The Expectant Executive

“Thank God.” The degree of relief he felt was staggering and his knees wobbled as if they’d turned to rubber.

“She’ll need to be on bed rest for the next few days and I wouldn’t advise traveling for a couple of weeks. But after that, if she doesn’t experience any more problems, she should be able to resume normal activities.” The woman scribbled something on the chart she held, then she looked up and her brown-eyed gaze met his. “And it would be best to refrain from sexual intercourse until she goes back for her next prenatal check.”

“Can I see her?” he asked, anxious to see with his own eyes that Fin was okay.

“She’s getting dressed now,” Dr. Santos said, turning to go back through the swinging doors. “You might want to go get your truck and bring it around to the patient pick-up area.”

He frowned. “You’re sending her home? Shouldn’t you keep her for observation or something?”

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to take Fin back to the ranch. He did. But he wanted the best care possible for her.

“Relax, Mr. Clayton.” The woman’s dark eyes twinkled. “Believe me, she’ll get a lot more rest at home than she would here. And of course, bring her back if she experiences any further problems.”

Five minutes later, when he parked outside of the doors designated for discharged patients, a nurse pushed Fin in a wheelchair out to the truck. Once he had her comfortably settled on the bench seat, he slid in behind the steering wheel and started the thirty-mile drive back to the Silver Moon.

“Did the doctor tell you that I’m going to have to extend my stay with you?”

Fin’s voice sounded weak and shaky and it just about tore him apart. She was one of the strongest women he’d ever met and it took a lot to bring her down. But he had a feeling that she was shaken more by the thought that she could have lost the baby than from physical pain.

“I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to spend the rest of your pregnancy on the Silver Moon,” he said, taking her hand in his.

She gave him a tired smile. “That would be nice, but I need to get back to the magazine.”

Her words were like a sucker punch to his gut and a definite wake-up call for him. Of course, she’d want to get back to that damned magazine and the contest for CEO of her dad’s publishing company. Jess had told him that Fin lived and breathed Charisma. She was the first one in the office in the morning and the last one to go home at night.

He’d lost a lot of sleep speculating on whether anything could ever come of the attraction between them. It looked as if he’d just gotten the answer.

“Ooh. That doesn’t feel good at all,” Fin said, holding her side as she rose to her feet and took a tentative step toward the dresser. She’d known that moving around was going to hurt, but she hadn’t realized how much.

Sitting on the side of Travis’s bed for the past several minutes, she’d been trying to work up the courage to walk over and get her purse. She’d needed to call the office and talk to Cade. He was going to have to assume her duties for the next two weeks and keep Charisma on track to win Patrick’s contest. Even though she had no intention of accepting the position, she wanted to win and prove to Patrick, once and for all, that his daughter wasn’t a complete disappointment.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Travis’s booming voice made her jump and the movement jarred her sore ribs, causing them to hurt more. “I need my cell phone.”

“Why didn’t you ask me to get it for you?” Placing the bed tray he carried on top of the dresser, he helped her back to bed. “Is it in your purse?”

“Yes.” As she reclined against a mountain of pillows, she took shallow breaths until the ache in her side receded. “I need to call the office and have Cade take over for me until I get back.”

He handed her the purse. “Isn’t this his and Jessie’s first day back from the honeymoon?”

Nodding, she dug around in the bottom of the bag for her cell phone. “What a thing to come home to. He’s still basking in the glow of being a newlywed and I’m going to tell him he has to put his nose to the grindstone and not look up until I get back.”

Travis chuckled. “Jess might not take too kindly to that, either.”

“I can almost guarantee that she’ll stay at the office with him.” Laughing, she held her side. “Even laughing hurts.”

His teasing expression changed immediately. “Are you sure you’re all right? No other signs that something else could be wrong?”