Killer Cravings Page 4

  “Jim!” I’m pretty sure I screamed louder than I should have. I heard him come stomping through the house, Laurie in tow, like he thought I had fallen and hit my head or something.

  By the time he got to the bathroom, I had thrown on a robe and had investigated the source of the blood glop. I was definitely bleeding – fairly heavily, might I add. I didn’t even have to say anything because my pants and underwear were sitting on the floor in front of the tub.

  Jim instantly went pale, and he put Laurie down. “I’m taking you to the hospital,” he said. “I’m going to call Kenny, get dressed.”

  He switched into autopilot, I think. It was his way of keeping himself from panicking. Kenny darted over before I could even get my purse together. By the time I came out of the back bedroom, Kenny was already wearing the teething necklace and playing with Laurie on the floor. He looked up at me with this concerned gaze while Jim threw on a jacket and snagged the car keys.

  “Are you all right, Kate?” Kenny asked.

  “I think so… I don’t know…” I said, quickly spitting out a thank you for rushing over so quickly while Jim ushered me out the door and helped me into the car.

  We didn’t speak to each other much on the way to the hospital. Jim reached for my hand at every red light, and it seemed we hit all of them.

  I’d virtually zero problems with my first pregnancy. Why was this happening?

  Maybe all of my dry heaving from earlier hurt the baby, I thought – ready to instantly blame myself.

  The thought that I might be having a miscarriage made me want to curl up and cry. My hands were shaky, and when I glanced over at Jim, I could tell he was worried. His eyes were glossy, and his stare was very intense as he looked out at the road in front of us.

  “Should I call Dr. Green?” I asked.

  He nodded, and I pulled out my cell phone. I had her on speed dial, but her office was closed for the evening. I left her a message with her answering service then shrugged at Jim.

  A few minutes later, I received a text from Dr. Green’s office telling me to go straight to the hospital and that she would meet us there in the emergency wing.

  I was really relieved to see Dr. Green pulling up at the same time as us. She smiled and greeted us and immediately starting asking me questions. She did, however, sound reassuring as we walked into the ER, and for that I was grateful.

  She led us out of the waiting room and down a series of connecting halls toward her practice’s office area. In an instant, Jim and I were in a room.

  The first thing she did was hand me an awful hospital gown. While I changed, she scrubbed her hands, then rubbed some goop on my belly to check for the baby’s heartbeat.

  Anxiety seemed to be choking me, and I bit back tears as I looked at Jim.

  I was so grateful he’d been at home when this happened. He stood by me, holding my hand, while we waited patiently for Dr. Green. Then, we heard the sound that made both Jim and me exhale in relief.

  Our baby’s heartbeat.

  “Sounds like your baby is just fine, but I’m going to do a blood test and do a cervical check to make sure everything’s okay,” Dr. Green said, but then she paused for a second. She continued listening to the heartbeat, moving the little device across my stomach. “Hold on a second, there, Kate… I think I’m picking up a second heartbeat…”

  “Wait, what?” Jim asked, suddenly becoming very lively. “You mean you’re picking up Kate’s heartbeat?”

  “No, I mean there might be a second baby in there,” Dr. Green said. She put the little device aside and reached over to the ultrasound machine; it rolled toward the chair where I was seated, and I leaned back. “You’re due for your second ultrasound next week anyway. Let’s take a look.”

  My heart raced. Twins?

  She turned the light off in the room. There was a monitor display in the corner for Jim and me to look at. Sure enough, I spotted a little baby that still looked a little more peanut-like than baby wiggling around.

  “Oh, yeah, there’s two in there,” Dr. Green said.

  “What! Where?” Jim demanded. I couldn’t tell if he was horrified or excited.

  She pointed toward the screen. “That second baby is hiding behind the first one, but you can see three arms on the… hold on, they’re moving. Yup, there you go.”

  I could see two heads. They were squished together, their arms were so tiny compared to the rest of them right now, but I could see both of their shapes clearly.

  Dr. Green clicked a button on the ultrasound to capture the clear shot. “Congratulations,” she said. “You’re having twins. I can’t believe we didn’t pick up that second heartbeat at your last visit.”

  I heard a dry-heaving sound erupt from Jim’s throat, and his hand squeezed me tight. I looked over at him, and he was white as a ghost, but he was smiling… sort of.

  “Jim? Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he said quickly, but he let go of me and sat down in the spare chair. “Twins,” he said under his breath, and he started laughing uncontrollably.

  Dr. Green looked from Jim to me. “It’s a lot to take in, I know.”

  I didn’t have time to deal with whatever Jim was going through at the moment. I was at least glad he was smiling, though. We hadn’t planned on having a second baby so soon, but he had been really excited… but twins was a lot more than we had expected, so I was going to give him a minute to let it sink in before I go all pregnant angry Kate on him. I had something else on my mind.

  “What about the blood?” I asked. “Are the babies okay?”

  “They appear to be, but I’m going to check you over to be sure,” she said and proceeded to turn the lights back on and get ready for an exam. Jim kept sitting in the chair looking like a deer in headlights. Before she could begin, a nurse knocked on the door and entered with the printed ultrasound.

  Dr. Green handed it over to Jim so he could look at it while she conducted the exam. “Everything’s looking good, Kate, but there is a lot of spotting down there,” she said. “I’m going to have a nurse come in and draw some blood and then I’m going to have you wait downstairs in the ER for the lab results before I send you home, just to be safe. It sounds like it was a lot of blood, so I want us to be cautious, okay?”

  “Thank you, Dr. Green,” I said, and she left the room. While we were waiting for the nurse, I turned my head to look at Jim. “Jim?” I said, and he looked up at me with this goofy looking grin of his.

  “Twins,” he said.

  “Yes, twins,” I said and smiled. “Are you… okay with that?”

  “Shocked, but yeah, baby,” he said and stood up. “Sorry… I was just a little… surprised.” He bent down and gave me a kiss, standing over me. He held the ultrasound picture out so we could both look. “There are definitely two little ones in there.” He bent down and kissed my stomach. “You aren’t hiding anymore in there, are you?” he asked, and I laughed nervously.

  “Not funny,” I said, smirking.

  A nurse arrived and drew a blood sample, and after a few more minutes, a second nurse arrived to cart me to a hospital room in a wheelchair. Jim walked behind, and after a few minutes we were left alone in the hospital room, with me propped up in the bed. My mind was running in a million different directions.

  “Oh, I have to call Mom!” I suddenly wailed, and Jim gave me this pleading look. “What? Do you want to tell her?”

  “Kind of,” he said. Jim’s parents were deceased, and he didn’t have much of a family life, in fact, he thought of my mom as his own.

  I was the one always calling mom with news. I told her the first time I was pregnant. Told her when we found out we were having a girl. And, I got to tell Mom about being pregnant for a second time. Jim didn’t really have anyone he was as close to as my mom to call and give exciting news like this.

  “Go ahead,” I said, and he smiled and snagged his phone.

  When he told her the news about my being pregnant with twins, I cou
ld hear my mom shrieking through the phone into Jim’s ear from across the room.

  I laughed, glad she was so excited. But, we were still in the ER. This was a time to be serious. Once I knew the babies were fine, I would celebrate.

  After about an hour of waiting around, Dr. Green arrived wearing a serious expression.

  My heart plummeted.

  “Okay, so your test came back, and you have a low oxygen level in your blood,” she began, pulling up a chair beside my hospital bed. She proceeded to ask me a series of questions about my health, exercise routine, and diet. Everything checked out. “Tell me a little more about the carbon monoxide poisoning you experienced last month,” she said, and my stomach dropped.

  Could my babies be hurt?

  Dr. Green hadn’t been the one to treat me for that incident. It’d been a doctor here at the ER. So, I gave her the rundown.

  A psychopath had locked my mom in a steam room at a sauna and had filled it with carbon monoxide. I had gotten my mom out, but I had wound up collapsing after inhaling too much of the poison.

  “Did you pass out? Were you unconscious?” Dr. Green asked. She flipped through my file, looking at the other physician’s notes.

  “Yes,” I said. “But, the doctor said I was probably fine.”

  “I agree. The babies are likely fine,” Dr. Green said. “A mild carbon monoxide poisoning will not normally cause harm to the fetus, but since you passed out, there is a chance it did affect them in some way. Right now, other than low oxygen in your bloodstream, there doesn’t appear to be anything to worry about. But, we are going to have to keep a very close eye on you during this pregnancy, Kate. You and the babies, to make sure there have not been any serious, long-term effects.”

  I felt sick and angry and a million other emotions, but Dr. Green was very reassuring. Everything had looked fine on the ultrasound and during her inspection. And, other than a slightly low supply of oxygen in my blood, nothing came back unusual in the blood sample either when they tested it. So long as we were careful, the babies should be fine.

  And, then she delivered the bad news: she wanted me to stay overnight at the ER and put me on oxygen until morning.

  Great.

  Jim insisted on staying with me, so he called Kenny who was more than willing to stay with Laurie – he was just glad to hear that I was okay, and he was almost as excited as Mom about my having twins.

  Twins?

  We’re having twins!

  Chapter Five

  A little over a week went by after my unfortunate visit to the ER before opening night of Domingo’s play.

  By that time, I was chomping at the bit to get out of the house. Jim had treated me like a hothouse flower and practically restricted me to bed rest.

  I did get his permission to do one stakeout as long as I had someone with me. Kenny, it seemed, was now babysitting me instead of Laurie.

  Kenny eagerly agreed to go on the stakeout and even packed us plenty of carbs and sugar. We had chips, coke, candy bars and enough Swedish Fish to survive a zombie apocalypse.

  This time around, getting a snap of our lumberjack adulterer was easy peasy. They’d left the curtains open, and the shots I took were so compromising, I had to tell Kenny to look away.

  The woman was young, wearing a slinky black negligee and blonde hair twisted into dreadlocks.

  I’d returned home victorious, but exhausted, at 4 am and eagerly agreed to print the photos after the play. Now I stood checking my reflection in the mirror and couldn’t deny the dark circles under my eyes from last night’s stakeout.

  “You look gorgeous,” Jim said.

  “Liar.”

  He chuckled. “Why do you say that? You’re always beautiful to me.”

  The doorbell rang and Kenny strutted into the house, looking no worse for wear after pulling an all-nighter with me.

  Ah to be seventeen again!

  “Laurie’s already asleep, Kenny, hopefully it’ll be an easy night for you,” Jim said.

  Kenny sniffed around the room and looked disappointed.

  I laughed. “Jim didn’t grill anything tonight. There’s an opening night reception at the play. So order pizza if you’re hungry.”

  “Coolio,” he said.

  Kenny was always hungry, and being that his parents were vegan, didn’t often get the chance to order pizza.

  I grabbed Jim’s arm as we made our way to the car. “You look super handsome, hot stuff,” I said. I was so excited to be out on a date with my sexy husband that butterflies danced in my stomach. “We need more date nights.”

  He leaned and kissed me before opening my car door, “I know. I miss you. You know? I love our family, but sometimes I miss the just you and me part of it.”

  I cradled his face. “It’s always you and me, honey.”

  He smiled and inhaled the scent of my hair. “You and me against the world. That’s right. I love you, Kate.”

  <><><>

  Jim and I met Galigani at the theater. Thanks to Paula we had great seats. Unfortunately, she was missing opening night and the after party; her kids and husband had all come down with the flu. I felt for her – especially since she had designed the set, but she had managed to snag two tickets for closing night, which meant I would be back to see the play again with her at a later date. Knowing that I was going to be sitting through this thing twice made me really hope it was good and entertaining.

  The lights in the theater dimmed, and the curtains opened. I couldn’t resist texting Paula just to tell her how amazing the set looked before politely turning off my cell phone as the instructions over the speakers had requested before the show had started.

  On stage were Peter and Nate. Peter’s character was dressed in a leather jacket as he sat down at the bar; he was playing the fictionalized version of Vicente Domingo, and I was excited to get a snap shot of Domingo’s life even if it was supposedly fictionalized.

  Vinnie ordered a cup of coffee, and Nate played it off like an annoyed bar tender. Next, Tony entered – he was playing the role of the cheating husband. The scene unfolded as Tony flirted with the steamy redheaded actress in front of Vinnie. While the two flirted, the all silent character Vinnie snapped photos.

  It was supposed to be a serious scene – the undercover PI taking photos of his man, but the actors played it off almost like a photo-shoot – a little gag at the end in which the pair intentionally posed made the audience snicker.

  Jim nudged me, and I looked to where he was nodding. A few rows in front of us was Domingo, and he looked positively irate. The first scene, and already Domingo was fuming. I thought of one of the scenes later in the play I had witnessed my mom run lines for the other day, and I cringed.

  As much Vicente and I locked horns, I still felt a little bad for him. His vision was being picked apart on stage and turned into a lame comedy act. I didn’t blame my mom or the actors – it had been the director’s decision.

  The next scene was even worse. Back at the bar was the cheat, the adulteress, and Nate still playing the bartender. When the adulteress headed to the ladies room, Nate’s character leaned over the bar.

  “Hey, Howie, that fella who was in here earlier… I think he snapped some photos of you and the side chick,” she mused, and several of the ensemble characters – biker bar types – all glanced up from the various tables set up on stage.

  “What!” Tony yelped at the top of his lungs and jumped up.

  I heard music. “Oh no,” I said under my breath. Not a musical number. An unscripted musical number!

  Having had run lines with my mom more than once for this thing, I know Domingo’s original script didn’t include any musical numbers. Everyone was clapping and dancing, Tony was signing a ridiculous song that keyed the audience in on the fact that his character and his wife had a prenuptial agreement, that he thought he was being blackmailed, and that he was a big-shot powerful man in town. The whole thing, to make matters worse, was to the tune of the song Gaston from Disney’s Be
auty and the Beast.

  Jim leaned over in the middle of a chorus and whispered, “Is there supposed to be music in Domingo’s play?”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. The audience was laughing and clapping along to what was basically a rewrite of the tavern scene from the Disney classic. I glanced over, and I could see that Domingo had completely sunk down in his seat in utter humiliation.

  A few other hilarious scenes, followed by the big finale.

  The audience clapped and gave the actors a standing ovation. After the play ended and the audience members cleared out, the lobby was opened up for the after party. Vicente was there, speaking harshly in a corner with the director.

  I decided not to linger. Vicente was probably ready to strangle him for the betrayal. Instead, Jim, Galigani, and I mingled with Mom and some of her fellow cast members.

  “That was… awful…” Peter said under his breath to Mom, Jim, and me. “I felt horrible. The writer was devastated. I could see him sinking down in his chair the whole time.”

  “The audience loved it,” my mom said to reassure him.

  Nate shook her head. “It was pretty bad. I’ve been telling Ricky since day one that this was a terrible idea. The musical number especially.”

  “I love the musical number,” Jim said, and I stepped on his foot discreetly. He smirked and gave me a sideways glance.

  “Yeah, you sure can dance, Nate,” Tony said, smirking.

  “The audience would have liked it just as much as a drama,” Nate said. “It wasn’t written to be a comedy. I feel like we just slapped the writer in the face.”

  “Let me show you the backstage,” Mom said to Galigani, putting an arm through his.

  They left our little group, and Jim whispered in my ear, “Aw, they’re so cute together.”

  “Jim!” a familiar voice called, and Jim and I spun around to see a woman with fiery red hair and a baker’s apron staring back at us.