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“I’m glad you were able to make it today, Mr. Murray, I presume?” The instructor extended her hand to shake Jules’s as they made it to the door to leave.
“Murray?” he said without thinking. Great. Amber’s surname was Johnson-Murray. The instructor assumed that he was Mr. Murray!
He was about to correct her but caught the look on Amber’s face. Too much information. “Call me Jules,” he said, shaking her hand.
“Thank you, Jules,” Amber said later. “I really didn’t want to get into the name business right now with the nurse.”
“Well, I’ve read somewhere in the world, some men take on the woman’s name when married. I sure as hell didn’t think I would be one of them.” He chuckled.
She playfully rolled her eyes and shook her head. “It’s only for the class, Jules. I’m sure she won’t remember you as I doubt she’ll see you again.”
Jules froze.
Something pulled internally and it had nothing to do with his early morning workout that day. Never see him again. Was Amber seriously going to finish the rest of the sessions alone? He couldn’t explain what the heck zapped into his body right then and there but something moved him to want to stick around Amber, to make sure she wasn’t going to do this whole childbirth thing alone.
Was it because he knew then that his chances of having a biological child were practically slim to none? He didn’t know why but he felt connected to Amber’s child and reconnected to Amber. They definitely had a strong chemistry before their breakup. He knew that now. If they didn’t have that special cosmic magnetic reaction in the first place, they sure wouldn’t be able to rekindle their feelings for each other so quickly after meeting up again, would they?
“Where did you park?” Jules asked her before continuing farther down the hall. He wanted to walk her to her car, at least before returning to the boardroom.
“Oh, I’m taking the bus to the café. You know, the Murray Café.”
“Taking the bus? In your condition?” He remembered she’d gone back to working for her family-run business, the Murray Cafe, the joint her deceased parents willed to her that her aunt had taken over for her until she was of age. He wanted to ask Amber why she wouldn’t take time off from working long, stressful hours at a busy café to nurture her body and the miracle growing inside her. But heck, he was a man, what did he know? He only knew that if she was still his woman, she’d be pampered and catered to, not the one doing the catering.
“Jules, plenty of women take the bus while pregnant. We don’t break, you know!”
He excused himself before swiping out his smartphone and dialed his assistant. “How did it go at the meeting?” he asked Brenda. “Good. I’ll be back shortly. I’ve just got to drop a friend somewhere.”
Today’s meeting was more of an orientation to the facility. Jules had already been there and had instructed his assistant, whom he trained impeccably well, to oversee things while he had urgent matters to tend to.
“I’m taking you to the cafe.”
“Jules, no. I don’t need you to take me. I’ll be fine. Really. You did enough by sticking around for the class. I’m good. Really.”
“I don’t think so.”
Just then, Amber bent over, a look of horror on her face. “Oh, God!”
“Amber, what is it?” Jules reached over to hold her.
She did not look good at all. Her skin paled.
“Are you all right?” the instructor asked as she came rushing out of the classroom. She’d apparently heard the commotion outside the door.
Amber could barely speak. “I’m okay. Just a sharp pain,” Amber told the instructor.
“I’m taking you to the ER,” Jules said in a finite tone. His heartbeat sped a mile a minute in his chest. What was with him? He’d only just seen Amber for a couple hours today after so long but already his feelings for her had resurged from the last time they’d been together.
“Good. She needs to see a doctor,” the instructor agreed, her countenance concerned.
Jules was all too prepared to drop whatever the heck he was doing. This looked damn serious. Amber was his top priority right now. He would take her for medical attention right away!
CHAPTER FOUR
Later, Jules stood by Amber’s side in the ultrasound room at the hospital, pacing frantically like a nervous father-to-be. Yeah, right. As if he was baby’s father. Trouble was, he sure felt like it. Since Amber was already more than six months gestation, they had admitted her to the floor as a precaution. Soon after that, she was taken down to have images done to ensure the baby’s position was okay.
What the heck was Jules doing? Agreeing to be there for Amber? Was he losing his ever-loving mind? He swore business would be his only focus right now. So why was he so drawn to helping Amber? He’d make sure she was okay, then he’d leave her be.
“Okay, now. We’re just going to have a look at the baby, Mrs.…?” the tech said, as she walked into the room.
“Ms.,” Amber clarified. “Ms. Johnson-Murray. But Amber is fine.”
Jules didn’t know what got into him just then but he felt irked at the thought of Amber being a Ms. If it were up to him, she’d be a Mrs. His missus!
She should be Mrs. Jules Romero. He kept his tongue restrained while the tech proceeded to prep Amber for her test.
Support. That was what she needed, right? Support. That’s what he’d just learned in that unexpected prenatal class he’d just attended.
The room was dark and Jules observed the monitor by the stretcher that he’d helped position Amber on.
“Move a little closer to me, hon,” the tech instructed Amber. “Good. Now turn slightly to me.”
Just then, the tech helped Amber to pull up her shirt a bit to apply some gel.
Amber looked embarrassed at first and hesitant to lift up her top. “Do you want me to leave and come back, Amber?” Jules offered quietly. Wanting to give her privacy. They weren’t, after all, an official couple. So if she was obviously playing shy again in regards to having Jules see her bare skin, that was all good with him. It was all for her comfort. Though he was puzzled since she’d been intimate with another man. She was, after all, pregnant.
“No. No, that’s okay. Please stay.”
The ultrasound tech looked confused. “I’m sorry, I thought he was the father. I usually ask visitors to stay outside while I do the test.”
“No. He’s not just a visitor.”
“We’re together. It’s okay,” Jules chimed in. Why had he said that? Because he didn’t want Amber to feel awkward—again? Not that it was anybody’s business who the father was or if he was around.
Amber carefully lifted up her long-sleeved black yoga top and revealed her naked skin over her huge, swollen baby mound.
Jules tried to hide the shock and horror in his eyes.
It took all the strength in his body to remain composed. So was this why Amber didn’t want to get intimate with him? Was this what she was hiding all along? But why hadn’t she just told him? He looked away then back at Amber as the tech squirted blue gel on Amber’s abdomen and rubbed it around before placing the scanner on her belly.
Amber didn’t look in Jules’s direction. He thought he could see raw hurt clouding her eyes. Was she ashamed? God, there was no need to be.
He moved closer to the table and rubbed her feet, massaging them. She looked at him and her lips curled slightly at the corners into a warm smile of appreciation.
“Okay, as you can see, your baby is here. Right where she should be.”
“She?” Jules repeated, rubbing Amber’s shoulder now as he stood on the opposite side of the stretcher.
“Yes, I’m having a girl,” Amber acknowledged, smiling weakly.
“You look tired, beautiful,” Jules commented. “Don’t worry, I’m taking you home after the doc gives us the go ahead.”
“The doctor will have to see the results first. But I’m sure everything should be fine,” the tech responded.
The sound of a galloping horse was the baby’s heartbeat. The ultrasound machine was quite high-tech and advanced according to the tech. That was no surprise since the Romeros donated millions to upgrade the hospital’s equipment to superior quality and turn it into a state-of-the-art facility.
“So this is the baby’s heart rate.” The tech showed Amber and Jules a number on the screen below the baby’s image.
Jules squeezed Amber’s shoulder lovingly. It was all spontaneous. Maybe this was God’s way of giving him a second chance since he would never be able to have kids—at least not as of now. He was getting a taste of what it would be like to be a real dad. An expectant father. He couldn’t understand why some men didn’t want to stick around their pregnant wives or partners. This was like…a miracle. Nothing like he’d ever experienced. His heart turned to mush just watching the monitor with the image of a precious life inside Amber. A baby girl. The little bundle was unaware of being monitored and gaped at—just going about her little business in the warmth and safety of her mother’s womb.
“So your baby weighs two pounds,” the tech continued as she glided the scanner over Amber’s belly while her vision fixed on the screen of the monitor.
