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“Looks like it’s just you and me tonight,” she told the rabbit as she poured herself a glass of water. Not wanting to face the bed she’d shared with James, she hugged the stuffed animal, flipped on the outdoor light, and went through the French doors to sit on the deck.
And stopped short.
A white tablecloth covered the picnic table. Dew had settled onto the surface and a couple of bright leaves contrasted starkly against the tablecloth. A wheat-colored beeswax candle sat between two place settings. But it was the rectangular box on one of the plates that held her attention. A velvet-covered jeweler’s box.
Her insides shaking, she picked it up. The soft fuzzy covering felt damp in her hands. Her knees wobbled and she dropped into the closest chair.
Taking deep breaths and clinging to the stuffed rabbit, she opened the box and, despite knowing what it had to contain, she gave a strangled cry at what she saw.
A diamond ring.
An engagement ring.
James had bought her a ring.
She glanced around the candle-lined deck. She hadn’t been the only one who had prepared for a special evening last night. James had bought her a ring and had planned to ask her to marry him. For real.
Then he’d left.
Left and taken his clothes.
Left to make the point that she’d put him off when he’d told her he needed her to be home.
Left the ring he was no longer willing to slip on her finger.
James closed the door to the doctors’ lounge and was grateful to find the room empty. His insides ached too much to exchange pleasantries.
A newborn with respiratory syncytial virus had come into the emergency room. The infant had been sent over to the children’s hospital, but the ill baby had reminded him of past failures. Failures that included the woman who would give birth to his flesh and blood.
Melissa’s pregnancy had brought forth enough fresh waves of memories of Cailee, of him walking to her crib, thinking she was sleeping, and discovering something so horrible that it had forever changed the course of his life. Left him prostrate and knowing he never wanted to feel that helpless again. Cailee’s death and his role in it had decided his future. He’d gone into medicine because never again would death snatch away someone so easily on his watch.
And although he’d looked death in the face many times, he hadn’t gotten past losing Cailee and he suspected he never would. He avoided babies for just that reason.
Only time was running out for avoidance. Like it or not, he was Melissa’s baby’s father and he would do right by her.
He leaned against the cold concrete wall, rolling his forehead back and forth.
Three weeks and she hadn’t called. She hadn’t even acknowledged the ring or the fact that he’d left. Was she waiting for him to make the next move? To come home and beg her to take him back on any terms she’d have him?
The worst part was that he longed to do just that.
Maybe he would, except that meant facing issues he didn’t want to face even beyond Cailee. Melissa was pregnant with his baby and was willing to let him walk away. Not only that, she’d given her blessing for him to start a relationship with another woman.
He clenched his fists and without any real force punched the solid wall.
She may as well have taken out a billboard that said he didn’t matter.
Knowing he was a fool, he pulled his cell phone from his scrubs pocket and hit an auto-dial number.
“I thought I told you not to call me,” a pert female voice said without bothering to say hello. He’d called so many times during the past weeks that Melissa’s nurse recognized his cellular number and probably knew it from memory.
> “Then tell me she’s OK.”
A soft sigh, then Debbie said in a resigned voice, “I told you I’d call if there were problems.”
She had, along with telling him to quit calling her and to call Melissa directly. He couldn’t do either.
“She’s OK?”
