Page 284 of Lorenzo

“Oh, my God.”

Lorenzo looks at me then, and the expression on his face nearly undoes me all over again. His eyes are bright as he brings my hand to his mouth and presses a kiss to my knuckles.

“That is our baby,” he says quietly.

I nod because speaking without blubbering is apparently impossible.

The technician smiles and turns the screen slightly more toward us, but I can barely process what I am seeing beyond that tiny flicker she pointed out.

A heartbeat.

Our baby has a heartbeat.

I swipe quickly beneath my eyes with my free hand and laugh again when that only seems to make them worse.

“This is ridiculous.”

Lorenzo’s mouth curves, but he looks just as affected as I feel. “I was not going to say anything.”

“You were thinking it.”

“The only thing I was thinking is that you are very beautiful when you cry.”

“You are such a bad liar.”

“I'm a great liar, but that was not a lie.”

The technician gives us a small smile before turning back to the screen, and I look at it with her, trying to memorize every indistinct little detail even though I have no idea what half of them mean.

“How far along did you say I am?”

“Based on the measurements, you’re right where I’d expect you to be from the dates you gave us,” she says.

I look at Lorenzo. “So my frantic counting in the back of the SUV was accurate.”

His brows lift. “Approximately three seconds before somebody ran us off the road.”

The technician pauses and looks between us.

I clear my throat. “Long story,” I say sheepishly.

Lorenzo’s thumb strokes across my knuckles. “For another day.”

The technician wisely lets that go and turns back to the monitor.

“I’m going to take a few more measurements, and then I’ll get some images printed for you.”

She moves the wand again, and the image shifts a little on the screen.

“There’s the head,” she says, pointing. “And if you look right here, you can see the little arm.”

I stare harder. “That’s an arm?”

“It is.”

“It looks like a bean.”

“A very beautiful bean,” Lorenzo says.