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Abby swallowed the lump in her throat. She’d thought they made a lovely couple, too. Now, she knew they’d never be a couple. Perhaps if they’d had more time prior to her pregnancy, perhaps if they’d met years ago, before Dirk’s marriage. Now it was too late.
“We’re not a couple.”
Dirk didn’t do couples. Just because she was pregnant it did not mean she expected that to change. Neither did she want it to change because of her pregnancy.
She wanted Dirk to care enough for her to want to be a couple with her. Because of her. Because of his feelings for her.
She wanted him to love her.
The young girl frowned. “Really? I’m surprised. You looked like you were having a good time together.”
That had been before they’d been interrupted and he’d said he wanted to just be friends. Before they’d known they were going to be parents. Before she’d realized Dirk was incapable of giving his heart to her.
“We were having a good time. As friends.”
“Oh.” The assistant didn’t look as if she knew what else to say.
“No problem,” she assured the girl, keeping an “it’s no big deal” smile on her face in the hope of waylaying more curiosity. Particularly in light of Dirk’s odd behavior since she’d clocked in. “Do you know if the X-ray reports are back on the fall patient in the next bay?”
Looking chastised, although Abby hadn’t meant her to, the girl nodded. “They are.”
No wonder the girl had thought they were a couple as they’d left in such a heated rush from the Christmas party and with the way Dirk had acted tonight.
She really was going to have it out with him the first private moment they got. Although they’d have to establish some type of relationship for the future, his overbearing, almost paternalistic attitude had to go. Besides, for now, Abby wanted a break from him. Later, after the holidays had passed, she’d figure out how she and Dirk could coexist in the world of parenthood.
“Hello, Mrs. Clifton,” she greeted her patient, a friendly smile pasted on her face in the hope of reassuring the woman. “Dr. Kelley will be by in a few minutes to give your X-ray results.” She pulled up the tests and flagged them for his attention. “How are you feeling?”
“Foolish.” The woman in her early sixties gestured to the arm she held very still. “I still can’t believe I slipped and did this.”
“Unfortunately, falls happen.” Abby lightly pinched each of the woman’s fingertips, observing how quickly the blanched skin returned to its natural pink color. Almost immediately. Excellent.
“I guess this will teach me to be more careful of ice.” The woman shifted, trying to get comfortable.
“Who knows, this might save you a much worse accident later down the line.” Abby checked the automatic blood-pressure cuff that was wrapped around the woman’s uninjured arm. One twenty-six over seventy-eight. Great. A normal reading.
The woman laughed lightly. “You’re one of those positive people who always sees the best in everything, aren’t you?”
“Usually.” Only she hadn’t been seeing the positive in her pregnancy. Only the negative. Only that her dreams for her future were undergoing a drastic transformation.
She was going to have a baby. A beautiful, precious baby that she and Dirk had made together. A baby to share her life with. To be a family with. To share Christmas with. Abby had never met anyone other than Dirk who she’d want to have a baby with. No one she’d want to share the rest of her Christmases with. Just Dirk.
If they weren’t meant to be more than friends, then she’d deal with that, would love and cherish their baby without letting Dirk break her heart. Somehow.
“Nurse?” Mrs. Clifton eyed her curiously.
Pulling her thoughts together, Abby smiled at the elderly lady. “Thank you.”
The woman’s forehead creased. “What for?”
“For reminding me that it’s much too wonderful a season to be down.”
Especially over something that so many women would consider a blessing. She’d been given a gift, an unexpected, unplanned-for gift, but a gift all the same.
Just because that gift hadn’t come at the time in her life she’d planned or in the way she’d hoped for didn’t make a baby any less of a blessing.
Yes, there was still that part of her that didn’t want this, wanted her and Dirk to have the opportunity to get to know each other without a pregnancy shadowing their every thought and word. She didn’t have that luxury.
She was going to be mother to Dirk’s child.
