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Instantly, Pilgrim came to mind. I’d always planned to go back, I hadn’t learned everything I needed to from Mara yet, but now I was thinking about it on a more permanent basis. It was exactly the kind of place a kid should grow up, a place where the whole town would look after them, scold them and cuddle them. It could be perfect for me too.
Miles said he wanted to be involved with the baby, which made Pilgrim the best place to raise the baby, but what if he changed his mind? What if the reality of fatherhood doesn’t stack up to the dreams in his head? I couldn’t bear the thought of that, but already I could see the exact house where my baby would grow up and play, and it was an adorable pale yellow Victorian just a few blocks away from my rental.
In Pilgrim.
Now that the bones of a plan had started to form, my fingers itched to get busy and put my plan into action, and that’s just what I did.
Miles
I must be a glutton for punishment, it was the explanation why I was driving all the way to Tulip just because Shannon sent me aa text to meet her there. But when I plugged the address into my navigation system and realized it was a hospital, my annoyance faded, replaced instead by worry. I made the entire drive without any music or other distractions, because my mind wouldn’t stop conjuring up every possible thing that could be wrong with Shannon or the baby.
But when I turned into the parking lot and set eyes on her for the first time in more than a month, some of that worry fled at the sight of her smile. It was wide with a small hint of uncertainty, and when I got closer I could see that her cheeks were flushed. “Hi, Miles.” Her smile was genuine and Shannon stepped in to wrap her arms around me for a hug. A platonic, non-lingering hug. “It’s so good to see you.”
I didn’t know what to do in the face of such overt affection and I stood there, frozen. “Uh, hey.”
I hated to see the way the light faded from her green eyes as she pulled back, suddenly hesitant. “Right. Sorry about that.” She flashed a shaky smile and took a few steps away from me, putting a big gap between us. “Anyway I thought you might be interested in talking to the doctor, get any of your questions answered. If you have them. Feel free to say no,” she added in a hurry.
I didn’t anything because I felt as if I was playing catch up, trying to figure out what in the hell happened since our last conversation. “Shannon, wait!” She stopped and turned to me, at least a dozen questions in her eyes. “Are you sure? I mean I would love to come but only if you’re all right with it.”
“If I wasn’t all right, I wouldn’t have made the offer Miles.” She flashed a smile that was meant to be welcoming, but she was deflated compared to her bright smile from a few moments ago and the smile didn’t reach all the way up to her eyes. “come on. The appointment time is ten minutes, so we should get going.” I nodded and followed Shannon into the small, cramped elevator, both of us lost in our own thoughts.
Shannon darted out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened and I followed behind her, taking in the brightly decorated waiting room filled with women in various stages of pregnancy, and their partners. There were watercolor paintings on the walls that did nothing to calm my racing heart, neither did the giant posters of adorable babies and toddlers.
My gaze slid to Shannon as she chatted with the receptionist, a small smile on her face that, once again, didn’t reach her eyes. She took the clipboard and sat beside me, filling out the paperwork in silence, almost as if I wasn’t there. I didn’t know what to say to her and it was a strange feeling. We were having a child together but right now, she felt like a stranger. Maybe it was because we hadn’t spoken in a few days, which was my fault because I was busy with new training classes as well as the arrival of several corporate clients, or maybe it was just that she’d been gone a month and that closeness we once shared, was gone.
“Shannon Brinkley!”
She stood up quickly at the sound of her name, nodding for me to follow her behind the secure door where the nurse in purple scrubs weight her and checked her height, while I stood off to the side like a useless limb. “Is that weight gain normal for a month?”
