“Ex-father-in-law.” Of course she?
??d seen Chuck today. It just seemed inevitable, for some reason.
Andrew looked at the truck with narrowed eyes. “Interesting that he just happens to be at the same intersection today.”
Hannah shrugged. It was not so unusual really that she occasionally ran into Chuck, considering he lived less than ten miles from the resort, but she figured it was going to be awkward every time, no matter how many years passed.
The light changed and Chuck peeled away with a squeal of rubber on pavement.
Andrew accelerated at a more reasonable pace. “I think I need to look a bit more closely at Chuck Cavender,” he murmured. “I don’t like that he showed up today right after your tires were flattened yesterday.”
She was still reluctant to consider the possibility that her former father-in-law had taken such petty revenge against her. “Chuck’s not stalking me, Andrew,” she said, hoping very much that she was right. “He lives nearby. It’s just coincidence that we were at the same intersection at the same time.”
“Yeah, well, he’d better stay far away from you in the future.” The words were as close to a threat as she’d ever heard usually easygoing Andrew utter.
* * *
At the office of her obstetrician, Dr. Lena Power, Hannah checked in at the desk and was instructed to have a seat in the waiting area. Except for one other very pregnant woman accompanied by a man and a sleepy toddler, the tidy peach-and-green-decorated waiting room was empty and quiet. Tuned into a home decorating network, a television set played in one corner of the room. Stacks of parenting magazines were spread on tables near the seats. Andrew flipped through the pages of one that looked fairly recent, though he didn’t stop to read any articles.
Hannah shifted nervously in her seat. She had suggested to Andrew that he could drop her off and entertain himself elsewhere until she called him to pick her up, but he’d said only that he had nothing better to do. He’d be fine in the waiting room, he’d assured her. He had a couple of books he’d been meaning to read stored on his phone.
“Hannah Bell?”
She looked up to see Dr. Power’s nurse, Dana, standing in the doorway that led back to the exam rooms. Rising, she nodded. “I’m here.”
Dressed in bright purple scrubs, Dana smiled and backed against the door to hold it open, Hannah’s file tucked into the crook of one of her arms. “Come on back, we’re ready for you. Is this the dad?” she asked, nodding brightly toward Andrew.
Hannah cleared her throat. “Um, yes,” she said without meeting Andrew’s eyes. She might as well get used to saying it. It wasn’t as if Dana or the doctor would be seeing her family before she broke the news to them.
“You’re both welcome to come back, if you’d like.”
Hannah glanced automatically at Andrew then. He sat without moving, giving her the option, but she knew what he wanted her to say. “Would you like to see the ultrasound?”
He was on his feet almost before she finished the question, his dark eyes searching her face. “If you don’t mind.”
She didn’t know quite how she felt about it actually, but this wasn’t the time to analyze her emotions. She knew only that she wouldn’t have felt right denying him this opportunity. She gestured to him to follow her as she turned to enter the exam area.
Ten minutes later, she lay on her back on the narrow, paper-covered exam table, her blouse raised to just below her breasts, the waistband of her pants lowered to below her navel, exposing her midsection. Andrew sat in a chair on her left side, while the sonographer, a stocky redhead who’d introduced herself as Melinda, stood at the right side of the table with the ultrasound wand in hand. After squirting a slimy—and cold—gel on Hannah’s tummy, Melinda pressed the wand against her skin. All eyes were fixed on the monitor above Hannah’s feet.
Andrew surged to his feet to lean closer when the gray-scale images began to appear on the monitor. He made a low, strangled sound in response to his first sight of his baby’s face. Eyes, nose, mouth, ears. Hannah blinked rapidly against a surge of tears as she mentally cataloged all the features.
“Look at the little hands,” she whispered to Andrew, watching the tiny fingers open and close, almost as if waving hello.
Andrew’s hand closed over hers, their fingers intertwining. He seemed to be at a loss for words, a sentiment Hannah could certainly understand. After all, she’d had longer than he had to get used to this idea, had even seen an ultrasound before, though the baby had been just a little peanut with nubs for limbs then.
The wand continued to scan, displaying the umbilical cord, little legs pedaling lazily, miniscule nubbins of toes. Positioning the wand just so, Melinda smiled warmly. “She’s being very cooperative. Almost as if she’s posing for us.”
Andrew’s fingers tightened spasmodically around Hannah’s. “She?” he repeated huskily.
“She.” Melinda pointed to the screen, showing them the proof. “It’s a girl.”
Andrew sat down abruptly in his chair, as if his knees had given out on him. Because he was still holding her left hand, Hannah swiped at her eyes with her right, her gaze locked on the monitor. Her daughter. Their daughter, she corrected herself with a hard swallow, glancing sideways at Andrew.
He looked a little pale. He tugged at the collar of his shirt with his right hand, as if it felt a little tight despite the top two buttons being unfastened. And then he drew his gaze from the screen, met her eyes and smiled. “She’s beautiful.”
She felt one tear escape to trickle down her left cheek. “Yes, she is.”
Still clasping her hand, he leaned over to brush his lips over hers. And Hannah could almost feel the crack widen in the emotional wall she’d tried so hard to maintain between them.