Project Runaway Bride(34)
Since she couldn’t go back to the loft and risk being seen by Lily or Zoe or both, Juliet was living in the few items of warmer clothing she’d taken with her to the lake. Which meant that instead of a nice dress or skirt and heels like she would normally wear for an appointment of this type, she was wearing khaki slacks, a cream-colored knit sweater and a pair of comfortable—but dressy, thank goodness—ankle boots.
Glancing at the watch on her left wrist, she realized she couldn’t spend any more time hiding out in the bathroom and took a deep, stabilizing breath as she pulled open the door.
Negotiating the long hallway and wide set of carpeted steps leading downstairs, she found Reid waiting for her near the front door. Waiting, if not patiently.
In slow, measured steps, he paced a few feet across the tiled foyer, stopped, checked his big, platinum watch face much as she had her own smaller one only moments before then turned on his heel and paced the same short length to where he’d begun. She caught him doing that twice as she descended the stairs.
As she reached the bottom, he stopped and turned in her direction, hands on hips.
“Ready?” he asked simply, but somewhat sharply.
Since she understood his impatience and anxiety, she didn’t take it personally.
“Yes,” she answered.
He removed her lightweight jacket from a row of hooks along the wall beside the door and helped her into it. To be perfectly honest, the spring temperatures in New York were probably too warm for both a sweater and jacket, but they’d agreed that she should look as nondescript as possible whenever she went out, for fear of being recognized. And she could always shed the jacket once she reached the car or doctor’s office.
When she looked up from fastening the row of buttons at the front of the navy jacket and tying the belt at her waist, she found him holding a pair of dark-lensed, large-rimmed Jackie O sunglasses and a floppy, wide-brimmed hat.
“Better safe than sorry,” he murmured, holding them out to her.
Though they made her feel somewhat awkward—possibly because they weren’t her usual style and the hat didn’t go with her coat or her handbag—she put them on and passed through the front door as he held it open for her. Going this incognito probably wasn’t entirely necessary, but neither of them wanted to take the chance that she might run into someone she knew. Especially if, God forbid, Lily or Zoe were out and about today.
He led her to his Mercedes and helped her inside before moving around to the driver’s side and sliding behind the wheel.
They rode in silence for several long minutes. Juliet found herself tapping and twisting her fingers, then realized she was fidgeting and forced herself to stop.
There was nothing to be nervous about, she told herself. Only finding out definitively that she was pregnant and then having to deal with whatever fallout of that knowledge came from the father of her child.
Nope, not a thing to be nervous about.
“Are you cool enough under all those layers? I can turn the air on, if you like.”
At the sound of his voice filling the previously catacomb-quiet interior, Juliet jumped. Even though his tone was much softer than before, she swallowed, laying her palms flat on her upper thighs. “No, thank you, I’m fine.”
Another beat passed and then he asked, “How are you feeling? Better?”
With a small smile, she nodded, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. “The soda and crackers help.”
She started to say thank-you again but was afraid of sounding like a broken record. Besides, she didn’t want him thinking she was too grateful. He’d forced her to come back to New York with him after all. And once they confirmed that she truly was pregnant, she wouldn’t allow him to run roughshod over her and make her feel beholden.
The rest of the trip, made longer than necessary by typical bumper-to-bumper Manhattan traffic, passed without further conversation. When they arrived at the building that held the doctor’s suite of offices, Reid parked in the underground garage, then escorted her into the elevator and up to the twenty-seventh floor.
While he checked them in at the reception desk, she found an empty spot in the waiting area and took a seat. A few minutes later, a nurse called her back to fill out some initial paperwork.
She could have handled the simple question-and-answer session just fine on her own, but Reid insisted on accompanying her. If the nurse thought his behavior odd—or found it intimidating that he leaned against the wall, towering over them with his arms folded across his impressive chest—she didn’t let it show.
Juliet answered questions, had her blood pressure, pulse and temperature taken, and even allowed the nurse to take a vial of blood before being shown to a private examination room, where she was instructed to strip. To her surprise, Reid offered to stay outside while she undressed, but asked her to give a shout when she was once again covered by the thin gown the nurse had provided so he could return.