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She couldn’t tell him she was pregnant yet. She hadn’t accepted the news herself, though when she did actually think about it, she felt an elation she didn’t recognize.
Even more than the burst of wonderful feeling and kind of ownership love she felt every single time she was around Wood and Cassie’s little Alan. Her godson. The eleven-month-old owned her heart like no one ever had before.
“So...that’s good, right?” Wood asked. That was so...him. Taking things at face value. Drawing no nuances or reading between lines.
“Yes, it’s fabulous,” she said, smiling as she placed a hand on her stomach. And it would be something she could talk about once the baby’s father understood that he’d produced a child.
It just didn’t seem right to bring the situation to light until Greg had a chance to assimilate the truth.
“You’re sure you want to do this, Elaina? You don’t want to wait a bit? See if you meet someone, fall in love again...”
Wood had been hesitant about her using Peter’s sperm from the beginning.
“Absolutely sure.”
Even if the clinic had made a mistake and injected her by accident—though the chances of that were so slim she couldn’t seriously consider the possibility—she was still in shock over Greg’s announcement, but had to believe that his tests were wrong. Maybe another reason she was reticent to tell Cassie and Wood what she’d found out the day before. When Greg had first demanded a paternity test, she’d hated that he was the father of her baby.
By that morning, she’d had to admit that she
didn’t hate him as the father, though she hated the circumstances they were in. Not that she wanted to start something up with him. She did not. Something else that would be hard to get Wood to understand. She had to do this alone.
But Greg was a good man. A great doctor and, really, a wonderful person. And didn’t deserve to be sterile.
Any child would be lucky to carry his genes. Her heart ached for the pain he’d tried so hard not to show, pretending that he was okay with his situation, that he’d adjusted. She’d seen the shadows in his eyes and had known that he one hundred percent believed what he’d told her. And that he suffered from the knowledge.
“So...you’re okay?” Wood asked.
“Yes.”
“And you’re going to do this? You’re going to have a baby?”
“Yes, I am.” She couldn’t help the bit of elation that came out in her tone. She might not yet fully comprehend everything that had changed in her life, might not be ready to start thinking about actually being pregnant, but the fact was slowly finding a home within her.
After offering her his and Cassie’s support in whatever way she needed it, Wood rang off. The best brother a girl could ever hope to have—even if he was really just an ex-brother-in-law, husband in name only, and then “adopted” brother.
She had to double-time it to make it to Greg’s office on time, so she did. Thinking about the man with every quick step. As she’d been doing since the afternoon before.
Greg wasn’t asking for a paternity test because he didn’t trust her. He was asking because he’d been put in a position where he had no choice.
The man actually believed himself to be infertile! How could she not have known that? All those months they’d been lovers...
But then, she’d never talked to him about Peter. Or much about Wood, either, for that matter. She’d shrugged and said nothing. Not even the day Wood had come to see her at the hospital and found her having lunch with Greg in the cafeteria.
She should have introduced them that day.
And she’d been afraid that Wood would make more of her friendship with Greg than was there, that he’d think she didn’t need or want him anymore, then move out. It was all so convoluted and mattered not at all at the moment.
How was it going to affect Greg, once he eventually realized that he was going to be a father? That was all she needed to be focused on where he was concerned in terms of her pregnancy. Had he wanted children before he found out he was infertile? The fact that he’d taken fertility tests three times indicated he’d wanted badly to be a father.
Most men didn’t know they were infertile until they took a test, and that was generally done only when they’d tried and failed to impregnate someone.
Whom had Greg tried to impregnate?
And if he’d wanted a child badly enough to go through testing—three times, apparently—would he then be ecstatic to know he was finally going to have one?
Or would he be disappointed that the child was growing inside her instead of the woman he’d been trying to impregnate?
Either way, whatever way, her task was to think of him. Keep his needs in mind at all times.
