The Good Father

The way he was looking at her, eyebrow raised, he seemed to have something else on his mind.

Not that she knew him that well yet. He’d agreed to take things slow. She’d told him a bit about Chloe and Cody staying with her. About Jeff. As reasons why she couldn’t jump into anything with both feet at the moment.

They had dinner a couple times a week. Saw each other at work.

And he still made her laugh.

“I hate to ask this, especially in light of my hope that we’re on our way to being exclusive, but have you... Is there any chance you could be pregnant?”

“No!” Her response was immediate. And followed by another severe bout of nausea. She made it to her private bathroom. But just barely. And was embarrassed as hell when she took the moistened towel he handed her when she was done.

He was a doctor. He dealt with bodily functions every day.

But not hers.

Ella wiped her face, sitting on the floor of the bathroom, leaning back against the wall. She didn’t trust herself to stray far from the commode. And the cold tile felt good.

Jason stood along the opposite wall, his lab coat giving him a sense of authority that she didn’t need right then.

“I can’t be pregnant, Jason.”

“I can’t tell you how glad I am to hear that.”

He didn’t want kids. It was one of the things that had drawn her to him in the first place.

She told him about her medical condition. About the years of treatments that had been necessary to help her conceive. About losing her baby. Leaving out the part about Brett not wanting the baby and retaining a divorce attorney.

“Have you had normal periods since you lost the baby?” He was frowning. And sounded so doctor like.

Her stomach felt sick again. “Up until recently, yes.”

“As you know, metabolic irregularities cover such a broad range, you don’t always hear or understand everything about them,” he said, looking more serious than ever. “But you should have been told...sometimes—not always of course, but sometimes—pregnancy corrects the irregularity in certain hormonal imbalances, allowing a woman who couldn’t conceive on her own prior to the pregnancy to conceive quite naturally afterward. Regular periods could indicate such a correction.”

Oh, God. She might have been told. She couldn’t remember a lot about the time immediately following her miscarriage. She’d been too busy grieving.

And divorcing. Paralyzed, Ella sat on the floor, staring up at Jason as he said, “Doctors don’t always mention the possibility, depending on the circumstances, because there’s not enough known about why it does or does not happen, but, there are enough marked instances that we know that it can. Anyway...I find it interesting that you tell me you can’t get pregnant, not that you haven’t been with anyone recently.”

She knew the exact second that realization dawned on him. Knew, too, that he’d probably read the truth in her expression.

The timing had been right when she’d been on the boat with Brett. If she were a woman who ovulated normally, she could have conceived...

Afraid she might be sick again, she leaned her head back against the wall and said, “It’s not what you think.”

She wouldn’t have blamed him if he walked out on her. She’d been free to sleep with Brett. But when Jason had asked her if she’d been in a relationship recently, she’d told him the truth. That she hadn’t.

“I’m assuming this is why you’ve wanted to go slowly with us? Because there’s someone else?”

She didn’t hear any recrimination in his voice.

“There is no one else.” But yes, the fact that she’d slept with her ex-husband seven weeks and six days ago did probably sway her decision to take things slowly with Jason. Mostly, it had been the fact that she was still in love with Brett that had done it, though. And sitting there on the bathroom floor, Ella told Jason about Brett. The divorce. And his recent advent into her life. When Jason reached out a hand to her, suggesting with more kindness than she felt she deserved, that they go do a blood test, Ella had a feeling, as she knew he did, that they weren’t going to get the answer they wanted.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

OH, GOD. SHE was pregnant. For the second day in a row, Ella took half a day’s leave and left work before she was scheduled. She didn’t go anywhere in particular. Just drove around.

Alone.

Jason had asked if she wanted company. He’d offered to spend the evening with her. But she had a feeling he was going to be distancing himself from her life fairly quickly.