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“What about your classes? Your research?”
“I’ll continue.” He shrugged. “Two mornings a week and I’ll spend those afternoons in the lab.”
“I admitted weeks ago that I wanted you to come home and you refused. Why now?”
“Don’t take my moving back wrong. It’s for selfish reasons.”
“What selfish reasons?”
“I want my baby to have every advantage. Being healthy seems an important one. You forget or are too busy to take care of your needs, things like sleep, good nutrition, keeping your stress to a minimum, thus unintentionally hurting our baby.”
“You arrogant…” Again she stopped, searching for a vile enough word.
“Probably,” he agreed to whatever name she planned to call him. “But I’m moving back so I can look out for our child. But you’ve got to make concessions, too, Melissa. No more late nights. I’ll help with the calls that can’t be diverted to Dekalb, but you have to start cutting the community’s dependency on you. You can’t do it all.”
She opened her mouth to deny him, but he’d had enough.
“I’ll keep your practice going so that after the baby is born you can step back in and not miss a beat—if that’s what you want. In return, you’re going to take care of yourself and my baby.” He stared into her eyes, knowing he wouldn’t back down on this. Not after last night and this afternoon. Neither would he take no for an answer. “If this baby means anything to you, you’ll meet me halfway. Now, tell me what you want for lunch, and I’ll feed you. Then you’re going home to rest and think about everything I’ve said. I’ll see your afternoon patients and bring our dinner home with me, so don’t bother fixing anything.”
That evening, Melissa lounged on her living-room sofa and reread the same sentence for at least the hundredth time. Although she loved reading, her heart just wasn’t into it. Or into anything except checking the clock on the fireplace mantel. Two minutes since the last time she’d checked.
After six and no sign of James.
Maybe she should call Debbie again, make sure James truly had everything under control.
What was she thinking? Of course he did. He was a highly sought-after Vanderbilt emergency room physician.
One that she’d always admired. Well, until that night when she’d watched him with Lila Barnes and become disenchanted.
Which really wasn’t fair.
She’d been upset, tired, frustrated, disenchanted long before she’d walked into that waiting room and judged him through the eyes of anger and disillusionment.
Just as she’d been subconsciously angry at him for months. She hadn’t realized how angry until that afternoon when they’d argued and she’d admitted the truth. She’d resented him for denying her what she’d craved her whole life—a family. And now she was essentially doing the same to him, forcing a family on him when it wasn’t what he wanted.
How could she want him in her life, want his baby, and steal his dreams in the process? Was he right? Had she been pushing herself so hard after discovering her pregnancy because of guilt? She’d thought she worked so hard to avoid her loneliness and loss at James’s absence, but she did feel guilty. Why did her dream have to be in direct conflict with what he wanted? And although seeing the ultrasound had softened his heart, that didn’t mean he’d have chosen parenthood.
Headlights appeared in the drive, flickering light through the large windows along the front of the house. The garage door ground open. James was home.
Melissa set down her book, and stood. What was she doing? Running to the door to greet him? Just because she planned to agree to his terms, it didn’t mean a thing had changed between them. They were two people torn apart but bound by a baby.
She sat, picked up the book, and pretended to read. Pretended because the words blurred and her heart thudded while she strained for the sound of James’s car pulling into the garage, of his car door opening and closing, of him entering the house.
And then there he was. Opening the kitchen door and walking through the house, sinking onto the opposite end of the sofa, looking handsome, as always, but exhausted.
He leaned back, his deep blue eyes watching her through shaded lids. She fought squirming.
“How did it go today?” she asked, rather than admit how strongly he threw her off-kilter.
“Fine.”
“Any word on Bob Woods?”
“I called and checked on him on my way home. He’s still in surgery and it’s touch-and-go, but for the time being he’s holding his own. Fortunately, he was bleeding into an area of the abdominal cavity that, when it filled with blood, helped put pressure on the ruptured aneurysm, which slowed the blood loss. Otherwise he wouldn’t have had a chance of surviving.”
She nodded, her stomach twisting once again at what would have happened had James not been at the office. Silence loomed again and Melissa could feel his eyes watching her.
“Cindy Moss? How’s she?” She really should have talked to Jamie today, seen how the young woman was holding up. Instead, she’d gone home after lunch and soaked in a tub of lukewarm water, yearning for hot water but knowing it wasn’t recommended during pregnancy. She’d left the office prior to Jamie returning from her chemo.
