139

139
CAMILLE
I’m nervous,” I said as I looked at Drew. He took my hand and laced his fingers through mine. “Are you as nervous as I am?”
My stomach had been twisting and turning since I woke up. Though a lot of that had to do with morning sickness, there was more of it that was related to the ultrasound. Especially since Drew had insisted on going with me.
The last ultrasound appointment was a few weeks ago and the technician hadn’t been able to tell us what the gender was then. Now, we were going to find out what we were having, and I would be able to finish the nursery.
“Camille,” one of the receptionists called before heading down the hall.
We got up and followed her to one of the exam rooms. It wasn’t long before the ultrasound technician came in. The jelly was cold on my stomach but within moments, the sound of a heartbeat was filling the room.
“Oh honey,” the technician said, moving the wand around my stomach. “There are two little ones in here. You’re going to have twins!”
The room froze around me. I stared at the technician, wondering how this had been missed at my other appointments. How does a trained professional
miss another baby entirely? How the hell did my OB not see the second baby?
The technician moved the doppler and the sound of my second baby’s heartbeat was loud in my ears.
“You look like you’re spiraling,” Drew whispered, tucking my hair back behind my ear as the technician wiped the jelly off my stomach.
“There are two babies, and nobody told me about this before now. I’m freaking the fuck out, not spiraling. Do you know how much more preparation we’re going to have to do? And are both of the babies healthy?”
“I’ll go and get the doctor. He’ll be able to tell you more in a few minutes,” the technician said before leaving the room.
I pulled my shirt down and sat up, running my hand through my hair. Though I had been prepared to bring one baby into the world, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to bring two. Multiples hadn’t been a consideration in my mind. As far as I knew, there were no twins on my mom’s side of the family.
Although, I didn’t know who my father was, so it was possible that multiples did run on his side.
“I don’t know how this has been missed all this time,” I said, staring at the last picture that had been left frozen on the monitor. There they were. My two babies.
My twin babies.
The door to the room opened and the doctor walked in with a file in his hand. He smiled and took a seat on the stool, wheeling himself closer. I glanced at his badge, seeing his picture and the name Dr. Lewis beneath.
“Alright, Camille,” Dr. Lewis said as he opened the file. His glasses were perched on the end of his nose. “There’s no denying it. You’re going to be having twins. How have you been feeling?”
“Pissed that this is the first time that I’m hearing I’m having twins.”
Dr. Lewis cleared his throat. “Yes. It would appear that the ultrasound tech at your first few appointments did not see the second baby. Our clinic is incredibly sorry that we missed something as important as this. I assure you this doesn’t happen often.”
“Are the babies healthy?” Drew asked, taking my hand and lacing our fingers together. His thumb drifted over the back of my hand as I took deep breaths and tried to calm down.
“Both of your babies are doing well. Of course, before you leave the front desk will set up another appointment with you. We like to follow our twin pregnancies more closely. We’re also going to do a bit of bloodwork today to confirm the gender of the babies and ensure that they are growing as they should. After that, someone will call you in a couple days with the gender, assuming that you want to know.”
Drew and I looked at each other and nodded.
Then the doctor started to talk about the complications of having twins, but I had completely zoned out. I tried to listen to everything he was saying but I couldn’t focus on anything beyond the fact that I was having two babies.
Though I was excited, there was a lingering sense of fear in the back of my mind. For my entire life, I had worried about becoming a mother like my mother. Would I do to my children what she had done to me over the years?
When the appointment was over, the excitement outweighed the fear. In a matter of a few months, I was going to be holding my babies and everything was going to be alright. I was going to give them a better life than I had been given. They would never want for anything.
“Twins. I can hardly believe it.” Drew said as we walked to the car.
“I know. We have a lot of things to buy. Does this mean we have to get
two of everything? The babies are going to be here before we know it. Especially since it’s common for twins to come early.”
Drew held open my door while I got in the car. “Why don’t we go paint shopping and start work on the nursery?”
“Well, I might have some furniture that I ordered starting to pile up in your garage.”
He laughed and leaned down in the doorway to kiss my temple quickly. My heart skipped a beat at the display of affection. Part of me wanted to look around and see if anybody had seen but the other part knew we weren’t going to run into anyone we knew.
“I know you’ve got furniture stacking up,” he said. “And even more coming now that you’ve got to order a second of everything.”
Drew closed the door and rounded the car, getting in beside me. “Let’s go get some paint and we can go home and get to work.”
“Okay,” I said, pulling out my phone and going to the site where I had ordered the crib and changing table. “We might be able to pick up a second crib today if they have them in stock.”
He pulled out his wallet and handed it to me. “Here you go.”
I rolled my eyes at the wallet and tried to hand it back to him. Drew shook his head, both hands gripping the wheel so he didn’t have to take it.
“Camille, you paid for the first set of everything. These are my babies too.
Let me pay for some of their things.”
“Fine,” I said, grabbing one of his credit cards and typing in the number. “It’s available for pickup or I can have it delivered later this afternoon.”
“Have it delivered,” Drew said as he drove down the road to the hardware store that was nearby. “We’ll be home in an hour and a half at most.”
I nodded and finished placing the order as he parked the car.
As we got out of the car and walked into the hardware store, we kept our distance from each other. He was in jeans and a shirt, looking like a normal person instead of a billionaire. There was a slim chance that someone would recognize him dressed like that but I didn’t want to risk it.
All it would take was one person. Drew walking through the paint section with a pregnant lady would be news that would travel across social media in the blink of an eye.
It was better if we looked like we were just friends when we were out in public together.
“I like this color,” Drew said, pointing to a pale yellow.
I wrinkled my nose and looked at the section of greens. The yellow wasn’t my favorite. I wanted something that was more peaceful.
“What about this?” I asked, grabbing a sample for a pale sage color. “I think this would look pretty with the natural wood furniture I got.”
I pulled my phone out and showed him a picture of the furniture pieces I had bought. Drew studied them for a moment, his eyes narrowing slightly as he grabbed the phone and zoomed in on the picture.
He looked between both colors before nodding. “You’re right. The green would look better.”
“We haven’t picked out a room yet for the nursery,” I said as I looked at the paint chip. “I like that back bedroom with all the windows that overlook the backyard. It lets in a good amount of light and it’s a big enough bedroom for two babies.”
“There’s plenty of room for them to both have their own bedroom,” he said as we took the paint chip to the counter.
“There is, but for the sake of dealing with newborns, I think it would be better to have them in the same room. It’ll be easier for feedings in the middle
of the night.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.”
Drew gave the woman behind the paint counter the chip. While the paint mixed, she tried to flirt with him, leaning over the counter and pulling the neckline of her shirt down. Her efforts were lost on him. While she was trying to get his attention, he was scrolling through his phone and looking at pictures of double baby strollers and showing them to me.
As he browsed, I gathered the supplies we would need for painting. Even though it would be easier to hire someone to paint the room for us, I wanted to do it for myself.
“Here’s your paint,” the woman said, handing over the cans while I showed Drew the armfuls of supplies I had.
“Thanks,” Drew said, giving her a bright smile before collecting the cans and heading toward the registers.
I grinned as I watched him, more excitement flowing through me at the thought of the future we were building.
When we got home, Drew worked on taping off the room while I draped tarps across the floor. Once the room was ready for painting, I connected my phone to the stereo system that ran through the house and put on one of my favorite songs.
We painted together in relative silence, dancing around to the music. It was strange to see Drew relaxed and dancing to the pop music I was playing.
“What do you think we’re having?” he asked once we finished putting on the first coat of paint. “I hope we get one of each.”
“I don’t know,” I said as we cleaned up the painting supplies. “I’ll be happy as long as both babies are healthy and carried as close to term as possible. I’m still pissed that they missed the second baby though.”
“Do you want me to call and complain? I can make a complaint,” Drew said as we headed to the living room. “You think about that while I bring in the furniture.”
I pushed some of the living room furniture out of the way while Drew hauled in the boxes. The pile he made of furniture that needed to be built was starting to grow.
As I stared at both cribs, the sense of fear started to rush through me again. If things didn’t work between Drew and I, if I moved out and had to do this on my own, how was I going to take care of two babies?
How would I be able to maintain a career and raise two children on my own?
Would I have to quit my job and find one that allowed me to be home more often?
I would do it if I had to but I didn’t want to give up my career.
If I changed my career, would we have to go with less in our lives? Would my lifestyle start to creep closer to the one that I had been raised in?
“Cami?”
“You know I hate when you call me that,” I said, snapping out of my thoughts as a shiver ran down my spine.
It was the nickname that my mother had called me for years. Every time I heard Cami, thoughts of the dirty trailer park started rushing back.
“Please don’t call me that,” I said, my stomach lurching. “It’s a name that
brings up some horrible shit that I don’t want to think about.”
Drew looked up from the crib he was building and nodded. “Okay.” “It’s that easy?” I asked.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” he asked, setting the screwdriver to the side and sitting back on his heels to look at me as I sat on the couch.
“I don’t know,” I said as I put the drawer for the changing table I was building to the side. “I didn’t think that it would be. Nothing ever seems like it’s that easy with you.”
“Camille, all you’ve ever had to do is ask me not to call you that. I know you hated it, but I thought it was more for the sake of having something to argue about. That’s how you’ve always played it off to me.”
I blushed and shrugged. “It seemed easier than telling you anything else about my life.”
“You know, I don’t know a whole lot about your life.” Drew looked up at me and raised his eyebrow. “I know you told me about your mother and your childhood a bit, but it feels like there’s more to know.”
“There’s not a whole lot more to know. She used to bring men over. They would call me Cami. So would she. I hated it.”
Drew sighed and picked up the screwdriver before leaning over and getting back to work. “That feels like we’re just scratching the surface of everything that has happened to you.”
“No,” I said as I grabbed the drawer. As I screwed the knob in, I took a deep breath. “They all left me alone. My mom didn’t, but she wasn’t absolutely horrible either. A lot of her problems stemmed from her addiction. Whatever men she brought home, she kept away from me unless it was in passing.”
He frowned as he looked up at me. “How is your mother now? Have you
seen her since that day you ran into her?”
“Nope. I plan to keep it that way. Trust me, life is better without her in it while she’s in active addiction. If she gets clean again, then I might consider letting her around the babies. With supervision.”
“We can deal with that when the time comes,” he said, offering me a small smile. “Why don’t I go order dinner while you finish up that changing table?”
“Sounds good. I want something with cheese and sauce.”
Drew laughed as he got up. He stooped down to kiss me quickly as he passed before heading into the kitchen. I glanced at him over my shoulder, watching as he placed an order for our dinner.
As he looked up and smiled at me, I realized that even if it was a secret and things were far from perfect, I was lucky to have him in my life.