The Christmas Bouquet

A wave of relief washed over him at the sincerity he heard in her voice, at the commitment shining in her eyes. He knew he could trust her to keep her word. Now he just had to pray that whatever went on with her family would work in his favor.

2 (#ulink_eeafa920-b5e6-5566-b8a8-7b1454d69290)

With every mile that brought her closer to Chesapeake Shores, the knot of dread in Caitlyn’s stomach seemed to tighten. It was the first time ever she hadn’t been eager to get back to see her large rambunctious family. They could be overwhelming at times, but she’d grown up never doubting how much she was loved. In fact, that had given her the strength and confidence to choose the path she’d chosen for her future. She’d known there were too many children in the world who didn’t have that powerful support system, who didn’t even have the basic necessities.

She’d spent most of the drive trying not only to summon the courage to reveal her secret, but trying to decide the first person she should tell. There was little question that her mother would empathize. She’d had to make her share of difficult decisions to balance love and career and family. She’d even given up her dream job as a successful stockbroker in New York to take over the Baltimore office of her brokerage company so she could be closer to Chesapeake Shores and her new family with Trace.

Caitlyn pulled to the side of the road. She drew in a deep breath, then hit speed dial on her cell phone. When her mom’s delighted voice filled the car, she immediately felt her anxiety ease.

“Hey, sweetheart, how are you?” her mother asked. “I’ve been thinking about you a lot this week. We miss you.”

“I miss you, too,” Caitlyn said. “As a matter of fact, I’m on my way home. Are you in Chesapeake Shores or at the Baltimore office?”

“Lucky for you, I’ve been working from home today,” Abby said. “Why didn’t you let us know you were coming? I’d have cooked.”

Caitlyn laughed. “No, you wouldn’t. You would have called Aunt Jess and asked her to send over some food from the Inn at Eagle Point,” she teased. “There’s still time to do that. I’m about thirty minutes away. I could pick it up.”

“What a great idea! Why don’t you do that. I’ll call Jess as soon as I get off the phone.” She hesitated. “Caitlyn, are you sure everything’s okay? You never pop in unexpectedly like this. You always let us know when you’re coming. Has something happened at the hospital? Is your work going okay? Medical school’s not getting to be too much for you, is it?”

“Everything’s fine,” Caitlyn assured her automatically. She forced herself to amend that. “But maybe you and I could find a little time to talk after dinner. I’d like your advice about something.”

“Now I’m really worried,” Abby said, only half in jest. “I’ll tell Jess we’re going to need one of those chocolate decadence cakes to go along with some serious conversation.”

Caitlyn laughed despite her somber mood. “You always want one of those cakes. I’ve just given you the perfect excuse to order it without guilt. You can blame all those calories on me.”

“Too true,” her mom said. “My hips won’t thank you, but I do. See you soon.”

Caitlyn disconnected the call and sighed. There, she thought. She’d laid the groundwork. She doubted, though, that in her wildest dreams her mother could possibly imagine the news that she was coming home to share.

* * *

Noah didn’t have a lot of buddies, at least not the kind he could call and join for a beer and a serious discussion about what was going on in his life. He had a few basketball pals, but their conversations were superficial and mostly limited to medicine and sports. On top of that, they were rarely available on a Friday night. If they weren’t on duty at the hospital, they’d be home with their families or out on dates.

Since he knew he’d probably lose his mind sitting around his apartment and waiting for word from Caitlyn, he switched rotations with one of the other residents and went to the hospital for the Friday-night shift.

Thankfully, it was a quiet start to the weekend, because his concentration was shot. He knew he was in bad shape when the head nurse on duty pulled him aside after rounds.

“What’s with you, Noah?” Jill Marshall asked. “I’ve known you since the first day you set foot in this hospital, and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen you be abrupt with a patient.” She gave him a long look, then added, “Ray Simpson.”

He regarded her with dismay and went over his conversation with Ray in his head. He winced when he realized she was right. He’d practically cut the man off in midsentence.

“I’ll go back in there and apologize,” he said at once. “I have a lot on my mind, but I shouldn’t be taking it out on a patient.”

“It must be pretty serious,” she said, regarding him worriedly. “How about a cup of coffee instead? I’m a good listener. Maybe you should get this off your chest before you tick off another patient. You can go back to see Mr. Simpson afterward. He’s in traction. He isn’t going anywhere.”

Since Jill was in her fifties and had been a head nurse long before he’d turned up at the hospital as a green intern, Noah knew the offer was well-meant. She might treat the physicians with the utmost respect, but she mothered the med students, interns and even the residents. If anything other than Caitlyn’s pregnancy were on his mind, he’d accept her offer eagerly. She’d proven herself to be a good sounding board on many occasions.

“I could probably use the coffee,” he admitted. “But can we skip the heart-to-heart?”

She frowned at that. “How am I supposed to help if you won’t tell me what’s worrying you?”

“Just knowing you care helps a lot,” he said.

She rolled her eyes at that, but led the way to the empty nurses’ lounge and poured them both cups of coffee strong enough to keep the most exhausted person on staff wide-awake and alert.

“I thought you took this weekend off so you and Caitlyn could have some time together,” she commented as she handed him his coffee.

Noah chuckled at her attempt at an innocent interrogation. “Something came up. She had to drive down to Chesapeake Shores to see her family.”

“And you didn’t want to go along? You had the time off, after all.”

“It wasn’t the right time,” he said.

She gave him a direct look. “Okay, I know I’m butting in here, but are the two of you serious or not?”

“We are,” he said a little too emphatically.

“Then I really don’t get it. Have you even met her family? They live practically up the street.”

“It’s a little farther away than that,” he responded, then sighed. “But I know what you mean. It’s complicated.”

“Complicated how?”

“I can’t explain it,” he admitted.

“Because she won’t explain it to you,” Jill guessed. “Noah, you know we all love Caitlyn to pieces. She’s going to be an incredible physician, every bit as talented as you. Personally, I think the two of you are perfect for each other. But if she’s holding you at arm’s length, whatever her reasons for it, maybe you need to think about moving on. It’s not normal for a woman supposedly in love to be deliberately keeping you away from her family.”

She allowed that to sink in, then added, “You’re an incredible man. I know a half-dozen women on staff who’d give their right arms to have you glance at them twice. Believe me, any one of them would be thrilled to drag you home to meet Mom and Dad.”

Noah appreciated what she was saying, but he wasn’t interested. “That’s very flattering, but Caitlyn’s the one for me.”

She held his gaze and asked gently, “But are you the one for her?”

“I am,” he said readily.

He had to be, he told himself. Especially now.

* * *

Caitlyn managed to get through dinner with her mother and Trace without giving anything away. She even played with her little half brother, Patrick Donovan Riley, for a few minutes before he went down for the night. Her last words as she tucked him in were, “Don’t you dare let Grandpa Mick insist on calling you Paddy, okay? It should be enough for Grandpa that your cousin Luke has an Irish pub called O’Brien’s right here in town. We don’t need to be obsessive about the whole Irish thing.”

“’Kay,” he mumbled sleepily as his eyes drifted shut.

She lingered in his room, trying to imagine herself with a child his age in a few years. How crazy would that be? And how on earth would it work if she were in some isolated part of the world? Would Noah insist that their child remain with him wherever he located and opened his practice? Was that one of the possibilities? Could she accept being separated from her child, even temporarily? And what about Noah? Could she live with being separated from him? Until now it had seemed a distant problem, one it would be years before she had to resolve. Now it was all too depressingly complicated with no obvious solutions, at least none she’d managed to come up with on her own.

When she got downstairs, she found her mother in the kitchen, putting the last of the dishes into the dishwasher.

“Where’s Trace?” Caitlyn asked.