Page 185 of Vegas Duology

His mouth pressed into a line, but he nodded reassuringly.“Sometimes that happens and as scary as it can be, it’s perfectly normal.In your case, it appears as if the placenta is sitting quite low in your uterus, which may be why there was some blood present.Quite honestly, bleeding is quite common and most of the time we never know exactly why it happens.The important thing to know is that your babies look strong and healthy.”

Strong and healthy.The words played on repeat in my mind.They were the only words that mattered.

“And by the look of your placenta, I’d say they were identical twins.”

“Identical?”

He smiled.“Identical girls from what I can see here.”

Now, with Leo holding my hand, I told him everything the doctor had said.Jenni helped by filling in the blanks of the story that I couldn’t remember or was too emotional to repeat.I finished with the wordidenticaland Leo stared at me, slack-jawed.

“Twins?”

I nodded.

“Really?”

I nodded again.

“And they’re okay?”

“Yes.”The smile on my face was so big it almost hurt, but I was never going to quit smiling.Ever.

He let out a whoop and pulled me into his arms, hugging me tight before he let go just as quickly.“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said.“I should be careful.”

“I’m not going to break, Leo.”

He looked at Jenni, who shook her head.“She’s not going to break.In fact, Dr.Turner says that everything looks great.He wants you to follow up with your doctor at home.Usually twin pregnancies are considered high risk, and with Lexi’s past history, I think it would be prudent to be a little more cautious than usual, but really, Dr.Turner agrees, there’s no real reason to be concerned here.”

Leo looked at me and smiled.“That’s great news.”He cupped my face in his hands and kissed me.I vaguely heard the nurse as she excused herself from the room and then we were alone with the news that not only was our baby okay, but ourbabieswere okay.

When he’d recovered enough from the shock of the news, Leo pulled up a chair and sat next to my bed, one hand in mine, the other on my belly.We sat that way for a few minutes in silence, simply absorbing everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.

The silence was soon broken when Nurse Connie poked her head in the curtain.I clutched my hand tighter to Leo’s.I wasn’t going to let him leave.I knew they were bending the rules by letting him in there with me.But I wasn’t going to let him leave my side.Not after everything I’d just been through on my own.

“Please don’t make him go.”

Connie smiled.“Don’t you worry, he can stay,” she said.“In fact...I ran into a little man in the waiting room who’d really like to make sure his mom’s doing okay.”

Just then Ben pushed past her, through the curtain and ran to my bedside.I caught him in my arms as much as I could and Leo lifted him so he was perched on the edge of the bed.

“Thank you.”I mouthed the words over Ben’s head to Connie.

“I’ll give you guys a minute, okay?”

“Are you okay, Mom?”Ben’s eyes were so full of concern, it cracked my heart a little bit to see my sweet boy so full of worry.“Roxanne told me not to worry, but you’re in the hospital and when Uncle Ray went to the—”

“It’s nothing like Uncle Ray.”I hadn’t even thought of that.The last time Ben had been in a hospital was to visit the man who was like his grandfather.Right before he passed away.I held Ben a little tighter.“I’m perfectly fine,” I mumbled into his head.“I promise, it’s nothing like Uncle Ray, okay?”

He nodded but I could tell he wasn’t convinced.

“In fact, your mother and I have something to tell you.”

Ben turned to look at his father.“Is it the baby?”His face was a solemn mask, his need to be a strong little man heartbreakingly sweet.

“It is about the baby,” Leo said, just as serious.He glanced at me and I tried not to give him away with a smile.“In fact,” Leo looked back at Ben, “I have some very important news about the baby and her sister.”

“Sister?”Ben shook his head and looked back to me.“But I’m the baby’s brother.”