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“Yes. Jared did an ultrasound in the office.”
Jared cleared his throat from behind her, but Chelsea wasn’t going to keep secrets from her brother. With Leslie so well loved within the medical community, word of her urgent condition, complicated by a pregnancy, would spread like wildfire. Actually, it sounded as though the rumor mill had already spread word throughout the hospital as her brother knew.
“What did you hear?” she asked.
“Just what your message said. Leslie was brought in with appendicitis and was being rushed to surgery. But I bumped into one of the paramedics on my way in and he mentioned Leslie was pregnant.”
A big no-no as the man had had no right to deprive Leslie of her confidentiality, but Chelsea nodded. “She is.”
“What did Dr Marks say?”
“He didn’t. Unlike a paramedic who needs to be reprimanded, Dr Marks couldn’t discuss Leslie’s personal health with us. We’re not family,” Jared reminded pointedly. “We’ve called her sister, but she lives an hour away and hasn’t arrived yet.”
“Dr Marks wouldn’t tell you anything? What the…?” Will pulled free of Chelsea’s hand, heading toward the operating room.
“Will,” she warned her brother, worried at the determined look on his face. “You can’t go back there. We’re only allowed to wait outside the OR as a professional courtesy.”
“I’m going to find out what’s going on.”
“No.” Having jumped up from where he’d been sitting, Jared grabbed Will’s arm, stopping him just as he reached for the door. “I’m sure you’re worried about Leslie, but you can’t do any good by breaking Dr Marks’s concentration.”
Will glared at Jared, looking as if he wanted to slug him.
“Think about what you’re doing, Will. She’s in surgery. What’s going to happen if you go barging in there?”
“Will,” Chelsea said, afraid the two men she most cared about were going to come to blows.
Will visibly shook, his head slumping forward. “You’re right. She probably doesn’t want to see me right now anyway.”
“She’s under anesthesia. She won’t know you’re there even if you do go busting in. Let Dr Marks do his job.”
Chelsea frowned at Jared’s blunt tone. “I’m sure if Leslie was awake she’d want to see you.”
Will didn’t comment. Chelsea stayed at his side, talking with him, to pass the time while they waited. Jared had returned to the sofa and flipped through a magazine, but from the noisy, rapidly turned pages he couldn’t concentrate any more than she could.
Leslie was pregnant.
By her brother.
She was going to be an aunt. Her parents were going to be grandparents. Wow.
Chelsea hesitated before getting out of Jared’s car. She’d ridden to the hospital with him, and although she’d wanted to stay with Will, her brother had insisted she go home. Jared had reminded her that Will and Leslie needed time alone.
However, Chelsea didn’t want to be alone right now and she lingered in the parking lot.
Too much weighed on her mind. Leslie and the baby had come through surgery OK. So far there was no evidence of hemorrhaging to hint at a pending miscarriage. But the fear was still there. Not only that but her brother and Leslie did have a lot to work through.
Thank goodness Jared had been with her this evening. She’d enjoyed the closeness they’d shared tonight and if she was honest with herself, she would admit that being near Jared was probably the real cause of her hesitation to leave.
“I’ll follow you home.”
Nodding, she got into her car, but her restlessness wasn’t any better by the time she got to Will’s beach house.
Jared got out of his car, but rather than head toward the house he leaned against the door.
“Goodnight, Chelsea. Try to get some rest.”
She shot him a pleading look. “You could come in for a while, or we could go for a walk on the beach.”
