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“That would be great, thanks, Mom.”
She covered me with a blanket and went into the kitchen. I closed my eyes, listening to her moving around, making me soup because she loved me so much and wanted to look after me. Tears stung my eyes. Fuck, I was making such a mess of everything. Closing my eyes, I tried to rest, but my churning stomach wouldn’t let me. Sighing, I rolled onto my back, staring up at the ceiling. Dante’s face appeared in my mind’s eye, pale and hurt, shocked by the supremely shitty things I’d said to him. It was so mean and dammit it was so unlike me. My heart tightened painfully every time I thought of it. If nothing else was resolved between us, I had to at least apologize for that, let him know that had been out of line and I didn’t mean it.
The problem was, I didn’t know how to reach him. He hadn’t left his number and he wasn’t listed anywhere that I could find online. If I had to, I supposed I could contact Stef and get his details. It had taken all of two seconds to find her band’s name and contact details online, but that could be a problem. I didn’t know what she knew and hearing from me out of the blue could be weird.
No, it looked like I’d have to drive to Kingsley and ask for him. Could you even do that? Just turn up at a military base and ask to see your baby daddy?Fuck. I grabbed my phone and looked up their website. It was pretty informative and it turned out you could, in fact, just show up to base and ask to see someone. So that’s what I’d do. Drive two hours to Kingsley, give my credentials, ask for Dante, and hope that he’d agree to see me. Simple.
The anxiety had my gut churning some more and I reached for the bucket, throwing up the small amount of tea I’d just managed to drink. My head was swimming when I lay back down. Maybe driving that far wasn’t the best idea, but if I didn’t it was just delaying the inevitable. I was better and stronger than that, and I really needed to make things right with Dante.
CHAPTER19
Dante
“Sir?” A young man approached me tentatively, the hesitation in his voice obvious. In the last three days, I’d developed a reputation for being grumpy as fuck. Go figure.
“What is it?” I scowled, turning the music down on my headphones.
“There’s a young lady at the Visitors Center for you.”
Lucy. My heart skipped a few beats, which made me scowl some more. “Okay, I’ll be right there.” I stepped off the treadmill and wiped my face with a towel. At least she’d had the grace to come to me, rather than make me come to her. I took my time getting changed, feeling petty enough that the small act gave me a jab of vicious satisfaction.
I regretted the delay the minute I stepped into the Visitors Center. Lucy got slowly to her feet, putting her hand on the edge of the chair to steady herself. She wore leggings and an oversized sweater and her hair was a mess. More than that, though, she looked shaky and pale, maybe even a little gaunt, and all I wanted to do was rush to her and take her in my arms before she fell over.
“Can we… Can we talk?”
I nodded wordlessly and led the way outside. It was bitterly cold, but there wasn’t really anywhere else on base I could take her where we could have a private conversation. “Is this okay?” I gestured to a little park near the entrance gate.
“Yeah, the cold air is kinda nice.”
I helped her put her coat back on and waited while she took a small sip from a water bottle, before saying, “How are you?” Lamest fucking thing ever.
She shrugged, heading towards a path that ringed the park, her steps slow and measured. “I’m…okay.” Unable to help myself, I put my hand under her elbow, noticing the way she swayed when she walked. She stopped abruptly, put her hand over her stomach, closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. “Sorry. I get sick a lot.”
“That’s okay.” I searched for something to say that would break the awful tension between us but came up empty. Instead, I said, “How did everyone take the news? It must have been weird—”
“I haven’t told them yet.”
Whoa. Now that surprised me. The Coopers were a very open family with no secrets from each other, at least as far as I could remember.
“I wanted to make things right between us first, you know, figure out where we…” She stopped again, swaying slightly.
“Lucy?” I stepped closer, feeling my gut clench when she looked up at me. Her eyes did not look okay.
“Sorry, I just…I feel…” Her voice was breathy and unsteady and she reached out, gripping my arms.
More than a little alarmed, I said, “I think we should get you to a doctor.”
“No, it’s okay…mayb—”
Before she could finish the thought, her eyes rolled back and she fell against me in a dead faint. Fuck. I slowly lowered her to the ground, painfully aware that it was wet and cold.Fuck. Trying not to panic, I grabbed my phone from my back pocket and dialed the base ambulance. They said they’d be there in two minutes, so I picked Lucy up and, moving to a park bench, sat and cradled her in my arms.
Sure enough, the white and orange base ambulance pulled up to the curb right away. They moved with careful, professional precision as they got out, opened the back doors of the van, and pulled out a wheeled stretcher. I wanted to scream at them to hurry the fuck up, but kept my trap shut.
“What’s going on here?” The first EMT was a small, efficient woman with big blue eyes and her hair tied up in a neat bun. She seemed capable enough, I guess. Her partner was tall, broad and looked like a WWE wrestler.
“She’s pregnant, maybe around two months along or a little less. We were talking and she suddenly went really pale. Her eyes went strange: her pupils dilated and her eyes rolled back in her head, then she passed out.”
“Okay. Lift her up here.”
