AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Adriano’s heart skipped a beat. She could have knocked him over with a feather. “What?”
“I just found out,” she said. “I came straight to you.” She seemed very intent on making sure he knew that. “I thought you should know right away, because I know you’re looking into surrogacy, and I don’t know how this changes things for you—if it does—but I couldn’t keep it from you. I’m pregnant, Adriano.”
He was struck dumb.
“And it’s yours,” she added, as if he might not have understood.
He’d gotten that much. “You’re pregnant?” he repeated, realizing as he did so that he must sound like an idiot.
“I want this baby,” she said quickly. “I’ve already made that decision, Adriano. And you can be involved if you want to, but I…” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I know this isn’t what you pictured. You wanted a child of your own, a child with a surrogate, not an arrangement like this. And I understand that. I know we have a lot to figure out here.”
“What are you talking about?” His thoughts were starting to settle into some semblance of order. “I mean…yes, we do have a lot to figure out, but…did you think I wouldn’t want to be involved, Amy? You know this is something I’ve wanted.”
“This isn’t the way you wanted it, though,” she said. “You wanted a child of your own, not a child with me. And I’m not…” She hesitated, then squared her shoulders. “I’m not a surrogate, Adriano. I’m not going to have this baby and give it up to you. This ismybaby.”
“I’d never ask you to do something like that, Amy. Hey.” He reached out and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. She resisted for a moment, but then she gave in and let herself relax against his chest.
It felt amazing just to hold her like this.
It made every nerve in his body come to life, of course. He’d been thinking for weeks about the way it felt to have her pressed up close against him, but in his imagination, the circumstances had always been very different from this. He had imagined her happy, not shivering with anxiety. He did his best to set aside the desire he felt for her—he was amazed that that desire was still so powerful even in the face of this life-changing news—and focus instead on the comfort he could tell she needed.
“Amy,” he said. “Listen to me. I’m not going to try to make you give up your baby. I’d never do that.”
She looked up at him. “Really?”
“Of course not. I’d never do something like that to you.”
“It’s just…I know this isn’t happening the way you planned.”
“Life never happens the way you plan it,” he said. “I didn’t plan on getting Barks-Howard’s disease at all. What matters is what you do when things don’t go according to plan. The way you handle it.” He met her eyes. “This isourbaby, okay? Whatever happens, we’ll figure it out together.”
“How are we going to do that? We live such different lives. We’re not in a relationship. How are we going to handle being parents together?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. He’d gotten a little thrill from hearing her say that they were going to be parents together—it was the first time the words had been said aloud, and it seemed to make what was happening real in a way that nothing else had. “You’re right. It’s going to be complicated. Very complicated. But we’ll figure it out together—don’t you think so?”
“We’re going to have to,” she said.
“You don’t have to worry about anything,” he assured her. “I have the resources to make this work, whatever we need to do. And we both know it’s something we want.”
He felt a sudden smile spread across his face. “This is amazing news, Amy.”
“Yeah?”
“We’re going to be parents! I’m going to be a father!” He hugged her again. “Thank you,” he said fervently. “This is all I’ve wanted.”
“Now you can start your treatment,” she said, laughing shakily.
And Adriano was so elated that even the thought of the treatment couldn’t wipe the smile from his face.
CHAPTER19
ADRIANO
“Is this how it’s going to feel every time?” Adriano groaned.
“For a while,” Amy told him gently.
He gritted his teeth. It was so easy to confuse bedside manner with affection, and he had to continuously remind himself of the fact that her kindness didn’t mean she had feelings for him. She was just a good doctor.
