Her Secret Valentine

“Well, you’re not anemic,” Carlotta announced, breezing in. Her cheerful grin confirmed what Ashley already knew in her heart. “And it looks as though the stork is going to be paying you two a visit next August.”

Ashley drew a deep breath as her old friend started the physical exam by taking her blood pressure and listening to her heart and lungs.

“You’re sure?”

Carlotta nodded. “Even without the test, I would have known. I’m surprised you and Cal didn’t pick up on the signs. Your breasts appear swollen and you’ve got blue and pink lines beneath the skin.” Carlotta moved to the end of the exam table while Ashley slid her feet into the stirrups and slid down.

Carlotta donned gloves and continued the physical exam. “Your uterus is enlarged and soft. Yep, you’re definitely pregnant, all right.”

Finished, Carlotta gave Ashley a hand and helped her sit up.

Ashley sat there, completely stunned. “Why don’t you get dressed and then we’ll talk in my office?” Carlotta said gently.

A few minutes later, wearing the same comfortable pale-blue sweats she had worn on the plane back from Hawaii, Ashley entered Carlotta’s office. “Well,” she said, as she sank into a seat. “This certainly explains why I’ve gained over five pounds in two months and suddenly none of my pants with waistbands fit.”

“I take it pregnancy wasn’t in the plans you and Cal have been making?” Carlotta said delicately.

Ashley shook her head. “We haven’t even discussed children since the first couple of months we were married.” Then they had both thought about having a child, except it hadn’t worked out, and shortly after that, the troubles in their marriage had begun.

Carlotta handed Ashley a month’s supply of prenatal vitamin samples. “You think he doesn’t want children?”

Ashley hesitated. She was bewildered to discover she no longer knew the answer to that. “It’s just…”

“I understand. It’s a life-altering event, no matter how it occurs. But for the record, I think Cal would be very happy.” Carlotta paused. “I mean, you are planning to tell him, aren’t you?”

Happiness bubbled up inside Ashley, followed quickly by fear, and a disturbing feeling of déjà vu. “Yes, of course I’m going to tell Cal, as soon as I hit the three-month mark and pass the danger of miscarriage.”

Carlotta blinked. “You’re sure you want to wait that long?”

Ashley knew from her own patients that most women couldn’t wait to tell their husbands.

“Yes.” For very good reason.

Carlotta did some quick calculations, and grinned as she jumped to the logical conclusion. “Valentine’s Day, huh?” Carlotta teased.

Ashley smiled. Now—heaven willing—she knew exactly what she was going to give her husband for Valentine’s Day. And it beat the heck out of any car, even a red ’64 Mustang convertible. “Promise me.” Ashley looked Carlotta in the eye and did her best to quell her nervousness. “Not a word to anyone, even your husband, until I give the okay.”

Carlotta crossed her heart. “You have my word. Now, is there anything else you want to discuss?”

Ashley sobered. “As a matter of fact,” she related unhappily as she prepared to fill her friend in on the most private parts of her medical history, “there is.”

“YOU HAVEN’T HEARD a word I’ve said, have you?” Cal said in frustration several hours later.

Ashley flushed guiltily and looked across the kitchen table at him. They’d been having dinner for a good twenty minutes now, and although he had been talking nonstop about the case he’d seen earlier and the difficulties the surgery presented, she had heard only a smidgen of it. Which had been most unlike her. Usually, she loved hearing about Cal’s cases, and vice versa. Medicine was the one thing they could always talk about.