From Dare to Due Date

by Christy Jeffries

  Mia’s spine tingled, but not out of apprehension. He’d memorized her medical history? Not that she could blame him. She would look through any records she could to find out as much information about him as possible. In fact, she’d talked to her best friends’ husbands at length yesterday, quizzing them on everything they knew about Garrett.

  Kylie’s husband, Drew Gregson, was a psychologist at Shadowview Military Hospital and assured Mia that her baby’s father was a well-respected doctor who treated his nurses and staff well and had a reputation for being professional.

  Cooper could also vouch for the man’s military record and skills as a surgeon, but she could tell the police chief knew more than what he was admitting. When it came to a personal background check, all he would tell her was that Garrett had a clean criminal record and was a trustworthy guy.

  Drew was trained to notice abnormal behavior and Cooper was a good judge of character. They were two of the few men Mia trusted implicitly, which was what had ultimately swayed her decision to allow Garrett to be a part of her pregnancy.

  But after she’d left her urine sample and changed into a plain cotton gown, Mia had to wonder if the small confines of the obstetrician’s office, with all the pictures of women’s reproductive organs on display, was the best place for her and Garrett to get better acquainted.

  He offered to take Mia’s blood pressure, but the nurse pointed to the chair in the corner and told him that he could either sit out of the way or out in the waiting room.

  “Well, she could certainly work on her bedside manner,” Garrett said when the medical assistant left them alone to await the doctor.

  “I thought she was sweet and more than capable. Besides, you’re not her patient so she probably doesn’t care too much about your bedside requirements.”

  Garrett crossed his arms and, as if by silent agreement, they looked everywhere around the room except at each other.

  At least he didn’t show too much interest in the posters or the life-size model of a uterus. Instead, he kept checking out the medical equipment and even commented on the newness of the ultrasound machine.

  Dr. Wang, an older woman with a short, messy ponytail and bifocals, finally entered and relieved some of the tension. “Congratulations, you two. The urine sample was positive, so let’s take some measurements and figure out when exactly this baby will be arriving.”

  Garrett must have taken that as his cue to leave his seat of exile and hover around Mia as the doctor performed her exam.

  “Aren’t you the curious one,” Dr. Wang said, lifting her wiry eyebrows high above the rim of her glasses.

  “I’m in orthopedics,” he said. They spoke briefly about medical school, the people they both knew at Shadowview Military Hospital and the differences between joint replacements and fetal development.

  Mia wanted to wave her arm and call out, Hello! I’m the one with the baby inside me, but she was so accustomed to not trying to draw attention to herself that she remained still and quiet, trying to absorb the fact that she was truly and officially pregnant. It was one thing to see a couple of lines on a plastic stick. It was quite another to lie back in a sterile room with two doctors conversing about due dates and trimesters and fundal height measurements.

  Somehow, everything was so real yet so surreal at the same time. Mia felt as if she was the cute and cuddly kitten in the poster tacked to the ceiling, looking down at the nervous and excited woman lying on the exam table.

  Whoa. A fleeting moment of déjà vu replayed in her mind as she remembered having this same out-of-body experience when she’d entered the mirrored hotel elevator with Garrett and watched him pull her into his arms.

  It was as though she knew this was her. But at the same time, it couldn’t possibly be her.

  “What’s that?” Garrett asked when Dr. Wang pulled a small instrument out of her lab coat pocket.

  “This is a fetal Doppler,” the obstetrician said. “We’re going to try to hear your child’s heartbeat.”

  Mia tensed when the doctor opened the hospital gown and exposed her abdomen. She lifted her arm up so it lay across her face, hopefully hiding the blush spreading on her cheeks. Garrett had seen her much more intimately than this, plus, he was in complete medical professional mode and would hardly observe her body as anything other than for its basic anatomical purpose.

  “Are you okay?” He rubbed her forearm, causing her to move it away from her face and make eye contact with him.

  “Yep,” Mia replied, her jaw stiff. “It’s just cold.”

  When the quick-paced whooshing noise filled the small room, Garrett’s hand slid along her arm, until it was locked tightly around her fingers above her head. Instead of looking at the doctor, he looked at Mia. His hazel eyes had turned dark green and slightly misty. “Is that it?”

  She felt her own eyes grow damp and couldn’t stop her fingers from squeezing back. “I think so.”

  That was her baby moving inside her body—dancing to its own pulse and synchronizing its heartbeat with hers. Her throat grew tight and she felt the wetness of a happy tear trickle toward her ear. She pulled Garrett’s hand tighter, moving it to just below her chin. She was so relieved he was there and that she wasn’t experiencing this wonderful moment alone. She’d never heard such a beautiful sound in her life. Not even Mozart could top this.

  Garrett’s other palm moved toward her bare stomach and it felt like the most natural thing in the world when his thumb traced a circle around the small monitor.

  “Can you believe it?” His grin was full of pride and awe, but it was also contagious. “That’s our Pipsqueak. Can we see him on an ultrasound?”

  His eager voice reminded her of a kid who’d just been given a brand-new toy and was already tearing into the packaging trying to get it out. For a skilled surgeon, he certainly wasn’t exhibiting an ounce of impulse control at that moment.

  “We can.” Dr. Wang pulled the bigger machine over. “But as of now, I’m estimating you to be at ten weeks. So we won’t know just yet whether your Pipsqueak is a boy or a girl for another few weeks.”

  “I can’t wait,” he said, then removed his hand only when the doctor pushed it away to squirt a cold lubricant on Mia’s belly.

  “Being a parent takes lots of patience,” the obstetrician said. “Making it through the next several months will be your first taste of that.”

  * * *

  I can’t wait. The words he’d uttered without thinking ricocheted inside his head all the way back to Sugar Falls. Along with the fact that what he’d said was true.

  He didn’t know how to be a father or how to co-parent, for that matter. And he assuredly didn’t know this woman who was carrying his child. But when he’d heard the thrilling wish-washing sound of his baby’s heartbeat, he knew with a deep certainty that he’d never been so excited for anything in his life—not even for that plane ride that had taken him from his family home to his future dorm room at Annapolis.

  And just like joining the navy, Garrett knew this journey of fatherhood would have its ups and downs and that in no way would it be an easy road. But for some reason, he was no longer looking at the situation the way a third-year resident dreaded getting deployed to a combat zone.

  “Why are you smiling?” Mia asked as she steered her little hybrid car onto the interstate.

  “I can’t stop.”

  “I know. Me, neither. Earlier in the exam room, I was thinking that this whole experience is so surreal.”

  “Exactly. It’s just so crazy, you know? I should be scared to death of what the future holds. But I’m not. It’s a weird sensation for me because usually I like order, I like rules. It’s why I joined the navy.”

  “I thought you joined the navy to get away from your father.”

  “Well, partly. But I could’ve gone anywhere to get away fro
m him. The navy was both a physical and an emotional escape for me. Growing up in my family was like being on an eighteen-year concert tour with Jimmy Buffet. I became a surgeon because I’m good at remaining steady when there’s chaos all around me.”

  “What about your mom? You’ve never mentioned her.”

  He looked at Mia, something about the emotional experience they’d just shared making him decide to open up a little. “She died of breast cancer.”

  “That must’ve been very sad.”

  “I was two when it happened so I really don’t remember much about her.”

  “I’m sorry,” Mia said, but Garrett didn’t want to end their day talking about something depressing. He fingered his cuff links, the ones that now had a little more sentimental meaning to them than they had that night he’d lost one.

  “So that ultrasound was pretty amazing, huh? Pipsqueak looked pretty healthy in there.”

  She smiled at him. “I’m happy you’re excited and, for what’s it’s worth, I’m glad we’re off to a good start with this whole co-parenting thing.”

  “Me, too.”

  They’d had a relaxing drive back from Boise, neither one of them talking much, but neither one of them on edge, either. Something had happened in that doctor’s office that had allowed them to accept the fact that they were embarking on a special journey together, and that they were going to be partners in whatever happened from here on out.

  Sure, Mia still hadn’t given him any indication that she was willing to let him see too much of who she was, but at least she hadn’t insisted on playing that “soothing” classical music on the way home. In fact, Garrett had been surprised to discover she actually had a couple of classic rock stations preprogrammed on her car radio.

  They were listening to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young when Mia parked the small vehicle in an assigned spot behind the building housing the Snowflake Dance Academy. He thought about her warmly decorated apartment above it and hoped she’d welcome him back there again before the baby was born. At some point, they would need to get to a familiar place where they would feel comfortable in each other’s presence. Yet after the miracle he’d just been a part of, he didn’t want to rush anything that would force them together.

  But he didn’t want to go back to his empty and lonely room at the bed-and-breakfast, either.

  “Thank you again for letting me go with you to the first appointment.”

  “Honestly, I was a little surprised that you’d want to.”

  “Why would that surprise you?” Did she think he planned to be some sort of deadbeat dad?

  “I just figured with you being a man of science and a doctor and all that, it wouldn’t be too thrilling for you.”

  “I probably would’ve thought that myself a few months ago. But it’s different being the one on the other side of the curtain, so to speak. When I’m the doctor, it’s all about business and caring for the patient and being the one in charge. Plus, I only have a basic fundamental understanding of childbirth from medical school since I’ve never been too interested in that field before. I guess it’s more exciting when it’s your own child—your own future—at stake.”

  “I can understand that.” She nodded toward the freshly painted Victorian building that housed her studio. “When I watch my students perform their routines in a recital, it just feels like a job well done. But then I get a glimpse of their parents sitting in the audience, holding up their cameras and leaping up to applaud when it’s over, and I think about how much more invested they are than me.”

  A tiny knock sounded at the driver’s side window and she turned her head to smile at a little girl wearing a heavy pink coat over her pink tights.

  “Hi, Madison,” Mia said as she exited the car.

  “Hey, Miss Mia.” The six-year-old pulled a finger out of her left nostril then smiled, revealing two missing teeth. “I’ve been practicing my kick ball chains all week and my mom brought me over early so I could show you before the other students get here.”

  “I can’t wait to see them. We have about fifteen more minutes until class starts so give me a couple seconds to get inside and then I’ll watch.” Mia pulled a bobby pin out of her own sweater pocket and used it to straighten the girl’s lopsided bun. He’d seen her in work mode for only thirty seconds, but she seemed pretty invested in her students so far. She turned to Garrett. “Tap class starts at five, so I better get going.”

  She put her hand out, but must have thought better of the formal action after the intimate afternoon they’d just shared because she pulled it back and then drew the edges of her cardigan tighter around her waist instead.

  They weren’t quite at the hugging-goodbye phase, but he’d like to think they’d at least gotten past the handshaking stage. As Dr. Wang had suggested, he would try to be patient over the next seven months. Too bad he wasn’t ready to go back to the B and B just yet. “Actually, do you mind if I come inside for a second and use your restroom?”

  Okay, so maybe that was just an excuse to linger and gain more of a glimpse into her world. But who could blame him? He should see the environment where his child would be raised part-time. She’d had the opportunity to see him at work, so why shouldn’t he be afforded the same?

  “Sure,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. He followed her inside to where another instructor was conducting some sort of hip-hop dance class.

  So she had employees—legitimate ones, not just a socialite sitting behind a reception desk in a start-up orthopedic practice—working for her. Business must not have been too bad.

  As soon as their feet hit the parquet floor, Mia’s steps picked up speed and she lifted her hand in a halfhearted wave toward several parents sitting on folding chairs in an alcove off to the side of the main dance floor. But she didn’t stop to make small talk, or to otherwise introduce him to anyone. Either she was hoping nobody would pick up on the fact that his truck had been parked in front of her studio all afternoon and, therefore, surmise that they had been together. Or she thought he must really need to use the bathroom.

  While he was washing his hands, the bass pounding through a mounted wall speaker down the hall came to an abrupt halt. He checked his watch and assumed the hip-hop class had just finished. Maybe if he took his time in here, he’d get the opportunity to watch her in action teaching a class.

  But a loud knock on the door, followed by a young voice yelling, “Mommy, I really gotta go and I don’t wanna be late for Miss Mia,” threw a wrench in his stall tactics.

  Garrett walked slowly out of the unisex restroom, tempted to stop by the wide-open doorway of what must’ve been Mia’s office. Maybe he could slip in there and take a look around, find out some more information about her.

  Oh, come on. What was he thinking? When had he become such a spy? He’d never had to dig up information on women before. Of course, he had never been that interested in another woman before.

  Whoa. He needed to back up. Obviously, he wasn’t interested in Mia as a woman woman. He was merely interested in her as the person carrying his child.

  Be patient. He reminded himself of Dr. Wang’s words yet again. He would find out what he needed in due time.

  He passed her office, for now, and hung back against the wall behind some folded-up floor mats. She had thrown her hair up into a knot on top of her head and was dressed in the same leggings she’d worn to the obstetrician’s office. But she’d removed her outer sweater and his eyes were drawn to the scoop neck of her leotard. Her throat and upper chest were on full display and his mind took him back to their magical night. He remembered the feel of her collarbone beneath his lips as he’d trailed kisses along its silky-smooth ridges and the way her skin had tasted when her body had arched up into his arms and she’d pulled his head down lower.

  A sudden burst from the speaker right above his ear brought him back to the pr
esent. Mia had put on some jazzy swing music and was now watching the little girl from the parking lot tap her little heart out. After she applauded the girl’s solo performance, she called out, “Okay, my dancing butterflies. Let’s get started.”

  Several other six-year-olds click-clacked their way out onto the floor and Mia led them through a series of toe shuffling, heel tapping and arm spinning.

  He watched her try to stifle a giggle when one little girl spun too much and landed on her rear end. He also watched her soothe that same little girl when her two younger brothers, who were sitting and observing from the sidelines, roared with laughter during a second fall.

  He wondered if Mia even knew he was still there. That he was watching her. He hoped not because right that second, she was more at ease than he’d ever seen her—even that night in Boise. She was clearly in her element and hadn’t been lying when she’d said she was used to being around children.

  When she started a conga line of sorts, the dancers followed her as she wove back and forth along the wooden floor. But the few stragglers at the tail end got separated and when the last butterfly ran to catch up with her classmates, she slipped in her metal-plated shoe and Garrett watched her go down awkwardly on her right ankle.

  He was by the girl’s side before Mia had even turned around—getting there before the poor child’s mother, whose scream stopped the entire class and put an end to the conga line. The little one was crying and Garrett could tell by the odd angle of her foot that this was more than a sprain. He immediately went into emergency mode. His first job was to stabilize the patient. Someone else could deal with the flustered parents and everyone who crowded around to see what had happened.

  “Honey,” he said to the girl, but loud enough for the distraught mom to hear. “My name is Dr. McCormick and I want to help you. What’s your name?”

  “Madison,” she said through trembling lips. Her mom stroked her hair as she knelt on the other side.