Page 104 of Act Like You Don't Care

She moved the wand. “Don’t worry, this isn’t my first rodeo. If it gets really uncomfortable let me know. We can let you go let off a little pressure as long as it’s only a bit.”

“I’ll live,” Tam said, his voice trailing off on the last word.

I followed his gaze and found myself transfixed by the image on the screen. Grainy gray and white blobs grew and shrank as the wand moved, chasing the best angle. The technician paused and pressed a button on the machine, then moved the wand a fraction of an inch and pressed the button again.

“Everything looks good,” the technician said. “Do you want to know if you’re having a girl or a boy, or should I keep it a secret?”

Tam tipped his head back toward me. “What do you think?”

I chewed that over for a moment. “The doctor thought it was a boy from the heartbeat.”

The tech stifled a giggle.

Tam’s gaze met mine, questioning.

I nodded and laughed. “Why not? More time to argue about names.”

He laughed then, bright and vital, and turned back to the technician. “Okay, was the doctor right?”

Her smile broadened as she moved the wand back to a section where we were obviously looking at hips and thighs, then changed direction to bring everything into clearer focus. “Baby girl, gentlemen. And she’s not shy at all.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Well, she comes by that honestly enough.”

Tam stared at the image for a long moment, then let his head fall back and laughed. “Miles! You ass!”

I showed him a shocked face. “Do I look shy to you?”

He frowned, then shook his head. “Could we get some pictures?” He looked back up at me. “Would your mother want one?”

“I think so.”

His grip tightened on my hand as we got four beautiful pictures of our baby girl, then the tech handed him some tissues to clean himself up while she put the images into an envelope for us and we were free to go.

Tam kept rotating through the pictures as we drove, not that there was much difference between them.

“So, a daughter,” I prompted.

He glanced up at me. “Same rules. No biblical names. Other than that—” He shrugged and held the picture up to stare at it again. “You know, if you have a name you like, or if you want to name her after your mother, I’m okay with that.”

I considered that while watching him out of the corner of my eye. “You don’t have any preferences? You don’t want to name her after your mother?”

He shrugged. “I want the names to sound good together. I don’t want her to have something that sounds like I’m trying. A normal name, so when she goes to school she’s just another kid.”

“You’re still thinking about the public school?”

“It’s a good school district.” He chewed at his lower lip, unusual in Tam. “Unless you don’t want her to go there.” He looked up at me with an uncertain expression.

I shook my head. “There’s plenty of time and if the school is still as good in five years, why not? As long as it doesn’t cause you any problems.”

“Or you.” He smiled then and tucked the scans back in their envelope. “There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Oh?” I kept my tone pleasant but secretly, my heart rate shot up. Everything had been going so smoothly, but at some point, the other shoe had to drop. Was he upset about the shower and acting like he didn’t care? Something else?

Tam’s knee bounced a couple of times, then stopped. “Joshua’s bail’s been granted.”

“I heard.”

He frowned and turned his face away to stare out the window. “I asked the police about it. I have my restraining order. But it doesn’t feel like enough.”