted to, but this time, it was to someone he loved.

Jenny was sitting on the couch between Jason and Mike, staring blankly ahead with a nearly empty tissue box nestled between her legs. Her eyes were red-rimmed and raw, her cheeks blotchy. She sniffled once before turning those mournful dark eyes on him.

Her grief hit him like a punch in the gut. God, he wanted to do nothing more than gather her up in his arms and hold her until he convinced her that everything would be all right. But the two men on either side of her kept him from doing that. As long as he was under the watchful eyes of men who were both her brothers and lawyers, he had to retain some semblance of professionalism.

“My OB called this afternoon asking me to come into tomorrow to discuss the ultrasound,” Jenny said, her voice hollow. “She wouldn’t tell me why, either.”

Dan pulled out a chair from the small dining table and turned it around so he could straddle it. The high wooden back offered him some restraint as he replied, “Now that we’re alone, I can tell you what I saw, if you want to know.”

Jenny looked at her brother, then at Mike before nodding. “We all want to know, and even if you’re wrong, we’d still appreciate your opinion and will not hold you accountable.”

He wanted to laugh at her carefully schooled response. Mike must have coached her while they were waiting. “Good to know I’m not in danger of being held liable.” He laid the stack of papers on the table and took a deep breath. “The baby has gastroschisis.”

Jenny’s brows angled down in confusion. “What?”

“Gastroschisis. It’s where there’s a defect in the abdominal wall that allows parts of the intestine to escape.” He handed the pamphlet explaining the condition to her. “That’s what I saw in the ultrasound.”

Mike and Jason huddled around her to read over her shoulders. “And you’re fairly certain that’s what you saw?” Mike asked.

“I’d say about ninety-five percent certain. I know bowel when I see it.”

Mike narrowed his eyes, ready to pick apart his assessment. “And the other five percent?”

“The slight chance that this could be a loose omphalocele or perhaps a very odd-looking umbilical cord. But what goes against either is that an omphalocele has a membrane around it that keeps the intestines contained, and the umbilical cord has a distinctive blood flow appearance on ultrasound.”

“So you’re fairly certain?” Jenny repeated.