Why Julianna? Why did you run?
Was she eating properly? Was she getting enough rest? Maybe this was all for naught. She might’ve already gotten rid of his baby. God no. His knees threatened to give out on him and he stumbled against his desk.
His cell phone dinged. Richard had procured a plane ticket and it was waiting for him at the terminal. He shoved his cell into his pocket and bolted for the door. With quick, terse instructions to his staff, he left without looking back.
He was going to find Julianna.
And heaven help her when he did.
-3-
Julianna’s eyes widened as the quick whomp-whomp-whomp from the Doppler magnified the sound and filled the small, private room. “Is that?” She couldn’t even say the words but her eyes filled with tears. Dr. Miles Lassiter, a handsome man with deep blue eyes and sandy hair with surfer blond streaks, smiled and nodded and she couldn’t speak. That was her child’s heartbeat. “Is it…healthy?”
“Sounds healthy to me, nice and strong. Is this your first baby?” Dr. Lassiter asked in a polite manner and Julianna nodded, biting her lip when the urge to bawl overwhelmed her. She’d never felt so alone in her life and it was all Boston’s fault. Noting the sudden sheen in her eyes, Dr. Lassiter gentled his voice as he pulled the Doppler from her belly and returned it to its cradle to ask, “Are you okay? I take it this was an unplanned pregnancy?” At her watery nod, he smiled in understanding and she realized she must look like a weepy frump, nose running and red, and bloated to boot. “Do you need someone to talk to?”
God yes. “No, I wouldn’t want to overstep.”
“Not possible. Being a good listener is part of my skill set. Besides, I’m a sucker for a woman’s tears…particularly those of a beautiful woman. Gets me every time.”
She smiled, grateful for his kindness and his willingness to indulge a weepy, hormonal woman. She couldn’t really tell the sweet, good-looking doctor specifics about Boston but she supposed she could be vague. “I don’t know where to start. I’m…not quite sure what I’m doing. I never saw myself as having kids and now here I am, pregnant and alone. Not exactly what I had in mind when I envisioned my life.”
“So the father isn’t in the picture?” Dr. Lassiter asked carefully and while she should’ve been honest that she’d run away from the father, she shook her head in answer. “Ah,” Dr. Thomas said quietly. “Well, it’s not the end of the world. A single mother raised me and I turned out pretty well. A good mother is worth twice that of an absent father. You’re going to do fine.”
“I wish I had your confidence.” She wiped at her eyes and ignored the wash of guilt that followed for lying about Boston. But to be fair, this was all Boston’s fault. If he hadn’t lied to her about being able to father children, they wouldn’t be in this situation. But then if she hadn’t bolted she knew in her heart, Boston would be by her side right now. He’d seemed truly shocked by the news — of course, then he’d accused her of cheating on him. As if that were possible! The man hadn’t given her a moment’s peace in the weeks that she’d been pinned to his side. Oh, and now you’re complaining? I seem to recall a lot of moaning and gasping “Oh God! Yes, yes!” The voice in her head sounded distinctly like that of Boston Kincaid and that just wasn’t cool. The voices in her head were not allowed to sound like him. “You know when you imagine how your life is going to unfold? Well, I just never imagined I’d ever be in this position,” she said with a tiny sniff. “I was in college. I was going places.”
“And you can still go places,” he assured her with a charming smile that made her distinctly aware that he was a very good-looking man. “Only now you’ll always have a buddy by your side.”
A buddy. That was a different perspective. Before Dr. Lassiter had walked through the door, she’d been sitting on the paper sheet, confused as to what to do. But when she thought of aborting the baby, a wave of abject sadness capsized her with a violent crash. This little thing in her body — equal parts her and Boston — was already digging it’s little fingers into her heart and she knew she couldn’t abort but she was still afraid of dying. “Doctor…I have a question…”
“And hopefully I have an answer,” he said, eliciting a short smile on her part. “What’s your question?#p#分页标题#e#
“Birth complications. What if I die trying to have this baby?”