The Nurse's Baby Secret

Savannah glared. “I’m not asking you to stay.”

Charlie’s throat swelled so thick he wasn’t sure air could get inside. He’d done this. Had changed her from the happy woman she’d been into this angry, bitter woman.

Like father, like son.

No. He wouldn’t be like his father. He wouldn’t make Savannah pay for getting pregnant for the rest of her life. He’d do right by her financially, more than right. He’d make up to Savannah all the things he hadn’t been able to make up to his mother and he’d not stick around to make her miserable the way his father had. He’d go to Nashville, pursue his career, be a silent father to his child, there if needed, but otherwise someone who was far in the background. Savannah would be a good mother. She’d had great role models. Their baby would be better off without his physical presence.

“I don’t know what to say,” he began after silence lingered too long between them. “I wasn’t expecting this.”

She gave him a look that cut to the core. “Don’t you get it? You don’t have to say or do anything. This is my body and I take responsibility for my baby. You can leave and never look back.”

That was what he should do. Walk away and stay out of their lives completely, other than financially. “I can’t do that.”

He wasn’t sure what he could do, but he knew he wanted to do more than just give Savannah and their baby child support.

“Why not?” she asked, her tone full of accusation. “It’s what you planned to do an hour ago.”

“This is now.”

Her eyes narrowed defiantly. “You can’t stay.”

He closed his eyes, felt tortured. He’d done to Savannah what his father had done to his mother. Not to the extent that Rupert had abused his mother, but Charlie was well on his way. He should have ended things months ago, long before he and Savannah got so attached. He’d known he should have, had repeatedly planned to tell her he needed space, but he just hadn’t been able to step away. Not until the job offer from Nashville came. Then he’d had to face that it was time for him to step out of the picture so both he and Savannah could move on with their lives.

For him, that meant a career bump. For her, he’d thought she’d marry someone who could give her the life she dreamed of and raise a family. She was pregnant. He’d ruined everything for her, stolen her dreams.

His life’s legacy. Dream-stealer.

He swallowed, trying to clear the lump in his throat. “I’m as much to blame for your circumstances as you are. It wouldn’t be right for you to face this alone.”

But, even as he said the words, he acknowledged that she would be alone because he’d be in Nashville, and that was right where he needed to be.

CHAPTER SIX

CHARLIE HAD WANTED her ultrasound information, but hadn’t said he’d be at the appointment. Since he’d asked for the details, Savannah kept glancing up from her magazine toward the entrance to the radiology department waiting area every few seconds, thinking he’d show.

He hadn’t.

Of course he hadn’t.

Today was his last day working at the hospital. There was a going away party for him this afternoon in the break room. Hadn’t she purposely chosen to take today off for her ultrasound appointment so she could miss the goodbye Charlie to-do?

She’d said her own goodbye the night before. That was the only excuse she could come up with for why she’d had sex with him. That and the fact her body craved him. Apparently, immensely disliking him didn’t make a hill of beans’ difference to how her body responded to his.

A pity, really. Maybe goodbye would have been easier had the sex been horrible. Maybe that was what she’d hoped. If so, no such luck. If anything, he’d brought her even higher than she recalled. Must be pregnancy hormones.

The ultrasound tech poked her head out a doorway and called Savannah’s name. She set the magazine she’d been idly glancing through down in the seat next to her, then followed the woman back to the ultrasound room.

The tech gave her instructions to change into the hospital gown, then to lie back on the examination table. When Savannah had changed and was on the table, the woman came back into the room and gave a quick rundown of what to expect.

“Nothing will hurt, but the transvaginal view may be a little uncomfortable. I’ll be as gentle as possible.”

Savannah nodded.

“The conducing gel may be a little cold. Sorry.”

Savannah didn’t care. She couldn’t take her eyes off the computer monitor as images began to appear. She’d seen ultrasounds during nursing school, had helped in labor and delivery during that rotation, but this was different. This was her baby. At first she wasn’t able to distinguish features, but then images became recognizable.

A head. A body. Two arms. Two hands. Fingers. Legs. Toes. With the way the baby was turned she couldn’t tell if the gender was a boy or a girl, but it didn’t matter, just that she was looking at her baby.