From Dare to Due Date

by Christy Jeffries

  “Oh, no, Mrs. Patrelli. Please don’t do that. We just wanted to put in an order to go.”

  The fortyish-year-old plump woman with short, dark curly hair looked at her and Garrett skeptically before pulling a pad of paper out of her black apron and taking their order. Hopefully, Mr. Patrelli wouldn’t take too long in the kitchen because the normally pleasing smells of marinara sauce and yeasty dough were already playing havoc with Mia’s sensitive stomach.

  “I’ll bring you both some Chianti while you wait.”

  “Actually—” Mia put a hand to her tummy “—I’m not really feeling up for any tonight. Could you just bring me a ginger ale instead?”

  “But you and your friends always have wine when you eat here. You love the house Chianti. There’s only one reason a passionate woman like you wouldn’t drink wine and that’s if she’s...” Mrs. Patrelli paused as she studied Mia carefully before turning her appraising eye to Garrett. She looked back and forth at them several times and Mia could see the moment the Italian woman made the connection. “I’ll go get your ginger ale.”

  “Great.” Mia slumped into an empty seat by the hostess stand as Mrs. Patrelli bustled off to the kitchen. “She totally knows.”

  “Knows what? About you being pregnant?” Garrett sat beside her, his arm immediately going around her as if to comfort her. “How can you tell?”

  “Mrs. Patrelli has seven kids. I’m sure she’s pretty astute about things like that.”

  “Is it bad if she knows? I mean, it’s not like everyone won’t find out eventually, Mia.”

  “I know. I guess I’m still just trying to get used to the fact that we’re having a baby.”

  His expression softened. “We. I like the sound of—”

  “Oh, my gosh, GP!” a beautiful blonde shrieked as she walked by carrying a toddler covered in pizza sauce and still eating half a slice. “I barely recognized you without the tailored suit and stiff collar. How in the world have you been?”

  * * *

  It took Garrett several moments to identify the woman who had just intruded on one of the most important conversations of his life. With her nose job and cheek implants, Cammie Longacre looked less like the girl he’d known in high school and exactly like every other debutante-turned-housewife he’d grown up detesting.

  He could feel Mia trying to scoot her chair away, but Garrett’s arm around her shoulder was frozen—as if the shock that had been lying dormant in his body the past couple of days had just formed a glacier inside him. He could see Cammie’s lips moving, and he even caught the words “senior class,” “your dad” and “thought you’d disappeared off the face of the planet.” But he couldn’t make himself respond.

  At least, not until the former yearbook editor for Newport Hills Prep Academy sat down next to him and leaned in closely before snapping a picture of them together on her smartphone.

  “They’re not going to believe it,” Cammie said before looking over to Mia. “And I just couldn’t help overhear you guys are pregnant! How exciting.”

  Realizing his former classmate must have overheard Mia’s admission, he went into auto-pilot and switched over to damage control mode.

  “What are you doing here, Cammie?” he asked, then wanted to kick himself for sounding so defensive.

  “My husband and I brought the kids up to kick off the ski season.” Just then, a man who looked as if he was still president of his college fraternity walked over with two laughing children under each of his arms. “Chip wanted to do Telluride again this year, but let’s face it. All the good spots in Colorado and Jackson Hole are becoming so commercial lately. A friend of a friend recommended Sugar Falls and we decided to try out something new.”

  “Us, too,” Garrett said capitalizing on her line of thinking. If he could convince this woman who’d led the campaign to vote him Most Likely to Model For Brooks Brothers that he was simply on vacation, then word about his permanent whereabouts would be less likely to leak out. He squeezed Mia in closer next to him, hoping she would play along. “We just love hitting the slopes, but there isn’t any good snowboarding where we live in...Miami.”

  He’d blurted out the first city that had come to his mind, which was what he had been researching after Mia had sat in his office and told him that she’d used to be a professional NFL cheerleader.

  “I should have known you were living on the coast somewhere. And snowboarding, too! You’ve finally turned into a beach boy, GP. Just like your dad.” Her youngest child let out an unhappy wail before throwing his half-gnawed pizza crust to the floor. Being compared to his father left Garrett feeling like that piece of chewed-up bread lying on the ground. “Well, that’s our cue to get going. Maybe we’ll see you guys at the Snow Creek Lodge this weekend. We can catch up and I’ll fill you in on what’s happened to everyone since graduation.”

  “Sounds good.” Garrett waved to the departing family, forcing a smile when what he wanted to do was crawl behind the hostess stand.

  He waited until Cammie and her brood were well out the door before chancing a look at Mia.

  She held her jaw firmly clenched, her eyes staring at the faded poster of Venice affixed to the wall across from them. Someone as naturally beautiful as Mia couldn’t possibly be jealous of a woman like Cammie, could she? Or maybe she was embarrassed that he hadn’t introduced her to his old classmate. Either way, he needed to get back into her good graces. “Look, I know what I just said to that woman might’ve sounded crazy, but trust me. It was for the best.”

  “Why would you let her think we were together? Or suggest we were living in Miami?”

  Was that what had Mia so on edge? The fact that someone might actually believe they were a couple?

  “Actually, I believe she overheard you practically announcing to the restaurant that we were having a baby.” There went his defensive tone again. Perhaps Mia had set this all up.

  “But Miami? I’d really prefer people didn’t connect me with that place.”

  He almost laughed at her impractical concern. Anyone with a computer could figure out where Mia used to live. It really couldn’t be that big of a deal. Clearly, she didn’t understand the potential risk of having someone from his hometown recognize him.

  Or maybe she understood it too well.

  “Listen, when she snapped that picture, it caught me by surprise. The last thing I want is for her to broadcast on social media where I’m currently living. Florida was the first thing that popped into my mind since the other day you’d mentioned that you’d lived there.”

  “Why wouldn’t you want anyone to know you’ve moved to Idaho?”

  Was she serious? Maybe she was hoping for the camera crews to show up and for their unorthodox relationship to be broadcast to every major tabloid in America, but Garrett would be damned if he’d let the paparazzi find out about his child. “Let’s just say that I value my privacy.”

  Something that looked like understanding flashed in Mia’s pale blue eyes, but it was so unexpected, Garrett wasn’t sure he’d interpreted it correctly. He hoped she did understand because this was one child-rearing issue that wasn’t up for negotiation. The sooner she realized that in order to make this co-parenting thing work she would need to keep their relationship out of the press, the better.

  He was relieved when she nodded and said, “I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

  She brushed her long dark hair away from her face and he thought back to her not wanting to be seen together in public. Maybe she had something to hide, too. He wondered whether she’d be willing to sign some sort of confidentiality agreement—especially if he tossed in a decent amount of money as an added incentive to keep quiet.

  God, that sounded so cheap and tawdry. As if he was trying to buy her off in order to keep his child a secret. What kind of man did something like that?

  A de
sperate one.

  “So, for now, we’re just keeping this whole baby thing between the two of us?” he asked.

  “Well, us and Mrs. Patrelli,” she said, one corner of her lip lifting slightly. He liked seeing her smile and realized that during their brief encounters, he hadn’t seen it too often. “And probably Cessy Walker. Oh, and my two best friends.”

  “What?”

  “I had to tell them about you when Maxine called the hotel room the morning after and you answered the phone.” So that had been someone looking for her and more than likely hell-bent on calling security to protect her. “They were also with me when I took the pregnancy test. But that was before I knew you were going to be living here and would want to be...uh...involved.”

  Okay, he could handle a couple of locals knowing about them. After all, he’d figured he’d have to deal with as much when she’d limped out of his office the other day. He nodded and realized his arm was still resting along the back of her chair. If he moved it just an inch, he’d be able to feel her shoulders pressed firmly against him again.

  “And Kylie and Max might’ve told their husbands. Which means your buddy, Chief Cooper, probably knows, as well as Dr. Gregson. Didn’t you work with him when you were stationed at Shadowview?”

  “I didn’t know you were best friends with their wives.” Yep. Word was going to get around Sugar Falls awfully quickly. “Anyone else?”

  She opened her pretty pink lips to answer but was interrupted by the theme song from Jaws. She looked at the screen before pressing a button to silence the ringer. “Not yet, but I can tell you who isn’t going to be happy when I do finally tell her,” she said, flashing the screen at him. “My mother.”

  “Maybe you should take that.”

  “I’ll call her tomorrow. Look, my tummy isn’t doing all that great and I’m not really feeling up for dinner anymore.”

  “Oh. Okay. Should I cancel our order?”

  “No. You take it to your place. Where is your place, by the way?”

  “I’ve got a room at Betty Lou’s Bed-and-Breakfast. But eventually, I’d like to find something here in town. Maybe one of those old Victorian homes to remodel.”

  “That sounds pretty permanent.” He looked at her sideways. That was the point, wasn’t it? She stood and he picked up his coat. “Where are you going?”

  “To walk you home.” Did she really think he’d be so ungentlemanly as to let her find her own way home?

  “It’s only a couple of blocks. I walk it all the time.”

  “So then you won’t mind if I walk it with you.”

  “But what about your lasagna?”

  “What about it? I’ll come back for it.”

  He held open the door for her and they walked quietly down the street lined with gas lanterns and a heavier-than-normal amount of foot traffic, probably due to the weekend tourist crowd. If she wasn’t feeling well, he didn’t want to make her talk, even though there was still so much to say.

  When they were almost to her building, he could no longer stand the silence between them. “So when do you see the obstetrician?”

  “My first appointment is Monday afternoon. Why?”

  He had a feeling the shy and reserved Mia wasn’t going to like what he was about to say. But this was his future, too, and he wasn’t going to take a backseat for any part of the process. “Should we take your car or mine?”

  Chapter Six

  Mia couldn’t believe she was actually allowing Garrett to accompany her to such an important and intimate doctor’s appointment.

  But lately her emotions had been zooming up and down on the rickety roller-coaster tracks that were her nerves. So on Saturday night, when Garrett had asked in such a way that gave her no wiggle room for extracting herself gracefully, her already foggy brain couldn’t come up with a good reason to deny him the simple request.

  Besides, this child was his, too. As much as she’d wanted to keep the experience to herself, to keep the whole child to herself, she couldn’t in good conscience do something so selfish—to either Garrett or to her unborn baby. Unless, of course, he proved himself to be untrustworthy or a bad father. In which case, she would pack up her son or daughter, along with the rest of her life, so quickly that nobody—not even her mother—would ever find them.

  She kept her Prius at a steady and safe pace, which was more than she could say for her pulse rate, as she drove down the mountain highway toward Boise. Garrett sat quietly in the seat beside her, his fingers intertwined tightly together. They’d barely exchanged more than some simple pleasantries when they’d met in the back alley behind her dance studio after lunch. But that was for the best since Mia wasn’t very good at making small talk.

  “I could have driven us, you know,” he said again for at least the third time.

  “Yes, you mentioned that. Thank you for offering, but I feel more comfortable in my own car.” And in control.

  He fiddled with his seat belt before returning his hands to their original position. If Mia hadn’t seen him so confident in several other situations, she would think that he was just as nervous as she was.

  She saw the black cuff links, the ones with his initials secured at his wrists. “I see you’re wearing your father’s gift.”

  He clasped his hands together and held them in his lap. “I am. I was pretty angry at him that night I first met you. And you’ll probably see me angry at him again in the future. But I decided to channel his words about remembering where I came from into something less bitter. Or maybe I’m a sentimental moron. I really don’t know. Anyway, do you mind if I change the radio station?”

  Mia frowned. But not because the guy didn’t totally hate his father. That was actually a good thing. She was annoyed because this was her favorite CD, the one she’d once planned to use for her audition to the MFA program at Hollins University in Virginia. She’d just saved up enough money for the first year of tuition when she’d had to undergo reconstructive surgery on her knee. Nothing had been the same since then. “Do you have something against Mozart?”

  “It’s just so slow and tedious. It’s making me really antsy and tense.”

  “Really? It’s supposed to be soothing. I read an article that said babies can hear everything in utero, so I try to pick classic pieces for him or her to listen to whenever possible.”

  “The Rolling Stones are a classic.” He shoved his sunglasses higher on his nose. At least he didn’t just reach for the knob and change the station. Which was something that some of the entitled guys her mother had encouraged her to date in college would have done.

  She glanced at the blue shirt that clung to his chiseled torso, his tailored khaki pants and his expensive loafers. Garrett dressed like the trust fund preppy types Rhonda Palinski insisted her daughter latch on to for financial security. But he’d also been in the military—and underneath those expensive clothes, she knew he had the well-muscled physique to prove it—so he didn’t walk around town acting as if he owned everything in it, including her.

  Plus, the fact that he’d been so standoffish with that woman who’d recognized him at Patrelli’s was another thing she hadn’t expected. At first, Mia had thought that Garrett’s chilly response was due to his embarrassment of being seen with her. But when he wouldn’t release her hands, as though he were holding on to her as he would a lifeboat in a stormy ocean, she realized that something else about Cammie Perfect Teeth had Garrett spooked.

  Mia wouldn’t characterize Garrett as being rebellious, but she’d definitely recognized the look in his eyes as the other woman had talked endlessly about the people they’d known in high school and running into his father. It was a look she’d seen reflected in her own mirror too often, such as right before she’d defied her mother by getting her nose pierced after college. But his hazel eyes had also held a fierce determination, like
a cornered animal not willing to give himself or his starched collars up.

  So who was after Garrett McCormick, MD, and why?

  But before she could solve that mystery, she needed to get through her first obstetrician appointment.

  She pulled into a parking spot in front of the three-story medical office building near Boise State University, but didn’t dare look at the well-dressed gentleman sitting beside her. Maybe she could just try to pretend he wasn’t there. She took a couple of deep but subtle breaths. Mozart hadn’t been the least bit helpful thus far.

  “You ready for this?” he asked, not looking entirely ready himself.

  “No,” she said. Yet, she opened her car door, determined to swallow her own uncertainties and discomfort for the health of her unborn child. They walked silently across the full parking lot. He was probably just as lost in his own thoughts as she was.

  He held open the large glass doors for her and then found the suite number on the directory near the elevator. She could tell he was equally anxious, but at least he was being solicitous.

  Almost too solicitous. When they walked up to the receptionist, it was Garrett’s voice that announced them. “Mia Palinski to see Dr. Wang.”

  The lady behind the desk was wearing scrubs printed with storks and handed her several forms to complete. But before Mia could take the clipboard, Garrett said, “Here, let me help with that. I’m a doctor. And the dad. Not her dad. The baby’s dad.”

  The woman laughed, as if she dealt with nervous expectant fathers every day. Which she probably did. Next, she handed Mia an empty plastic cup and pointed to the restroom before saying, “Can’t help with this one, Dr. Dad.”

  “Honestly,” Garrett whispered as they walked toward the chairs in the waiting room, “I can’t really help with the forms, either. Besides what I memorized from my own medical charts, I still don’t know much about you. I guess I just wanted to feel useful.”