AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I was in love with her. That had to be it. It was the only explanation.
There was something between us, I was sure of it. Was it just that I was her boss that kept the wall between us? Was there anything I could do to convince her that we might have a future? Or maybe she didn’t feel the same. Maybe it really was friends with secret benefits.
The answers weren’t going to come to me standing in my driveway watching as her tail lights disappeared. As much as I wanted to call her or chase after her, I knew that despite the epiphany that I loved her, she needed time and space. Just like Dean needed time to trust me again, she'd need time to see that we could have something special.
30
Betts
Iwas a terrible person. And a coward. Todd had been so sweet, telling me that he wanted to spend time with me. It was the perfect opportunity to tell him I felt the same, and about the baby.
But I didn't.
I was having a hard time understanding where my cowardice was coming from. The truth was, while Todd wanted to continue this relationship, he wasn't saying he loved me or promising ever after. He hadn’t asked me to stay the night, and I understood that. He likely didn't want to explain me to Dean since to him I was just his father's friend and employee. Plus, with my concerns at work, I was equally as eager to keep our relationship a secret.
But secret relationships never lasted.
I’d run off out of fear and guilt, and I was still avoiding him by working most of the time down in Henderson at the rink. After a couple of days, I wondered if he meant what he said as he hadn't been in touch with me. One minute, he was saying he wanted to pursue this thing between us, but now a few days later, I hadn't had a text or call from him. Of course, I hadn't texted or called him either. He had asked me to think about us, so maybe he was waiting for me to contact him. Why was this thing between us so confusing?
Right this moment, I had more important things I needed to concern myself with, primarily the baby that was growing in my belly.
I left work at the rink early today, returning to Las Vegas for my doctor’s appointment. My appointment was in the birthing center because I was going to have an ultrasound. I was brought into the examining room, and the doctor met with me, first asking questions about how I was feeling, and she shared information on what to expect during the pregnancy. The more she spoke, the more guilty I began to feel knowing that Todd should be here with me. I needed to tell him.
Once the talking portion of the exam was done, she had me lie back on the table and expose my belly. She squeezed some gel and then pressed a wand over my little mound.
"Let’s see your baby." She moved the wand over my belly and then stopped, tapping something on her keyboard. She did that a couple of times while I watched the screen, not knowing what I was seeing.
"Here's your baby." She pointed toward the screen. "Here's the head. See this fluttering? This is the heart."
Emotion overwhelmed me, tears coming to my eyes as I looked at my baby. It felt like a miracle that a life was growing inside me.
"I’ll print out a picture for you. And here are a few brochures covering what we talked about. Make sure you’re taking a prenatal vitamin. You can exercise, but avoid anything too strenuous. Sex is fine as long as you feel fine.”
I gripped the brochures and picture, studying the image of my baby. I decided I would show the picture to Todd when I told him about the pregnancy. This experience made the situation so much more real. It wasn’t nebulous. Not some theory. There was a person inside me. A person Todd helped create. I had to tell him.
I walked out of the appointment, leaving the birthing center. The medical complex was huge, with many other clinics. It was busy today, and I ended up parking near offices used by general practitioners.
I started over to my car, thinking about how I should tell Todd about the baby.
"Hey, you're the marketing person with the Silver Nuggets. The one who's dating Mikael Virtanen."
I tensed as I looked at the man stepping into my path. He looked down toward my hand where I held the brochures and picture.
I opened my mouth to tell him that I wasn't dating Mikael, but before I could speak, he held up his phone and took a picture. "Are you and Mikael having a baby?"
What?"No. And you need to delete that photo. I'm not dating Mikael." I reached for his phone.
He stepped back. His smile was greedy and cruel. "I’m going to get a pretty penny for this."
"But it's not true." Panic nearly choked me.
He shrugged. “Fans will love it.” He looked at the picture on his phone, whistling as he walked away.
I followed him. "Hey. You can't just go around taking pictures and posting lies."
He didn't acknowledge me. He trotted off through the parking lot and to a car. Why had he been here? Was he following me? Or had he been at a doctor’s appointment and it was bad luck that he recognized me?
I let out a low growl of frustration and burst into tears.
