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“Maybe.”
Gemma opened her mouth, ready to counter my reply, but offered a warm smile instead. She squeezed my hand. “I’m glad you’re going to be okay, Holly.”
“Thanks, Gemma. For everything.”
“Sure.” She went to the door. “Sleep well.”
Gemma pulled the door closed behind her and I was met with the stillness. The monitors and machines above me provided enough light to make out the shapes of the ceiling tiles and I started tracing the lines with my eyes. There was a TV mounted on the opposite wall but I didn’t want the noise.
I wasn’t alone for long, Carly and Rachel arrived at nearly the same time and soon the room was filled with their chatter and questions. Gemma stopped by again and filled them in on the medical stuff and then let me know she was clocking out and would see me in the morning and call if I needed anything.
A little while after Gemma left, Carly went out to get coffee for her and Rachel as they prepared to stay as long as the nurses would let them. When she returned, her face was strained. “Holly, has anyone told you that Jack’s outside the door, waiting to come and see you?”
“Multiple times.”
Rachel frowned over at me. “Well, you need to talk to him. He deserves some answers.”
“I don’t have any answers to give him, Rach. He’ll want to talk about the baby and how we’re going to handle co-parenting. I don’t know anything about that right now, and I sure as hell don’t want to talk about it. I’ve barely wrapped my mind around the idea of becoming a mom. I definitely haven’t figured out how the hell I’m supposed to do that with Jack when he lives on the other side of the country. And even if he moved back here—which, for the record, I don’t want—it’s not like that would make it easy. I hated seeing him with that pilot bitch draped all over him. It still makes my skin crawl just to think about it…”
“Yes, we can tell,” Carly quipped, gesturing at the blood pressure monitor that chirped along.
I frowned. “How am I supposed to raise a child with him when we can’t even be in the same room together without arguing?”
Rachel looked like she wanted to say something but caught Carly’s eye and stopped short.
“What?” I asked, shooting a look at Carly and then Rachel.
“Nothing, honey. You need your rest right now. You need to take it easy for you and that beautiful baby you’re baking in there. None of this needs to be figured out today. Right now, you need to focus on healing and staying calm.”
I nodded slowly. The doctors told me the baby was going to be fine, any distress would have shown up on the tests they’d already run, but they were keeping me for at least another twenty-four hours to monitor my progress. I was scheduled to have an ultrasound in the morning to double-check the baby’s condition. Carly was right, stressing wasn’t going to help.
“I’ll talk to Jack. As it is, the nurses are probably getting ready to herd us out of here. Visiting hours are already over. Rachel is going to stay with me tonight. Aaron has Hunter at the house so you don’t need to worry about your fur baby.”
“I wish the hospital would let Hunter come in. I haven’t slept without him at my feet since the day I adopted him.” Tears swelled in my eyes and I wiped them away. “I know he enjoys being curled up with Princess. And thanks you guys,” I said, my throat clogged with emotion.
Rachel stood up and leaned over to give me a light embrace. “Take care, mama. We’ll come back in the morning.”
Carly gave me a quick hug too. “And I’ll sneak you some banana bread,” she whispered into my hair.
I laughed softly, wincing at the bolt of pain. “And some lemon bars.”
Carly grinned. “You got it, babe. Sleep good.”
27
Jack
“Jack, you need to go home.”
Carly’s words were soft but they hit me in the gut. I’d spent the entire time parked outside Holly’s hospital room, waiting to see her, but she’d apparently told the nurses that she didn’t want to see me and I wasn’t gonna make a scene. Even after Gemma and Carly went to bat for me, she still turned me away.
Carly reached for my arm. “Visiting hours are over anyway. Come on, we’ll give you a lift back to Aaron’s and you can come back in the morning and see if she’ll let you in.”
“Why is she doing this?”
Carly sighed and sat down next to me on the padded bench. “Because she’s pregnant. Hormonal. She’s been through a lot the past few months since you two ended things. Finding out about the baby has put her in a stressful situation. She’s working a million hours at her new job and trying to make everything perfect. And now this…”
