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“You’re borrowing trouble, that’s what I think,” Claudia said gently. “The first step here is for you to take that test and find out if this is what you think it is. Once you’ve done that, we’ll know what needs to happen next.”
Amy nodded. “You’re right,” she said. “There’s no point in worrying until I know for sure.”
But as she went through the motions of taking the pregnancy test, she felt as if she did know for sure what it was going to say. It didn’t feel as though the outcome was in doubt at all. There just wasn’t any other explanation for the symptoms she was exhibiting.
Of course this would happen to her. One time, in all of her career, she had slipped up and slept with a patient, and now she found herself in a situation that was both dire and completely predictable.
When the plus sign came up on the pregnancy test, Amy didn’t even feel surprised. Still, tears came to her eyes.
“Happy or sad?” Claudia asked gently, coming up behind her and looking at the test on the counter.
“Overwhelmed, I think.”
“Are you going to tell him?”
A part of her wanted to say no. She wanted to keep this to herself, at least for now. But that would have been beyond irresponsible.
“He has to know,” she said. “He’s looking into surrogacy. I can’t let him pursue that now that this has happened. He deserves to have all the information before he arranges to bring another child into the world.”
But how was she going to break the news?
And how would he take it when she did?
The only thing Amy knew for sure was that she wasn’t going to simply have this baby and hand it over to him as if it had nothing to do with her. Adriano might have wanted surrogacy, butshewasn’t a surrogate. This was her child. She wouldn’t let him cut her out. She would empty her bank account hiring lawyers before she allowed that to happen.
He wouldn’t do that. He isn’t a monster.
She hoped she was right. In the time she had known him, Adriano had showed her that he could be both selfish and generous, and she didn’t know which side of him would come through at this news. Would he be the entitled man who thought he could solve any problem with money, or would he be the man who cared about the well-being of the people around him?
She could only hope for the best.
CHAPTER18
ADRIANO
Iwas such an idiot.
Adriano had been thinking the same thing since the day they had visited the lake together. It had been impossible to forget the moment they had almost kissed. They had been so close.
And it had felt like a first kiss to him. If Amy had kissed him this time, it would have been with full understanding of who he was. She wouldn’t have been giving in to the allure of a one-night stand, the way she had been the first time. He understood her well enough to know thatsheunderstood things couldn’t be like that between them. Not while she was living in his guest house. Not while she was his doctor.
He couldn’t believe he had almost crossed the line with her again, after she had made it so abundantly clear that she hadn’t appreciated it the first time. At least this time he wouldn’t have been misleading her—but she’d never made a secret of the fact that she thought their night together had been a bad idea. Of course she hadn’t been open to the possibility of a kiss.
He wished he hadn’t brought her to the little spot by the lake. Now that place wouldn’t be nearly as peaceful for him as it had been in the past. Every time he tried to go there, all he would be able to think about would be what had happened between the two of them—and everything that hadn’t.
A knock at his office door interrupted his thoughts.
Adriano frowned. He’d made it clear to his staff that he didn’t want to be interrupted today, and although he had claimed that that was because he needed to work, the true reason had more to do with the fact that he needed time to be alone with his thoughts. When he and Amy had arrived back at home from the lake, she had told him she thought they should probably spend less time together if he wanted to keep her as a doctor. Adriano knew he had to honor that request, but the idea of giving up the afternoons they’d started spending together lately…
Somehow, it felt like one of the worst sacrifices Barks-Howard’s had demanded of him yet.
The knock at his door came again.
“Come in,” he said, though he planned to have words with whichever member of his staff was interrupting him after he’d specifically asked to have the day on his own.
It was Claudia. That was a surprise. She usually didn’t venture out of the kitchen—if she needed something, her usual pattern was to talk to Tony about it.
“I’m not hungry right now,” he told her, feeling irritable. If this had to do with what Amy had said about him needing to eat more square meals, he was going to have to remind everyone that he wasn’t a child. He didn’t need them keeping an eye on every little thing he did. That would just make all this harder.
