Watch Over Me

by Sydney Landon

  “Sure,” Gwen replied, even though company was the last thing she wanted. She’d really enjoyed her lunch with Suzy and the other girls, but they were still somewhat like strangers to her. Good manners dictated that she at least attempt a few minutes of small talk before making her excuses and leaving, though. “So, nervous anxiety, huh?” Boy, did she know that feeling well. “Bad day at work?” Gwen only wished her problems centered on Danvers and not what she had discovered earlier that morning.

  “Nope, nothing work related.” Suzy took a deep breath and said, “I just found out I’m getting a baby. Or Gray and I are.”

  Gwen felt like all of the air had left her lungs. This wasn’t the explanation that she’d expected by any means. “You’re pregnant?” she managed to squeak out.

  “No.” Suzy shook her head. “My husband and I have been on a waiting list to adopt a child . . . and I just got the call. A birth mother has selected us.”

  Gwen gaped at the other woman, trying to process her words. “Oh, my . . . Wow!” she whispered. “I . . . um didn’t know you were trying to adopt. I remember someone asking you if there was anything new on the baby front at lunch the other day, but I just assumed . . .”

  “No, I’m not trying to get pregnant—anymore.” Then looking completely at peace, she added, “This is our path—what we’re meant to do right now. I just . . . never expected it to happen this soon.” Turning to fully face Gwen, she admitted, “I’m excited, beyond excited, honestly. But, I’m scared to believe that this will actually work out. We’ve gotten our hopes up too much in the last few years. I want to run to Gray right now and tell him, but then a part of me is afraid to see his happiness dashed if this isn’t our baby.”

  “Oh, Suzy.” Gwen squeezed the other woman’s hand in hers and then felt about two inches tall about how upset she had been over her problems. Compared to what Suzy and others were struggling through, she was lucky. She may have things to figure out in her life and plans to make, but she would survive, even if she had to do it all on her own. Well, and with Wendy kicking her ass every step of the way.

  They had been quiet for a few minutes before Suzy seemed to compose herself and Gwen could see a little of her usual spirited personality return. “So, what’re you doing sitting here looking like you’re heading for a firing squad? Work or man problems? Those are usually the two things that take over our lives.”

  There was no way she could tell Suzy, of all people, why she was sitting here staring off into space as her thoughts and stomach churned. She’d been that way since she’d left her apartment that morning and it hadn’t improved as the day had passed. She had seen Dominic only briefly, while walking in the building that morning, but he’d been gone in the blink of an eye. She had to talk to him tonight, but she wasn’t sure what she was going to say. He was likely to be angry with her, and dammit, she was angry with him and the world one minute, then ready to cry the next. What a screwed-up mess. “I . . . It’s nothing,” she finally said in answer to Suzy’s questions. “Just one of those days, you know?”

  “You’re pregnant, aren’t you?” Suzy asked quietly.

  Gwen spun around so fast she almost fell from her bench. “How did you know? No one else knows—shit.” She sagged as she realized what she’d accidentally admitted. “Oh, my God, I’m so sorry. I know you couldn’t possibly want to hear that.”

  Suzy took Gwen’s hand, offering comfort. “Gwen, it’s okay, really. It took a while, but I’m in a good place now. There is no way I could begrudge you or another woman that happiness. And right now, you look like you’re in desperate need of a friend. It’s Dominic’s?”

  Gwen nodded, and then found herself confiding in someone she barely knew, but it seemed that fate had brought them together today to give the other the support they needed. “Yes, it’s Dominic’s. I . . . just found out this morning. I mean, I took a test—a bunch of them last week and they were negative. We knew it was a possibility because we had a condom . . . mishap. I only had my period for a couple of days though and it was, just different. I had mentioned it to my sister before I left her house on Sunday, and she suggested I take another test just to be certain. I just laughed it off because I hadn’t been having any symptoms or anything. Well, this morning as I was getting ready for work, she texted me a reminder and since I had purchased like twenty of them last week, I went ahead and took one, just so she’d drop it. I didn’t even bother looking at it until I was out of the shower and—it had both lines showing. I completely freaked out and took every last test I had left and they all indicated ‘Pregnant.’”

  “Oh honey, congratulations,” Suzy said, sounding nothing but sincere. As if noticing Gwen’s tight expression, she asked, “Are you not happy about it?”

  Gwen felt horrible at Suzy’s question. She didn’t want the other woman to think that she didn’t want the baby after she’d been unable to have one of her own. “It’s not that,” she assured her. “I’m just not sure what to do next. I told Dominic last week that I wasn’t pregnant, and he just seemed to brush it off like it didn’t matter. I think he was relieved because he has feelings for someone else, a stripper named Kandi, and now this is going to mess up his plans—to end things with me and move on.”

  “Wait a minute,” Suzy stopped her. “He is seeing you and a stripper? Dominic? Are you sure? Everyone talks about him like he’s the best thing since sliced bread.”

  “I don’t know for sure,” Gwen admitted. “It’s just that I overheard a conversation between Gage and Dominic about how Dominic could go back to Kandi if he found out I wasn’t pregnant. Then I saw a text on his phone this morning from Kandi wanting to know when he’d be back in Charleston. While he was there, he didn’t call or text me other than to say, ‘good deal,’ when I told him I wasn’t pregnant.”

  “Oh no, he didn’t!” she muttered. “That’s just wrong. Wait, but you said he left his phone at your place. Does that mean he spent the night there, I mean after that bonehead text?”

  “Um, yes, he did,” Gwen admitted sheepishly. “When I got home from my sister’s Sunday afternoon, he came out of his apartment while I was getting my keys out. He seemed kind of nervous and asked me to go out to dinner. I agreed because I didn’t know where things stood between us after not hearing from him. Then our dinner was really awkward, but kind of sweet. Like a first date.”

  “And then he looked so good when you got home that you went all in for the wild monkey sex and still don’t know where things stand with him?”

  Feeling dejected, Gwen sighed. “Yep, that’s it pretty much. I mean he’s never seemed like some kind of player, but I have no idea if he really cares about me the way I care about him. You know?”

  “You need to talk to him,” Suzy advised sternly. “Tell him to grow a pair and let you know what’s going on.”

  “But what if he just says something he doesn’t mean because I’m pregnant? I mean, I will tell him, of course, but it would be nice to know if there is something between us outside of that.”

  Suzy gave her an understanding smile. “Then you have the whole state-of-the-relationship talk first. Tell him you’re in love with him and see what he says in return. You’ll know how he feels before he even opens his mouth, though. Men have a hard time with the whole poker face thing.”

  “But, I didn’t say I was in love with him,” Gwen denied weakly. “I’m not sure I know what I feel.”

  “You love him.” Suzy smiled. “It’s there, written all over your face.”

  “But how can I be in love so soon?” Gwen protested. “We’ve only been together a few weeks. That’s crazy.”

  “I’m going to tell you something I have never even admitted to my husband. I was in love with Gray Merimon from the first moment I saw him. He terrified me because I knew he was going to be my life—my future. I fought it as long as I could, but he had me at first sight. My stomach dropped, my breath caught, and my body came to life. I loved that man before he ever finagled me into our first date,
and I’ll never love anyone the way I do him. So, to me, it’s very easy to see how you can be in love with Dominic. And if he’s the kind of man everyone says he is, then the feeling is going to be mutual.” Suzy had just finished her sentence when her cell phone began ringing. She pulled it from the pocket of her leather jacket and smiled. She answered the call with, “Hey, baby,” causing Gwen to smile and get to her feet. She mouthed, “Thank you,” to her new friend and walked away, giving her some privacy. She was still a bundle of nerves, but she had a direction now. She would talk to Dominic tonight and by the end of the evening, she planned to know how he felt about her one way or another.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Dominic left his apartment after a quick shower, intent on going to see his woman. He turned after locking his door and found Gwen already walking toward him, looking uneasy. He searched her eyes, trying to find a clue as to what was bothering her when laughter close by drew both of their gazes down the hallway. Dominic did a double take, thinking he was seeing things. No, surely that wasn’t— What the fuck?

  “Shannon?” Gwen whisper-shouted but her neighbor paid her no attention. Probably because she had both arms, legs, and her mouth wrapped up in—Gage? When the couple either ignored or didn’t hear Gwen’s voice, Dominic cleared his throat loudly, still trying to make himself believe what he was seeing. Shannon was the woman—the someone different—Gage was seeing?

  Finally, they were forced to come up for air—either that or the truck backfiring in the distance got their attention—and they slowly disengaged their lips and stared at each other like lovesick fools, completely oblivious to rest of the world. Dominic stepped up next to Gage and asked, “Gage, man, what’re you doing?”

  Gage and Shannon jerked apart and both began talking at once. Dominic couldn’t make sense of anything they were saying and was glad when Gwen finally asked, “But what about Cameron—the doctor?” Then she turned suspicious eyes to Gage before putting her hands on her hips. “This is Gage—he works with Dominic. He’s not Cameron, and he’s not a doctor!”

  “Bro,” Dominic began, ready to kill his friend over lying to Shannon. “That’s not cool at all.”

  Shannon, sounding exasperated and a little embarrassed said, “Guys, I know who Gage is.”

  Slapping a hand against his forehead, Dominic muttered, “Gage’s middle name is Cameron.”

  “Huh . . . ?” Gwen asked, still looking confused.

  Gage pulled Shannon snugly into his side. “I ran into Shannon when I was visiting Dom. Then it seemed like we just kept running into each other. Walmart, Walgreens, and finally, when I saw her again at McDonald’s, we both started laughing. I told her I worked with Dom, and we just started talking. She invited me to eat with her and the girls, and it just kinda went from there.”

  “So, why didn’t you say anything—and what’s with you going by your middle name?” Dominic asked, now more curious than anything.

  “Shannon and I wanted to take things slow without others knowing for a while. I mean she’s got Megan and Maddy to consider and all.” Looking embarrassed, he admitted, “I introduced myself to her as Cameron. I was concerned . . . that since she lived in the same apartments as Dom that she might have heard my name before. I really liked her and wanted a fresh start. When we kept seeing each other though, I finally told her the truth.”

  “But Shannon,” Gwen sputtered. “You can’t date him. He sleeps with a lot of women. Mac told me all about Gage’s strict ‘no stay zone.’ He just—you know, does it and then moves on. You can’t let someone like that around your kids.”

  Dominic could see both Gage and Shannon stiffening at Gwen’s harsh words. Okay, so maybe there was some truth to them, but he didn’t want to see either of them lose a friend over this. In the end, both Gage and Shannon were adults, and it was their decision. So, he put a reassuring arm around Gwen’s shoulders and said, “Babe, I think we need to leave this up to them.”

  “Gwen, I love you, I really do,” Shannon began, “but you need to let me worry about my girls. I’m their mother, and I always do what’s best for them.”

  Dominic felt Gwen’s back go ramrod straight at the bite in Shannon’s voice. He thought they were probably only minutes away from some hair pulling. He noticed Gage looking equally as nervous as his gaze darted between the two women.

  “How is it best to lie about who you’re seeing to everyone you know? I mean if you went to those lengths to keep us from knowing . . . are you certain about what you’re doing?”

  Shannon took a few steps closer, now almost nose-to-nose with Gwen. “Oh yeah, and you’re so much better? Let’s see how great your decisions are after you have your baby!”

  “WHAT?” Gwen shouted, looking appalled. “How did you . . . ?”

  “You told me to let myself in this morning to get the new shoes you’d bought for Maddy. Megan had to use the bathroom. I saw all of those pregnancy tests lined up on your bathroom sink. So, don’t you two be lecturing Gage and me about hiding things. Looks like you’re doing a bit of that yourselves.” Finally, the anger left her voice, and she just sounded hurt as she added, “You told me you weren’t pregnant. You lied to me about that.”

  “Looks like you’re not the only one,” Dominic said in a daze. Dropping his arm from Gwen’s shoulders, he put some distance between them before turning to stare at her. She looked almost green as she stared back with something that could only be described as guilt on her face. “You told me . . . the test was negative. Why—why would you lie about that?”

  Gwen reached for his arm, but he stepped back quickly before she could make any physical contact. “It was,” she assured him in a shaky voice. “They were all negative, but then this morning they showed positive. I—I was going to tell you tonight.”

  Dominic had no idea what was going on, but as he looked at the three sets of eyes focused on him, he just knew he had to get out of there and find a place where he could think—and breathe. Before he knew it, his legs were carrying him down the steps. He heard voices shouting his name, but he never stopped, never paused. He grabbed his bike keys from his pocket, grateful he had picked them up at the last minute. He’d thought that he and Gwen could go to the beach and talk. Now, he just wanted distance from the thoughts racing through his head.

  * * *

  “Gwen, I’m so sorry,” Shannon cried as Gwen sank to the floor when it became apparent that Dominic wasn’t coming back. “I didn’t know! I thought he knew you were pregnant.”

  “I just found out,” Gwen said hoarsely. “I wasn’t lying. It was negative last week.”

  As Gwen sat there trembling in shock with Shannon’s arms around her, Gage stepped forward. If he was offended by Gwen’s earlier words, he didn’t show it. Instead, he held a hand out to her. “Come on, ladies, let’s take this inside. Megan and Maddy will be home soon from their grandparents’ house and there will be a lot of explaining to do if they find us out here.”

  Gwen stood and turned toward her apartment, but Shannon held firm to her arm. “No, sweetie, come to my place. I don’t want to leave you alone. I’m so sorry I said that. I can’t believe I did that to you,” she cried harder.

  Gage motioned them toward the doorway of Shannon’s apartment but didn’t move to follow them. He grabbed Shannon’s hand. “I’m going to go, baby—let you two talk. Call you later, though. You good?”

  Gwen turned to see her friend smiling at Gage, her eyes soft and filled with something that looked a lot like love. At that moment, she hoped with all of her heart that Gage proved everyone wrong and had just been waiting for the right woman all along. She’d never known Shannon to even date since finally breaking free from her disaster of an ex. The man hadn’t had a faithful or truthful bone in his body. Gage might have gone through a lot of women, but if Dominic and Mac had been friends with him for all of these years, then he was a good guy—he had to be.

  “I’m good,” Shannon murmured right before Gage trailed a finger down her cheek befor
e dropping a kiss on her lips.

  Both Gwen and Shannon collapsed side by side onto her couch. “I owe both you and Gage an apology as well,” Gwen said. “I don’t know why I said all of that. I love you and the girls to death, but your personal life is none of my business. I’m sorry, Shannon. I truly am.”

  Shannon scooted closer and dropped her head against Gwen’s shoulder. “We really outdid ourselves this time, didn’t we? I swear, I thought for a minute there we’d start throwing fists or something. I really care about Gage, and I guess I’m a little overly sensitive about our relationship. He’s the first man that I’ve connected with in such a long time, and I’m afraid of losing him.”

  “How long?” Gwen asked, curious as to how she could have missed Gage coming and going from Shannon’s apartment.

  “A couple of months,” Shannon admitted. “He just officially met Megan and Maddy a few weeks back for the first time.” Blushing, Shannon added, “I think you remember them telling you all about it at the zoo that day.”

  “Ah yes, the whole ‘don’t—stop Cameron’ thing. I thought that all came out of nowhere.” Feeling a little hurt, Gwen said, “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”

  “I hated keeping it from you, of all people. I just didn’t want anyone knowing in case I’d made yet another mistake. When you’re a single mom, people seem to have a lot of opinions about what you should and shouldn’t be doing, especially where men are concerned. I didn’t want everyone rolling their eyes and talking about me. Trust me, I’ve been there, and it’s not pretty.”

  Gwen winced. “I guess I validated all of those fears with my little tirade, didn’t I?”

  Shannon chuckled. “You kinda did that for a moment, Rambo. I’m just gonna let you blame it on your crazy pregnancy hormones and not hold it against you.”

  Gwen instantly sobered at the mention of what she’d been trying to wrap her mind around all day. Her hand lifted to rest on her flat stomach, still in disbelief that any of this was really happening. Well, the part about the man leaving her was actually pretty easy to believe. She might not have been pregnant during her other relationships, but she was certainly familiar with seeing the guy’s back as he walked away. “I really didn’t know, Shannon. I took a test on Friday and thought I had my period, but it only lasted less than two days. Wendy told me I should test again after I admitted to not having a regular period. I swear I didn’t really have any reason to think that I might be pregnant. I had the tests leftover and you know Wendy, the drill sergeant. I knew I’d never hear the end of it until I double-checked. I almost passed out when I saw that second line. Then I guess you saw all the tests lying around my bathroom. I lost my mind there for a while and was just frantically taking the rest of them. Now Dominic seems to think I’ve been lying to him about it.”