The Nurse's Baby Secret

“I’m okay.”

Chrissie’s brow lifted. “You usually walk around as if your feet aren’t affected by gravity. I’ve not seen you smile all day. So I’m not buying ‘okay’.”

Savannah gave a semblance of a smile that was mostly bared teeth.

Chrissie winced. “That bad?”

Savannah nodded. “Worse.”

“You and Charlie have an argument?”

Had they argued? Not really. More like he’d told her he was moving and she’d verbalized that they were through.

“I heard he turned his notice in yesterday. I wasn’t going to say anything until you did, but you’ve looked so miserable today that I couldn’t hold it in any longer.”

There it was. Confirmation that he was leaving. Everyone knew. Charlie was leaving her.

“I’m not sure what to say. My boyfriend—former boyfriend,” she corrected, “is moving out of town. I was shocked by the news and haven’t quite recovered.”

Chrissie’s expression pinched. “You didn’t know?”

“You probably knew before I did.”

Her friend’s eyes widened. “He hadn’t mentioned he was considering a move to Nashville?”

Savannah shook her head. “Not even a peep.”

Chrissie looked blown away. “What was he thinking? He should have talked such a big decision over with you.”

Maybe her expectations hadn’t been unfounded if Chrissie thought the same thing as she had. What was she thinking? Of course he should have mentioned the possibility of a move. They’d been inseparable for months. Her anger was well founded.

“Apparently not.”

“You said ‘former boyfriend’,” Chrissie pointed out. “You two are finished, then?”

Savannah had to fight to keep her hand from covering her lower abdomen. She and Charlie would never be finished. There would always be a tie that bound them.

A child that bound them.

Still, she didn’t need him, would not allow herself to need him. Some fools never learned, but she wasn’t going to fall into that category.

Toying with her stethoscope, she shrugged and told the truth. “Yeah, as a couple, we’re finished.”

* * *

Wincing, Charlie paused in the hallway. Neither woman had noticed him walking up behind them. Neither one knew he was overhearing their conversation.

Should he clear his throat or something?

He shouldn’t feel guilty for eavesdropping. If they didn’t want someone to overhear their conversation they shouldn’t be having it in the middle of the CVICU hallway.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Chrissie told Savannah, giving her a quick hug. “I thought you two were perfect together.”

Perfect together.

They had been perfect together, but wasn’t that the way most relationships started? All happy faces and rainbows? It was what came along after the happy faces and rainbows faded that was the problem.

He was just lea