Waiting in Line - Chapter 20

Noelle tapped her fingers against the side of the chair and looked at the clock in the waiting room. Junior was late getting back from his meeting with Teresa.

“Mrs. Earnhardt.” The nurse said at the door. “We’re ready for you.” Noelle didn’t move. “Ma’m…we’re ready.” Noelle looked at her, finally realizing that the nurse was talking to her.

“Oh I’m sorry. I haven’t been called Mrs. Earnhardt before, so it didn’t strike me that you were talking to me.” Noelle laughed. “My husband should be here soon, I hope.”

“That’s fine; we’ll bring him back when he arrives.” The nurse led her to an exam room where she was told to undress and put on the cloth robe for her exam. “The doctor will be in shortly.”

“Sorry I’m late.” He kissed her quickly and then raised an eyebrow at her as the doctor told her to put her feet in the stirrups. “Umm, should I leave?”

“I’m assuming you’ve seen this before.” The doctor eyed the two of them. “You are the father, correct?” Junior nodded. “Well, then what’s the problem?”

“It just looks….uncomfortable.” Junior looked at Noelle who was staring at the ceiling and trying not to laugh at him. “You’ve done this before?” Noelle could sense his uncomfortable ness.

“Well, being pregnant, no. But an exam, every year.” Noelle looked at him. “You men have it so easy.”

The exam took about five minutes and then the doctor was ready for the ultrasound. He uncovered Noelle’s stomach and spread the ultrasound gel onto her stomach and pressed the machine to her stomach. Everyone’s eyes were glued to the monitor.

“How far along am I?” Noelle asked rather shocked as the baby came into view. She wasn’t expecting to see it as big as it was.

“Approximately three months.” The doctor moved the scanner across her stomach to get a better view. The printer below the monitor began printing and Junior jumped. “I’d say your due date is going to be sometime in August. I’ll know a more precise date when we’re done here.”

“Three months?” Junior sat back in the chair and looked at Noelle. “Fuck.” The doctor looked at him. “Sorry.”

“I had a light one last month. Just two days. Before that, I couldn’t tell you. I’ve never been regular.” The doctor nodded and made a note in her chart then turned back to the screen. He printed a few more pictures and then stood up and wiped the gel from Noelle’s stomach. “Can I get dressed?”

“Yes, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” The doctor left the room, leaving Noelle to dress.

“I don’t like him.” Junior crossed his arms and watched Noelle dress. “I don’t care if my sister liked him, I want a new doctor. His bedside manner sucks.”

“We’re gonna have to go to Charlotte for a different one then. He’s the only OB in town.” Noelle sat down and slipped her tennis shoes back on. “We have to talk to him though, hon. I’ve been drinking before I knew I was pregnant. I only thought I was a few weeks, if that.” Junior nodded.

The doctor came in and handed her a prescription for prenatal vitamins and then another slip for some blood work.

“Wait, we have a few questions.” Noelle said. The doctor turned and looked at her. “I had no idea that I was that far along. I really only thought I was a couple weeks. We got married in November and then had another wedding here last month with family and I’ve been drinking. How is that going to harm the baby?” The doctor raised an eyebrow at Noelle.

“How much drinking have you been doing?” He wrote something down on the chart and looked from Noelle to Junior and then back to Noelle.

“Three to four on the weekends.” Noelle guessed. “We weren’t trying to have a baby. It was kind of a surprise.”

“Hmm…we’ll keep an eye on you and do an amnio test when you get further along to make sure everything is ok.” The doctor jotted something else down. “Ok…get your blood work done and we’ll see you in a month.” He walked out the door and Noelle looked at Junior who had a frown on his face.

“He could have been a little more informative.” Junior said as Noelle hopped off the table. “We could probably find more shit out by doing research on the internet.” Noelle nodded in agreement.

They walked out of the doctor’s office and out to the car. Junior stopped at Noelle’s car and opened the door for her. They looked at each other and smiled. It was the first time in a few days that she had seen Junior smile.

“What ya thinkin’ about?” She asked leaning against the car door. He shrugged. “C’mon, what’s with that shit eatin’ grin of yours?”

“Seeing the baby just made it all real. I guess I’ve just kind of shrugged it off lately and not really thought about it. You’re not showing, other than you getting sick in the mornings, it’s not really on the top of my head, ya know? Now… it’s just like…wow. We’re having a baby.” He ran his hand across his chin and looked at her. “Do you have to go back to work?” Noelle nodded. “Well shit.”

“I wanted to go visit my mom and tell her. She’s probably the only one who doesn’t know yet.”

“Other than Hollie and Tony. We haven’t told them yet either.” Noelle reminded him.

“Yeah well…I’m still trying to adjust to being Tony’s brother-in-law.” Junior laughed. “That’s just….well…weird.” Noelle laughed and nodded in agreement. “I mean, we’re all a big family at Nascar, but that’s just taking it a step far, don’t ya think?”

“Now, be nice. You’re talking about one of your best friends and my sister’s husband.” Noelle tilted her head and looked at him. “Let me call Teresa and see if she really needs me at work.” Noelle ducked into her car and grabbed her cell phone and called Teresa. Teresa had left for the day, so Noelle told Monica, her secretary that she wasn’t coming back in. “There ya go. I have the rest of the day off.”

“Gotta love being part of the family. You can just take off whenever you want to.” Junior leaned over the car door and kissed her. “Follow me home and we’ll drive out to Mom’s.” Noelle nodded and got in the car.

Brenda was excited to see the two of them when they pulled into the driveway and came running out to meet them.

“What are you two doing here?” She asked hugging Junior and then Noelle. “Will you stay for dinner?”

“Sure.” Junior said with a smile. “We wanted to come and visit before I have to head out to the next race and all.” They followed Brenda inside where they sat down in the living room to talk. “How ya been, Mom?”

“Good. Doing pretty good. Helping Kelley with the baby. She’s getting so big!” Brenda pointed at a new picture of Kelly’s daughter on the wall. “Just makes me wonder when we’re gonna have some boys in the family. Kerry and Kelley have both had daughters.” Brenda laughed. Noelle leaned back against the couch and smiled. “So how are you two newlyweds holding up?”

“Taking it day by day.” Junior sighed. “It’s tough with dad gone. I don’t know how Noelle is putting up with me. I’m one moody mother…..”

“I watched it.” Junior laughed. “Anyway, we’re doing good. One of the reasons we came to visit you too.”

“We’re having a baby.” Junior said with a smile. Brenda jumped off her chair and hugged Junior and then Noelle.

“I can’t believe it! Already?” Brenda looked Noelle over. “You can’t be more than a few weeks.”

“Three months to be exact.” Noelle said as Brenda shook her head. Noelle nodded. “Honestly…look.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a copy of the ultrasound picture.

“Oh my…” Brenda smiled and then hugged them again. “This is great news! If only your dad were here to see this, Junior. He’d be so happy! He loved his grandkids.”

“Dad knew before I did.” Junior sat back down on the couch. Brenda looked at him, confused. “It’s a long story; do you want to start it, Noelle?” Noelle shrugged. “Well it started with you.”

“It was at Daytona and I had a feeling that I was pregnant, but didn’t say anything to Junior because I wanted to be sure. I had brought a test with me and took it while he was at one of his meetings or doing something around the track.” Noelle situated herself on the couch and continued. “The test came out positive and I had heard someone come into the coach and I yelled for Junior that we needed to talk about something. I walked out, test in hand, to find Dale Sr. waiting for me.”

“Oh hell no. He hugged me and was talking about how he knew and he was going to be taking the baby out on the track with him. It was actually one of the best moments I had with him.” Noelle felt the tears welling up in her eyes and had to look away.

“Dad came up to me just as I was getting ready to climb in the car and he tapped me on the shoulder and when I turned around, he gave me this huge hug.” Junior said putting his arm around Noelle and rubbing her shoulder. He had never fully told her the story of how his father told him that Noelle was pregnant and he had her full attention. “He looked at me and told me how proud he was of me. I just asked him, ‘Well what did I do now?’” Junior fell quiet for a moment and closed his eyes. “He said that I had just given him one of the most precious gifts in the world. I still had no clue what he was talking about and probably had one of those dumb looks on my face. He just laughed and said that Noelle just found out she was pregnant. My mouth literally fell open in shock.”

“Were you trying to have a baby?” Brenda asked. Junior and Noelle shook their heads. “I know what your dad always said to you; obviously you weren’t listening, were you?” She laughed and Junior blushed a little. “Anyway, go on.”

“He told me that I was going to make a great daddy and I was going to be just like him. He was already talking about the baby as if he knew it was going to be a boy.” Junior smiled at Noelle who had tears streaming down her face, but was smiling as well. “Before he left he told me he loved me and we’d celebrate after the win.”

“That’s pretty heavy for one day.” Brenda sighed. “What’s Teresa think of all this?” Junior and Noelle shrugged.

“Other than being happy and telling us congratulations, it’s not really talked about. With Daddy only being gone a few weeks, us having a baby isn’t the topic of conversation. We haven’t even told everyone yet. Noelle’s mom and dad know, Kelley and Kerry, Teresa and Taylor. No one at DEI knows that she’s pregnant.” Junior said quietly. “We’re kinda keeping it under wraps. Not to mention my fans aren’t going to be too thrilled and Noelle here, likes to try and beat people up.” They all laughed and Noelle had to smack Junior on the leg for bringing that up again.

“I’ll never live that down, will I?” She asked as he leaned over and kissed her cheek.

“Here, let me help.” Noelle offered standing up as well. The two women disappeared into the kitchen to make dinner while Junior flipped through the stations on the TV.