The Mountain Man's Secret Twins(22)

Driving home, Kenzie eyed the exit she’d taken to get to the Vermont mountains, during what seemed to be another lifetime. She squeezed the steering wheel tightly. Did Bryce ever think about their time together? Or had he gotten back together with his wife and child, forgotten her, and returned to a different life?



Kenzie parked outside her apartment and entered quickly, kicking her heels off and removing her dress. Avoiding the refrigerator, which had caused her to be sick nearly every time she’d opened it—or even looked at it—this week, she meandered toward her bed and collapsed into it, burrowing beneath the sheets. She quivered, placing her hands on her belly and kneading the growing skin.



She was gaining weight from stress, sure, but if she didn’t continue to show so many houses, her bills would pile up, thus becoming a different source of stress. Rolling over, she held on to her stomach tightly, praying she wouldn’t be sick again.



Over the next week, her nausea was near constant, and Kenzie had to learn to deal with it alongside her client meetings and house showings. Frustrated with her weight gain and feeling nutritionally deficit, she made an appointment with a doctor, admitting defeat. Her best friend in Concord, Rachel, had told her, point blank, “You need to start taking better care of yourself, or you’re going to run yourself ragged.”



Waiting in the doctor’s office, Kenzie felt fidgety. She read half articles in ripped magazines and gave other patients side-eyes. A clock on the wall ticked away, alerting her that she was missing yet another client meeting, yet another potential sale.



The doctor, an aging man with white-speckled dark hair and bright eyes above numerous skin bags, began to ask her questions inside the sterile room, Kenzie sitting on the strange patient chair with her ankles folded.



“You’ve been experiencing nausea for several weeks, then?” the doctor asked, marking his chart.



“Yes. That and exhaustion. It feels like I can’t get out of bed in the morning.”



“I see,” the doctor said, marking his chart. “Have you thought about the possibility that you might be pregnant?”



Kenzie frowned, a small crinkle forming between her eyebrows. “Of course I’m not pregnant. I’m newly single,” she said, thinking of Austin.



“Single women get pregnant just as often as women in relationships,” the doctor said, his eyes glinting. “Why don’t we have you take a test, just in case?”#p#分页标题#e#



Kenzie rolled her eyes, agreeing, anxious to get past this roadblock and move on to an actual, real-world diagnosis. She waited for a nurse to return with what she lovingly referred to as a “pee stick” and then used the bathroom quickly, capping the pregnancy test when she was finished.



She placed the test on the sink, waiting inside the cold bathroom with her bony arms crossed over her chest. A bit of a muffin top peeked out over her jeans. She wished she hadn’t decided on pants, not when she felt increasingly like a whale.



As she waited, she thought back to that period just before she’d met Bryce. She and Austin hadn’t slept together often. In fact, he’d spent most nights pointed away from her, almost as if he were pretending he was sleeping next to someone else. If she remembered correctly, in fact, Austin had been completely faithful to Tori, body and soul, for at least a month before she’d discovered the affair.



Which meant only one thing.



She peered down at the pregnancy test, which was flashing two bright pink lines down the center. She shivered, raising it up into the orange bathroom light. Pregnant. One hundred percent pregnant. And she was certain it was Bryce’s baby.



She opened the door of the bathroom, peering at the waiting nurse with big, bird-like eyes. The nurse knew the look immediately and wrapped Kenzie in a hug, patting her back like a stern mother.



“Darling, it’s all going to be okay,” she said. Her voice was strained. “I promise. Now, let’s get you an appointment for an ultrasound, shall we? Everyone loves seeing her baby for the first time. Even you will. I promise.”



Kenzie peered down at her bulbous stomach. A baby? Inside her? She thought back to that photograph she’d found beneath Bryce’s bed, the one with the stunning blond woman holding the blue-eyed baby. Would her baby look like that baby? Would Bryce ever want to know about their baby?



Didn’t he have a right to know?



“Sure. An ultrasound seems…appropriate,” Kenzie said, trailing off.



Kenzie was transferred to the side office, where she made an appointment with the ultrasound technician for the next hour. “There was a dropout,” the woman told her brightly. Kenzie wondered what had come up in someone’s life that had caused them to decide they couldn’t make time to see their baby.