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Lonely? Yeah, Charlie’s childhood could be thought of as lonely. Not that he hadn’t had friends. He had. Lots of them. And girlfriends. He’d had a lot of those, too.
Such as the sixteen-year-old he’d snuck out to see the first time he’d driven a car, the first time he’d done several things. He’d been lucky he hadn’t wrecked his mom’s car and that his dad never found out what he’d done. He’d have beaten him black and blue.
But his father never had and his mother had decided if he was old enough to sneak out to see a girl he was old enough to run errands for her. Too bad he hadn’t been the one driving the night she’d died.
“How did they die?”
Savannah’s question brought him back to the present. Sort of. “My old man died of lung cancer, brought on by a lifelong cigarette habit that wasn’t helped by working in a coal mine. My mother was killed in a car accident.”
Savannah’s foot tapped the brake harder than she should have as she stopped at a red light. “Your mother was killed in a car wreck?”
Unable to speak, he nodded.
“I’m glad you didn’t lose me and the baby that way, too.”
His gaze cut to her and he wasn’t sure what to say. Savannah’s wreck had been an accident, something beyond her control. H
is mother’s wreck had been a single-car incident. The wreck had been ruled an accident, but Charlie had never believed that. His father hadn’t either.
Not that his father had shown much remorse, or emotion at all. He’d just seemed to accept that his wife was gone.
Charlie never had.
“Me too.” For a moment he allowed himself to consider having lost Savannah and the baby in the wreck. Pain shot across his chest and he immediately put the thought out of his head, reminding himself that she sat next to him, living, breathing, beautiful. He squeezed her thigh and found himself never wanting to let go. “Very glad.”
What would he have done had Savannah died in that wreck? What would be different?
Everything.
She pulled away from the red light and within minutes they were back at the car lot.
“You’re sure you don’t want something newer, more reliable?” he asked, thinking it was his job to look out for her and the baby, to protect them as much as he could. He’d buy her a new car, one with an excellent safety record, one recommended for a single mom, with all the bells and whistles to make her life easier. But she’d already shot that down.
“I researched online and this car is rated well. It’s a good price and, despite your suggestion that I need a brand new car, I really don’t need or want the expense of something new.”
“I told you I’d help you,” he reminded her, wishing she’d let him help her more.
She switched off the motor, turned and met his gaze. “And I told you that I didn’t need your help. I got this.”
* * *
“I think that’s the last of my stuff.” Savannah glanced around the living room as if she expected to see something she’d overlooked. “If you find something I’ve missed, maybe you could ship it to me?”
“Or I could bring it to you when you go into labor.”
Labor. She hoped that would be at least three to four months from now, preferably the full four.
Months without seeing Charlie.
Her throat tightened and her eyes pricked with moisture. Saying goodbye hadn’t been easy in Chattanooga, and it wasn’t now. Maybe his having just walked away from the ultrasound had been better.
She stared at him and searched for the right words, but none seemed to really convey what she wanted to let him know.
“Thank you for taking care of me these past few weeks, Charlie.”
“You’re welcome.” He shrugged as if it were no big deal. Possibly to him it wasn’t.
She moved to him and wrapped her arms around him as much as her belly would let her.
