The Nurse's Baby Secret

“Not a very good story ending.”

Savannah frowned. “For someone who really hasn’t said much about my breakup with Charlie, you sure are talkative tonight.”

“I’ve been holding my tongue because I thought you two would eventually figure out what is so obvious.”

“And what’s that?”

“That you love each other.”

Walls went up and sirens blared. “You’re wrong.”

“About him or you?”

“Both.”

Her mother stared at her for a few minutes, then leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Just think about the things I’ve said. We all make mistakes, Charlie included. Maybe it’s time for you to acknowledge that you made a mistake in letting him leave.”

Savannah stood, hugged her mother goodbye, then sank back onto her sofa.

Her mother was wrong.

She didn’t love Charlie. That was gone.

Sure she missed him and still thought he was the sexiest man alive, but love? How could you love someone who had walked away from you of his own free will?

Her shoulders lifted at the memory of the pain she’d felt that night.

You didn’t love someone who had hurt you that way.

She’d not heard from Charlie. Not a peep. She’d thought he would at least text to check on her, but he hadn’t.

Then again, she’d not texted him, either. She’d thought about it multiple times, such as the evening she’d come back to Chattanooga, the night before her first shift back at the hospital, that night when she’d gotten home. She’d thought about him almost non-stop, but she didn’t text and she didn’t call.

What would be the point? The fact that she’d stayed with him in Nashville while recuperating had changed nothing, not really, even if their truce had clouded her mind.

Had reminded her of all the reasons she’d fallen for him to begin with. Things she’d just as soon not have remembered.

Leaning back on her sofa, her feet propped up on the coffee table, she picked up her phone and stared at it.

What would he do if she texted him?

Would he answer?

Was he at home or still at work?

She’d been gone three weeks. Did he miss her? Miss eating together and playing games together and just having her in his apartment? Did he want her back?

Then again, why would he?

He’d left Chattanooga when she’d been at her best, when they’d been at their best, and he’d gone anyway.

She didn’t want him back. She’d moved on the best a pregnant woman could. They’d had something good and he’d thrown it away for reasons she still didn’t fully understand.

He’d nailed home the lessons her mother had taught her about not depending upon anyone other than herself. She shouldn’t have. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.

Tossing the phone onto the other side of the sofa, she closed her eyes.

That was when she felt the first one.