The Surgeon's Miracle / Dr Di Angelo's Baby Bombshell (25 page)

Planning to lock her purse in her desk drawer, she stepped into the hallway separating her and Blake’s offices.

They rarely shut their office doors, so as usual his was open. His voice carried out into the hallway.

“I’ll swing by and do rounds before I go home tonight.”

Darby’s gaze was drawn to where he sat at his desk. His dark head was bent, studying a paper on his desk while he spoke on the phone. Would their baby have his dark eyes and hair? His superb bone structure? His quick wit and smile?

The depth of emotion swamping her stunned her. Never had she considered getting pregnant, but she wanted Blake’s baby.

Unaware that she watched him, he initialed the paper, then flipped to the next. “Go ahead and draw another CBC. I’ll check the results when I’m there later.” He glanced up, saw her. His mouth tightened into a thin line of displeasure.

An intense longing for the days when he would wink or grin or motion for her to come into his office hit Darby.

She was pregnant.

With his baby.

Oh, Blake.

Of their own accord, her hands went to her belly.

His narrowed gaze lowered, widened, then rose to hers, full of wonder and question.

Darby’s stomach lurched. He knew.

She had never been good at hiding her emotions.
Why would an unexpected pregnancy be the exception? She should have known Blake would take one look at her and know.

Whether or not she was ready to share her news, Blake knew.

They were going to be parents.

“I’
VE
got to go,” Blake told the nurse he spoke with, his gaze never moving from Darby’s guilty face. “I’ll take care of anything else when I’m at the hospital.”

An invisible hand kneading his insides, he hung up the phone and stared at the pale woman standing outside his office, watching him with mounting horror.

Was she?

Her mouth opened, almost as if she’d heard his silent question, but no words came out.

No denial. Only her hand lying protectively over her lower abdomen. Which was really the only answer needed.

Oh, hell.

Darby was pregnant.

His legs trembled at the implications of those three little words. Darby was pregnant.

His hands shook.

His stomach twisted.

His brain throbbed.

His heart squeezed.

Darby was pregnant.

Unsure if his legs would work, he pushed out from his desk, held on to the corner for support as he stood.

He was going to be a father.

Him.

He’d always thought that someday he’d marry, have children, pass on his grandfather’s name—but now? Never had he had those thoughts in correlation with anytime soon.

“Darby?”

She shook her head, held up her hand to ward him off, almost as if she couldn’t catch her breath. Her eyes had widened to tumultuous deep blue seas.

Did she think he’d be angry at her?

Never.

If anything, he was angry at himself. Clearly he’d been the one with the experience. He had no one to blame except himself for their mistake. His eyes dropped to her belly and he winced.

Mistake.

The idea that he’d thought of his child, his baby, as a mistake sucker-punched him.

His grandfather would roll with shame. Nothing was more precious than family.

If Darby was pregnant, he’d accept that fate and embrace the future, embrace the baby they’d made together, and somehow they’d make it work.

“We need to talk.”

Her vocal cords apparently not working, she silently nodded, stepped into his office.

Blake shut the door behind her, not wanting their conversation to be overheard by any of their staff.

“You’re pregnant.” He didn’t ask it as a question. Not when he could so clearly read the truth on her face.

Her eyes searching his, she nodded again.

He didn’t ask if the baby was his. Didn’t ask how far along. He didn’t need to.

His thoughts reeling, he sank onto the corner of his desk. “How do you feel about that?”

Her face pinched and she found her voice. “What do you mean, how do I feel about that? I’m floored.”

Blake stared at her, wondering if he’d said the wrong thing. Hell, what was the right thing in this situation? Was he supposed to say he’d be there every step of the way with her? That he’d go to Lamaze classes and be in the delivery room? That he’d be an active father in their child’s life? Was he supposed to tell her that he was as floored as she was, but that this was their baby they were talking about and, floored or not, he’d be the kind of father he’d never had?

A million thoughts, a million questions, ran through his mind all at once. Questions he didn’t have the answers to. The woman who did have those answers stood before him with pink tingeing her cheeks.

“What do you expect of me?” Did she want him to propose? To give their child legitimacy?

She blinked. “Expect of you?”

“What do you want me to do, Darby? Marry you? Agree to support you financially?” Blake’s throat tightened, his hands sweated, his heart pounded. “Tell me what you expect of me and how all this makes you feel so I know what I need to do.”

Was Blake kidding? Darby stared at the man leaning on his desk and wondered if she’d ever known him at all. Had he really just asked what she
expected
of him? How she felt about being pregnant?

“Nothing.” She wished she had something to throw
at him. Something hard. And sharp. Her gaze landed on the stress relief ball. That soft little thing wouldn’t begin to relieve the stress mounting inside her. Not even if the ball smacked him square between the eyes. “I don’t expect anything from you.”

“Every woman expects something from the man who’s gotten her pregnant.”

“You’ve already done more than enough.”

“It’s too late to point fingers, Darby. I take full responsibility. I know your baby’s mine.”

She hadn’t even considered that he might think otherwise, so his comment stung even more.

She pressed her fingertip to her throbbing temple, hoping to calm the wild pulse hammering there. “You want to know how I feel? What I expect? I don’t know, Blake. I only just did the test, and I don’t know how I feel about any of this.”

“You missed your period? That’s why you did the test?”

Give Sherlock a cookie.

“I’m a week late.” She glanced at him, tried not to wince at the tight lines of his face. How could he look so familiar, and yet so alien at the same time? “I kept telling myself stress was causing my missed cycle, but…”

“It wasn’t.”

She dug in her purse, pulled out the plastic kit from where she’d slid it inside the wrapper, and handed the confirmation of her suspicions to him.

“No.”

Blake studied the plastic wand with eyes darker than she recalled ever seeing them. So dark they paled the night sky.

“You’re pregnant.”

Yes, they’d already established that.

Her legs growing weak beneath her, she sat down on the edge of his desk, next to him.

“I’m pregnant.”

The rest of Blake’s evening passed in a blur.

No wonder.

He was going to be a father.

How had that happened?

He knew
how
that had happened, just…Blake knocked on Darby’s front door, wishing she’d hurry and let him into the apartment she’d lived in since they were in medical school.

An apartment that wouldn’t be big enough for her and a baby.

She’d need more space—a place with a yard big enough for a swing and a sandbox.

When she opened the door, his heart lurched at her red-rimmed, swollen eyes. All day he’d been caught up in his own feelings about Darby’s news. He’d asked how she felt, but truth was he’d asked in regard to how her feelings affected
him.

How could he have been so callous?

“You’ve been crying.”

Emitting a low sniffle, she rolled her puffy eyes at him. “So? Pregnant women cry.”

He supposed they did.

“Are you going to invite me in?”

Sighing, she stepped back, waited for him to enter the apartment, then shut the door.

He sat down on her living room sofa, looking around for something to focus on besides the woman he wanted to take into his arms and promise it would all be all right. Somehow.

“You said you wanted to come by so we could talk,” she reminded him. “I don’t know what to say, Blake, so you’re going to have to do the talking.”

He didn’t know where to start.

“I’m sorry I put you in this position.”

She didn’t glance at him, just sank onto an over-stuffed chair at the far end of the sofa and curled her legs beneath her. “You weren’t the only one in that hotel room. My getting pregnant took both of us.”

That it had. Blake vividly recalled just what the two of them had done to get her pregnant, was haunted by the memories every time he closed his eyes, every time he saw her.

“We can’t change the past.”

“No,” he agreed, wondering when talking to Darby had gotten so difficult, when he’d gotten self-conscious of each word. Of course he knew the precise moment. When they’d become lovers. He ached for his easy relationship with Darby, ached for what he’d lost in her friendship, her partnership. But she was right. They couldn’t change the past. “Which leaves us trying to make the best of the future.”

Her head lowered to her hands. “Agreed.”

“I know you got upset when I asked this earlier, but my question was a legitimate one.” He moved to the end of the sofa closest to her, reached for her hand, but she jerked away, shaking her head rapidly back and forth.

Trying to convince himself that Darby’s rejection wasn’t the cause of the sharp pain slashing across his chest, Blake sighed. “Tell me what you want, Darby?”

What
did
she want? Darby wondered.

“I want us to go back to the way we were,” she
admitted, surprised at her candor, but figuring at this point she had nothing to lose. She’d already lost the best thing in her life, the thing she’d had for years yet hadn’t had at all—him. “I miss my partner and friend.”

He nodded as if he understood. “I’ve missed you, too.”

He had? “Have you? I haven’t gotten that impression these past few weeks.”

“Our friendship and business relationship was special to me. I hate that we let sex come between that.”

Friendship. Business relationship. Sex.

Darby winced.

“Our relationship won’t ever be the same, Darby. No matter how hard we try, we can’t go back to how things were.”

Perhaps she’d said the wrong thing. Because she really didn’t want what they’d had before. She wanted what she’d had in Alabama. She wanted Blake to be in love with her. For real.

She wanted to look into his eyes and see desire and love for her.

She wanted him to feel the same about her as she felt about him.

Because she was in love with Blake.

“I don’t want to go back to how things were.”

His brow arched. “You don’t? But didn’t you just say…?”

She shook her head. “I thought that was what I wanted, but I want more.”

Eyes narrowed, Blake worked his throat, gulped. “More?”

So much had happened in the past few hours that it probably wasn’t wise to make grand life decisions, but
Darby did. In her heart she knew she was making the right choice.

“I want to sell my half of the clinic to you, Blake. I’m going home.”

“No.” Steely determination shone in his eyes.

Darby frowned. “What do you mean, no? No, you don’t want to buy my half of the clinic?” She shrugged. “Fine. I’ll find another doctor to buy my half out. Our business contract reads that we have to offer each other first option, so that’s what I was doing.”

“I’m not buying your half of the clinic because you aren’t selling.” His tone brooked no argument.

Not quite believing his reaction, Darby stared at him, more determined than ever that she was making the right choice for her and the baby. “Actually, I am. I’m going home.”

“Knoxville is your home.”

“No,” she sighed. “It’s not. I belong in Armadillo Lake. They need a doctor.”

“You don’t belong there. You blackmailed me into going to your high school reunion so you wouldn’t have to go there alone.”

“I was an immature young girl who held on to her hurt way too long and let those hurts influence life decisions in ways I shouldn’t have.”

“What about me?”

He’d been the main reason she’d stayed in Knoxville. She’d wanted to be near him. Still, there was more to think about than her or Blake. She had to consider what was right for their baby.

“What about you?”

Good question. One Blake didn’t have an answer to. He didn’t have answers to anything. Just knew that he didn’t want Darby to leave Knoxville.

Didn’t want her to leave him.

She might not feel she belonged here, but Blake did. For the first time in his life he belonged somewhere, truly felt at home.

Darby couldn’t just rip that feeling all to pieces.

He wouldn’t let her.

“I have rights, too, you know.”

Her forehead wrinkled. “Rights?”

“Regarding your pregnancy. Moving doesn’t just affect you. Where you live affects me and my relationship with our child.”

Darby’s mouth dropped. “I wouldn’t stop you from seeing our baby. You should know that, Blake.”

“Should I?” Pain at the thought of his world being ripped apart clouded his judgement and he lashed out. “How do I know you aren’t moving home to pick things up with Nix? That you aren’t hoping he’ll step in and play house with you and my baby? Is that what you’ve been doing in Alabama while I’ve covered your patients? Did you see him?”

Darby blinked. “You’re kidding, right?”

“No.”

“I have talked to Trey since that weekend, but not in the manner you’re implying.”

“Since the weekend you became pregnant with my baby, you mean?”

She gave him a stubborn look. “Yes, the weekend of the reunion.”

“And Mandy? Have you talked to her?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“We’ve made our peace. You know that. You were at the hospital that afternoon, with her and Trey.”

“Yes, I was,” he snarled.

She stared at him. “What is wrong with you? Trey and Mandy are dating again. I’m happy for them. Their being together is how it should have been all along.” She frowned. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were jealous.”

“Good thing you do know better.”

“Yes, it is.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to argue with you, but I
am
going to sell my half of the clinic. If you want to buy me out, fine. If not, I’d love to say I’ll just walk away, but I’ll need the funds to start my life in Alabama.”

Funds? She really had no idea as to his wealth, did she? Wealth any child of Blake’s would be entitled to. Darby would never have to work another day if she chose not to.

“You’re really going to leave me? On the day you discover you’re pregnant with my baby, you’re announcing you want me to buy your half of our life together so you can move six hours away?”

She didn’t wince, didn’t show the slightest remorse, just held his gaze. “I am.”

“You believe that’s fair to me?”

“I have to think about what’s best for me and for our baby. My going home to Armadillo Lake is what’s best.”

“Why?”

“Because my family is there, and it’s where I was meant to be. I’d forgotten that for a while, but a memory lapse doesn’t make the truth any less true.”

“You were meant to be with me.”

At her surprised look, he added, “In Knoxville, at our clinic. We have a good thing, Darby. A good practice.”

“It hasn’t been good since we slept together, and you know it. You can barely tolerate looking at me.”