The Nurse's Baby Secret

Yeah, he wasn’t so good at committing.

Which probably wasn’t fair since he’d never given her any reason to think he would commit, other than just be in a relationship with her for a year and treat her as if she was his every desire. Which was good enough reason, right?

“Do you want to go with me?”

Her head shot up. He looked as surprised as she felt, then his face took on a remorseful appearance.

“You threw up last night and here I am trying to put you in a car for four plus hours today. I wasn’t thinking.”

No, he hadn’t because he obviously regretted the invitation.

“I am feeling better this morning. I’m not nauseated.” Not that the idea of four hours in a car appealed to her, but she did have news she needed to tell him. Maybe being trapped in a car with him would help her find the right words to tell him that she was having his baby.

Although she probably shouldn’t be bragging too much about not being nauseated because this was the first morning in over a week that she’d not felt at least a little ill.

“I don’t have other plans so I guess I could go with you.”

He looked torn at her answer and for a moment she thought he was going to take back the invitation.

No worries, Charlie, she silently assured him. I’m not going to beg you to change your mind about us. We are through.

But on the way home from Nashville would be the perfect opportunity to tell him the truth. Not with the fun little baby items she’d bought the day she’d done the pregnancy test. Not with any cute little reveal ideas she’d looked at online. Just the blunt facts while he was trapped in a car with her so they could discuss the ramifications of the fact they were going to be parents.

* * *

“What do you think?” Charlie asked Savannah as she walked through the last apartment they were looking at. He couldn’t believe she was there with him. The invitation had slipped out of his mouth and when she’d agreed he hadn’t been able to bring h

imself to withdraw it.

“They’re all nice.” She sounded almost bored.

“But?”

“The first one we looked at seems the most practical. With being on Twenty-First Avenue, it’s close to the hospital and I like its layout the best. It doesn’t have much of a yard available, but you don’t really need a yard. Centennial Park isn’t that far if you felt the need for grass beneath your feet.”

“That’s the one I liked best, too.” It was part of a small apartment complex that housed ten units. She was right that there wasn’t much of a yard, but that wasn’t a deal-breaker.

She averted her gaze, not wanting him to see whatever he’d see in her eyes. She supposed she would visit him there at some point. They’d be sharing custody of their baby.

Not that the baby would be able to be away from her for the first year, as she intended to breastfeed. But there would come a point in time where she’d be dropping her child off to Charlie for them to spend time together.

Sadness hit her. Just the thought of being away from her child unnecessarily made her heart ache. Made her all the more angry at Charlie, at herself, that she’d put so much stock into their relationship.

“I’m going to go back there so I can sign the appropriate papers and get this checked off my to-do list.”

“Is it a long list?”

“Long enough. Moving isn’t easy. Haven’t you ever moved, Savannah?” He sounded incredulous that she might not have.

“Sure, but only from home to college, then into my apartment after graduation.”

“You always lived alone?”

“Nope. I had a roommate in the dorm and one when I first moved into the apartment. She got married and I just never replaced her.” That had been right before Charlie had come into her life.

She sat in the car while he ran in to sign the forms at the apartment complex, then they grabbed a meal at a restaurant a friend had told him about. Amazingly, Savannah’s stomach held out okay, but she ordered fairly bland just in case.

Their conversation ranged from awkward to relaxed when they’d forget their new status for a few minutes, then back to awkward when they remembered.