Page 52 of Tempting the Player

The sonographer does the necessary measurements, which takes twice as long as there are two of them, plus the fact that I'm having twins at thirty-five makes the pregnancy high risk, so they need to check everything carefully.

After a while, she turns the screen so we can both see our babies. “Well, everything is looking perfect. You’ll need to return for a scan every four weeks to monitor your little ones, but everything appears to be going smoothly. They're exactly the size they should be.”

Nathan’s shoulders relax. He was worried, even though he wouldn’t show it. Just like he always does, he keeps it inside to shield me.

“What about the sex? Can you tell the sex? I need some boys in our house, I'm outnumbered.”

She smiles, “Well, things are about to even out because you’re having two boys, the same sac - probably identical.”

I grin and turn to Nathan, who is smiling. I've never seen him smile so widely.

“Get in!” he punches the air, “Gonna get my boys!”

I laugh, and the lady goes to bring the girls in. She points out the limbs, head, and everything to the girls.

We leave to return to our new detached house, which we chose together around eighteen months ago. If Jess and I were going to move in with him, we would do it afresh - a new house with no past memories for either of us, only the future to look forward to. We haven’t heard from Nicki since we got together that last time. I do not doubt that she will rear her ugly head sometime, but for now, it's plain sailing. I'm no longer worried about when she comes back. Nathan has put my fears to rest about that. If she does come back at some point to see Lucia? Well, we’ll deal with it as a family.

Our house is filled with photos of the four of us, along with pictures of Jess with her dad, who gets on fantastically with Nathan - he’s now his accountant. I can't believe there will be six of us in our new house now. It's only four-bedroomed. For now, that's fine, but Nate has plans to build an extension on it in the next couple of years.

We step outside the hospital, and the girls chatter excitedly about boy names. Nathan drapes his arm around my shoulder and kisses my temple. “Love you, babe. Love our family.” He whispers in my ear.

“Love you too, honey,” I say back to him, smiling with my hand on my belly and my girls nearby.

The End