Forgiveness Creek: The Creek Series (14 page)

“Okay. Oh, and here’s my new cell number.” I left her office in time to meet Karina after her shift was over, so we could go home.

“You not hiding in the back?”

“No. Darlie gave me great advice. I’m emailing Dane to leave me alone and copying her brother, a lawyer. I’m not going to hide, but I’m keeping the pregnancy a complete secret, not even telling the instructors.”

“Good idea.”

Dane,

Sometimes things happen in life we don’t understand. God knows, I’ve had a good bit of that in my life the last few years. I’m sure you’re wondering what happened to me. My mother has recently passed away, and I have had a change of heart where you are concerned.

I resigned from my position at the Cancer Center, and I am requesting you no longer contact them in search of me. I also request the same for my roommate, Karina Stillman.

This letter is to serve as written warning that legal action will prevail should you contact or follow me or my friends and colleagues.

Regards,

Wrenn Cunningham

cc: Carson Harris, Attorney at Law

Amazingly, I sent the email without getting nervous. I wasn’t sure what to expect or couldn’t predict how he would react, but I knew I had to protect my unborn baby.

Unborn baby.

That was the moment my life changed. I started making a list. I needed an obstetrician, and I was grateful my health insurance covered pregnancy. I knew it was important I not drink or eat fish, and I needed to pick up some vitamins.

I was certain I would move home as soon as school was out. I laid in bed and thought about the lease on the house and knew Karina would be moving on in her career as well. I thought about my home and how I could raise a baby there and work for Dr. Parson. But he was close to retiring. He was waiting on me to get my Nurse Practitioner license.

Boy, I screwed that up.

One thing I knew, I had time to plan. I wasn’t going to do anything until after the baby was born.

As the weeks passed, I was surprised, but Dane honored my wishes. There wasn’t a peep from him, and I began to relax. I was looking forward to my first doctor’s appointment and was told they’d be doing an ultrasound.

Graduation was two weeks away, and Karina and I planned to stay in the house and study until we took our nursing board exams. I figured I’d move home in July.

“Hurry up, we’re gonna be late,” I yelled out.

“I can’t wait to see the little peanut,” she said, getting into the car.

“Me either. I won’t know the sex for at least another couple of months, but I’m thinking it’s a girl.”

“I was thinking it’s a boy.”

We laughed… And it felt good.

Hearing the little peanut’s heart beating and then watching it on the screen was amazing. Precious. I became emotional as I viewed my baby moving around on the screen inside me, yet I couldn’t feel a thing.

I thought about Mom and her saying, “Life is a circle.”

After the appointment, Karina wanted to eat sushi.

“Of course you do, when I can’t eat it.”

“Oh, shit, I forgot about that. Well, you can eat the cooked stuff, can’t you?”

“Yes, some of it, but I’m fine with some tempura veggies.”

Sushi it was. After dinner, I needed to run to the store to pick up some things, and I made the loop around the interstate. When I did, I caught sight of Dane’s sports car in front of the pizza place he owned.

Guilt gripped me. It was as if the mysterious leather belt returned to slash open more wounds.

I was just as guilty of secrets and lies.

I turned a sharp corner and made the block, parking beside Dane’s fancy car.

“What in the hell are you doing?” Karina snapped at me.

“Going to do the right thing.” I opened the car door.

Karina pulled on my arm to stop me. “And what exactly is the right thing?”

“Tell Dane the truth.”

“Now? You’re going to do this now? You’re nuts.” Her audible huff expelled the meaning of her words.

Perhaps I was nuts. I was wishy-washy on my feelings for Dane; that was for sure, but regardless, he had a right to know, and I had a moral compass steering me to do the right thing for our baby. If he chose to walk away, that would be on him.

I left Karina sitting in the running car, while I quickly approached the door. Nerves gripped me as if my body was about to be cut in half by a saw.

Do the right thing
, I repeated to myself.

The door opened and a customer came out. Through the opening, I got a glimpse of Dane sitting at his usual table with his back to me as I entered the restaurant. He was not alone. Across from him sat a cute, perky blonde. She watched me intently as I approached the table, but his back was to me, so he didn’t see me coming.

He was talking about something, moving his hands about in animation, but stopped when I stood at the side of their table. When he looked up at me, pain instantly filled his face, and he rubbed the days-old stubble on his chin with his hand.

Instantly, I doubted my decision.

Unable to shake my nerves, I cleared my throat, but that didn’t help my voice from coming out in a shy squeak. “Is it possible I speak with you a moment, maybe outside?”

The look on his face changed instantly. His jaw tightened, and I saw the muscles in his neck flex. “I don’t know. What would your attorney think about that?” He slammed both hands down on the table. It rocked and the silverware bounced. The noise had everyone watching.

“Never mind. Sorry to have bothered you. Coming here was a mistake.” I turned toward the unnamed girl. “Sorry, to interrupt your date.”

I practically ran out of the restaurant. Nerves and the smell of pizza got me, and I barely made it outside the door before I threw up between two cars parked in front of the building. I felt someone touch me and could see Karina’s shoes as she stood beside me and held my hair back.

After I finished emptying the contents of my stomach, I raised up and looked at her face. She was staring at something behind me.

Make that someone standing behind me.

“What’s going on?” the familiar voice was gruff.

“I’m gonna leave you two to talk, but I’ll be in the car if you need me,” she said, before escaping the war zone.

“I want to know why you came here, Wrenn. Why now?”

I turned to face him. I lost my balance and had to hold onto one of the cars for stability. “I saw your car, and it hit me that I needed to do the right thing.”

“Oh yeah, and what is that exactly?”

“To tell you I’m pregnant, and I don’t want anything from you. At first, I planned to keep the baby a secret from you, but I thought about how you felt all those years without your father, and I’m not that kind of monster. I couldn’t do that to you or to our child.”

He raised his ball cap and ran his fingers through his hair, then replaced it, backwards as usual.

“Come in and sit down with me. I want you to meet someone.”

“That’s okay. I’d rather not.”

“We have to talk. You’re right. I want to be a father.”

“As you can see, I’m not feeling well. Tomorrow perhaps. I’m no longer working, so I can meet you for coffee or something?”

“I’d rather we discuss things without an audience. I’ll pick you up at ten tomorrow morning.”

“Okay.” I started walking toward my car.

Dane raced to me and pulled at my hand to stop. “And just so you know, sick or not, you’re still the most beautiful girl to me.”

He quickly leaned in and kissed my cheek. The smile on his face should’ve lit up the world, but my world, dark from all the madness, needed an intervention.

I sat in the driver’s seat, unable to process everything.

“What on earth?”

“We’re going to talk tomorrow. He’s picking me up at ten.”

“Good. The sooner you get the shit settled, the healthier it will be for you and the baby. Don’t think I didn’t see your blood pressure today at Dr. Bledsoe’s office.”

“Shit. Yeah, you’re right.”

I tossed and turned and finally gave in to sleep about four in the morning. By then, I’d made a gazillion lists in my brain of what I should say to Dane. I hoped he didn’t get me flustered to the point I couldn’t remember all of it.

When the alarm went off, I was sleeping soundly. I was grateful for the few hours of sleep and even more excited I’d slept without being woken up by morning sickness. The doctor had assured me it would soon go away.

Dane arrived right on time, and I walked out to his car. He jumped out quickly. He was dressed nicely in a pair of shorts and a golf shirt. No baseball cap turned backwards. He opened the door for me.

“Where do you want to go?” I asked, my hands twisting with nerves in my lap.

“I thought we could ride out to my ranch. I’ve got stuff for a picnic in the back.”

We drove in silence out on the east side of Interstate 35 and turned off onto a county road that was lined with black steel fencing. He pulled up to a gate and punched in a code.

Wealth has such a presence.

He pulled the car up to a large, sprawling ranch style home. There were cattle and horses out on the green pasture surrounding the house. It was perfectly manicured. He opened the car door for me and pointed to a gazebo at the end of a pier.