Her Secret, His Baby

“Probably. I feel silly being here, but I think I fainted. Heart beating too fast, got dizzy...”

“Then you did the right thing by coming in.” The blonde eyed Garrett with blatant curiosity but didn’t ask who he was. “You two have a seat and fill out the forms on this clipboard. Oh, and this one for Obstetrics.” She passed over a pale green sheet of paper.

Garrett caught sight of a long list of questions. None seemed as crucial as the one looming in his mind. Who the hell is the father?

“Need any help with those?” he offered.

“No!” Arden clutched the paperwork to her chest, not meeting his eyes. “I got it.”

They sat down and she fumbled through her purse, retrieving her license and insurance card. Her hands were shaky as she muttered, “Damn, I hate hospitals.”

He’d never thought much about them one way or the other. It occurred to him that Will Harlow could be in a hospital bed at this very moment, praying that his biological son agreed to give up a kidney.

Fury filled him, resentment at the secrets that had been kept. He struggled to keep his voice soft, nonthreatening. “Arden, you owe me an answer.” At least here, if she became overwrought by his questioning, there were medical professionals twenty feet away.

“I know.” She turned to him, the tears shimmering in her apologetic gaze an unmistakable reply. Still, he couldn’t quite force himself to accept the truth until she added out loud, “It’s you. You’re the baby’s father.”

Garrett hadn’t thought he could ever be more shocked than when he’d learned about his mother and Will. He’d been wrong. I’m a dad? If he hadn’t retreated to Cielo Peak to cope with the last bombshell a lying woman had dropped on him, he never would have known.

He clenched his fists against his thighs. “What were you planning to tell the kid? Children should know who their fathers are!”

The clipboard trembled in her grasp. “To be honest, I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I was already a couple of months pregnant by the time I realized what had happened, and the discovery was mind-blowing. I needed time to adjust.”

He knew the feeling. But he was too angry to sympathize.

“Garrett, I—”

“Someone from Obstetrics is on the way down with a wheelchair.” The blonde admissions nurse walked toward them. “They’ll get you in a real room instead of one of these E.R. cubicles, probably put you on a fetal monitor for an hour or so to make sure the baby’s not in distress. Ask you some questions, maybe take some blood, check for anemia. You want me to contact either of your brothers, hon?”

“No! The last thing Colin needs is another phone call from a hospital E.R.,” Arden said adamantly. “And I figure calling Justin would be awkward for you.”

“You mean because he dumped me?” the woman asked with a wry smile. She seemed more amused than heartbroken. “Don’t worry, I knew what I was getting into with that one. It was fun while it lasted. Talking to him won’t upset me, I promise. Would you like him to be here?”

“Not unless I’m going to need the ride.” Arden slid a questioning glance in Garrett’s direction. “Are you planning to stick around?”

He folded his arms over his chest, smiling for the nurse’s benefit. “You couldn’t get rid of me if you tried, sweetheart.”

* * *

ARDEN STUDIED THE ceiling intently, as if the answers to her problems might magically be found in the speckled tiles overhead. She’d gained a momentary reprieve when Garrett stepped out of the room so she could change, but he’d be knocking on the door any second. She hadn’t missed his smirk when she’d asked for the privacy—after all, he’d already seen her naked. That was how they’d landed in this mess.

“Not that I think you’re making a mess of my life,” she whispered guiltily, as if the baby had heard her tormented thoughts. Arden was plenty grateful for her child. She was just second-guessing her decision to raise the child alone, Garrett none the wiser. But I am alone. She and Garrett had no real history or future. How was she going to share the most precious thing in her life with a man she barely knew?

Instead of knocking, Garrett cracked the door open a quarter of an inch, calling out before entering. “You decent in there?”

In a thin piece of fabric that tied behind her and left most of her back exposed? Hardly. “Close enough, I guess.”

He strolled into the room, filling it with his size. Having grown up with brothers, she normally found the presence of a strong man comfortingly familiar. But now trepidation rippled through her. Her brothers had never been as furious with her as Garrett seemed.

She expected him to interrogate her about the baby, but he surprised her. “That nurse downstairs—” he began.

“Sonja.”

“She asked about your brothers. Not your parents?”

Arden kneaded the hospital blanket that covered her lap. “They’re both dead. My brothers are pretty much all I have.”

“Two of them, right? Colin and Justin?” At her nod, he continued. “Is this why Justin looked like he wanted to put his fist through my face at the grocery store—because I got you pregnant?”

“I think...” She averted her gaze. “I’m not sure what he picked up on between us, but I think he suspects you’re the dad. He couldn’t know for sure, though. I never told anyone who the father was.”

“No kidding.” Despite his soft tone, the biting sarcasm in his voice made her flinch.

“Garrett, I’m sorry. I—”

“Don’t!” This time, he wasn’t soft-spoken at all. Even he looked taken aback by the vehement outburst. He cleared his throat. “I’ve heard that particular phrase far more than any man should in one week. Enough already.”

She frowned. Someone besides her had reason to apologize to him? Whoever it was should feel grateful to Arden—it was doubtful anyone else’s transgression topped hers.

Garrett paced the room. Although he might have regained verbal control, forcing himself to sound calm, he couldn’t mask the tension radiating from his body. “So is there a specific reason you hate hospitals? You mentioned Colin and emergency rooms. Did—”

“Knock, knock!” The cheerful voice preceded a gray-haired doctor poking his head inside the room. “I’m Dr. Wallace. I hear we’re having some dizziness and tachycardia today?”

Why did doctors speak in plural like that, Arden wondered, as if using the royal we? “Does tachycardia mean my heart tried to pound through my chest?” she asked wearily.

“It’s when your heart beats abnormally fast, yes. There are several reasons it can happen during pregnancy.” Dr. Wallace went over the possibilities while looking at the vitals the nurse had collected. Then he checked the baby’s heartbeat. “Just a precaution, of course. We have no reason to think anything’s wrong with the little guy. Or gal.”

Arden had grown accustomed to the use of fetal dopplers in her OB appointments and the reassuring whoosh-whoosh sound, but she’d forgotten this was Garrett’s first time. He went completely still, the restless anger that had been palpable a few minutes ago fading into wonderment. His eyes widened.

“That’s the heartbeat?” he asked reverently. “It’s fast.”

“Well within the standard range,” Dr. Wallace assured them. But as Nurse Sonja had predicted, the doctor wanted to monitor Arden and the baby for some readings before letting them leave the hospital. He pushed Arden’s gown up farther, the preliminary gel a cool tickle against her skin.

Although the sheet on the hospital bed kept her lower half covered, embarrassment heated her face. The last time Garrett had seen her unclothed, she’d looked a lot different than she did now.

When she was younger, Arden had stayed in shape by trying to keep up with her two athletic brothers. She’d been trim most of her life, and grief after Natalie’s and Danny’s deaths had robbed her of her appetite. Since her pregnancy had begun to show, she’d often felt awkward, but never fat—a growing baby was a healthy one. At the moment, however, vanity reared its head. Would Garrett be repulsed by her swollen body?

Why should you care if he is? Their night together had been amazing, but it had also been a one-time occurrence. It wasn’t as if she wanted him to find her attractive. Even if she did, she suspected not contacting him about the baby had forever tarnished her in Garrett’s eyes.

Within moments, the doctor had the sensors in place. “You try to relax, young lady, and I’ll be back to check on you later. Meanwhile, I’ll have the nurse bring you some water. It’s important to stay hydrated.”

All too soon, he was gone, leaving her and Garrett alone once more.

“You want to have a seat?” she offered. It was a small room, and the only chair would put him in uncomfortably close proximity to her. Yet almost anything seemed preferable to his earlier pacing. His taut strides made her think of caged predators.

He sat, but kept shifting position, obviously ill-at-ease. “Have you, um, had other problems during the pregnancy? Everything okay with you and the baby?”

“The doctors say everything’s normal, even my being sick as a dog well into the second trimester.” But she worried sometimes. It was frustrating to wake up with a sharp pain at three in the morning and have no one she could talk to about her fears. Early on, she’d posted a question to an online forum for soon-to-be-mothers. Despite a couple of helpful responses, the possibility of misinformation and the discovery that some people were far too willing to share horror stories had kept her from doing so again. “Apparently nausea can be a good sign that the baby’s nice and strong. Plus, my being too sick to run the office alone led to hiring Layla, and she became a good friend. I...needed a friend.”