Becca's Baby

“You’ll need some time to discuss this with your husband, of course.” Dr. Hall finally broke the silence that had fallen. “Though I wouldn’t recommend taking more than a few days.”

“Yes,” Becca agreed. She needed her husband. It was another of those things, like her age, that she didn’t question.

“I’ll speak to him, too, if you’d like,” the woman added softly.

“Thank you.”

The doctor stood, so Becca did, too, taking the doctor’s hand as it was extended.

“As soon as you decide to go forward as I’ve recommended, I can perform the operation right here at the hospital as an outpatient procedure.”

“Procedure?” Becca asked. The blankness that had overtaken her mind was scaring her.

“The pregnancy termination,” Dr. Hall said. “I’d like to give you all the time you need, but as I’ve already explained, you’re at least two months along, which doesn’t leave us more than a few weeks to do this as safely as possible. The sooner we can get it done, the better.”

Termination? Becca started to panic. Dr. Hall said that so matter-of-factly. As if there really was something within Becca to terminate.

“Thank you,” Becca said once more. She had no idea why, but it seemed appropriate. And if she had nothing else, she always had her manners.

Somehow she made it out of the office. Into the mild March day, lifting her face to the sun’s warming rays. Arizona sunshine. It felt so good. So warm and enveloping. So strong and reassuring. So normal.

How could anything feel normal when everything inside Becca, everything she’d ever been, had changed?

And how could she just get in her car as if the world hadn’t permanently altered, shifted completely off its axis?

“You okay, lady?’

Focusing on the young man who’d stopped his bicycle beside her in the parking lot, Becca tried to smile. “Fine, thank you.”

And then, because he seemed

to expect it, she unlocked her car, opened the driver’s door and slid inside.

No, she wasn’t okay.

She was pregnant.

CHAPTER TWO

THE SLEEK MIDNIGHT-BLUE Thunderbird swallowed the miles, traveling highways, city streets, even, for a brief turn, a desert track. Becca was tempted to just let the beautiful car rest out there in the middle of nowhere, cacti and skillfully concealed roadrunners its only company. She was going nowhere. Might as well be out here, where human reality hadn’t reached yet.

She was pregnant. Finally. A baby of her own was growing inside her. The sudden elation took her breath away. And then brought it back in a whoosh of nervous excitement.

Which was followed almost immediately by an incredible rush of fear.

Her stomach lurched. She had a major problem. Spurred by thoughts she had to keep at bay, she jerked the car into gear and drove off again, leaving a huge cloud of dust in her wake. The two-hour trip from Tucson to Shelter Valley had taken four and she wasn’t even close to home.

Despite an entire town of family and friends ahead of her, she’d never felt so alone in her life. This was her body. Her problem.

Her prayers of more than twenty years had been answered. But answered too late?

Becca knew one thing for sure. She was scared to death.

Finding the freeway that led to Shelter Valley, she turned her powerful car toward the town that had everything she needed—security, happiness, love. Home. And picked up her cell phone.

Her chances of getting anyone were slim, which might have been why she was finally ready to try.

“Tucson Women’s Health Clinic. May I help you?”