30. Jack
30
JACK
I held the phone to my ear not even believing what I just heard. Howard's voice keeps rattling off the facts, but I'm stuck on the one that just made my life so much easier.
"Wait just a second," I tell him, halting his gibberish. "Go back and say that again."
Howard chuckles and repeats what I couldn't believe the first time. "Dana has dropped the suit, Jack. It's the truth. She said she can't take Leah away from her friends and family and she believes Leah's better off with you."
I still couldn't believe it. This wasn't like Dana at all. Normally, she would use any excuse to make me look bad or hurt me, and she never once thought of what was best for Leah. "So you think she just realized she was going to lose and gave up?" I asked, and he didn't even have to agree with me because my gut told me I was right. But he did.
"Honestly, yes. I put that countersuit forward and the judge told her to cough up details about the men she was with. I think it scared her off. The good news is, she gets one weekend a month and every other holiday, and she has to provide transportation." Howard scoffed. We both knew it wouldn't happen. She'd leave and never look back, and for once, I didn't know if that was a bad thing. Leah would be heartbroken, but she'd be better off.
"Look, I gotta run, Howard. Just let me know when to come by and sign the papers. There's someone I need to talk to."
It was like life switched directions in a split second and things had finally started going my way. I was so happy with this turn of events, I was ready to begin submitting my resume to other hospitals and surgical centers in the city, just to make sure Sophia and I could be together. I knew how things were with her family and I needed to honor that.
"Sure thing, Jack. I'll shoot you a text when my secretary has them all typed up. Have a good evening." Howard hung up, and I shoved my phone into my pocket. The only thing on my mind was figuring out where Sophia was so I could talk to her. I assumed based on the nurse from the ER's statement that Sophia was with her parents. It would be challenging, but I could look up her personnel file and her emergency contact, which was likely her mother, and go from there.
I grabbed my keys and my jacket and rushed for the door, but as I opened it to dash out to my car, Sophia was there, almost bumping into me. I stopped dead in my tracks and braced her by a firm grip on each elbow so she didn't fall over.
"My God!" she gasped, and then she smiled.
"I'm so sorry. I almost ran you over. I was just coming to find you." I wanted nothing more than to take her into my arms and kiss her until her breath was gone, but she looked somewhat giddy, which wasn't at all the expression I expected.
"Jack, my gosh. I have so much to tell you." It looked like she'd been crying, but I gathered based on her happiness and the tone of her voice that they had been happy tears.
"Me too." I grinned at her and gestured at the still-open door. "Want to come in?"
"Of course," she said, wiping her tears away.
I followed her inside, unable to contain my excitement. I sat on the couch so close to her, our thighs were touching. She still seemed breathless, and the excitement was so difficult to contain, so I went first.
"Dana dropped her suit. She's still moving away, but she gave me sole custody of Leah. Do you know what this means?" I asked her, and as I did, I watched her eyes. Sophia was happy for me. I could see it in her expression. But she had her own news to share and I was being selfish.
"Jack, that's so incredible. I know how much you love your daughter?—"
My hand shot out to her stomach and I said, "My children," cutting her off. The comment brought more tears to her eyes, which when she blinked went cascading down her cheeks.
"You’re happy?" she asked in almost a whisper.
"I couldn't be happier, Sophia." I shook my head and pulled her into my arms where she wept quietly for a moment. "It wasn't in my plans, but the idea of you having my baby sounds like the perfect way to celebrate this moment."
She sniffled and held me and then sat back on the couch. "Jack… I think we should go to HR together now because?—"
"Soph," I said, cutting her off. My chest tensed and I sighed. "If we go to HR, they're going to reassign you or even fire you. Mostly likely, you'll be terminated. We waited too long." I was talking, but it was like she wasn't listening. Her smile stayed plastered on her face and I was confused. "I'll have to apply to other places, or apply to move to a different department because… Why are you smiling?"
"Jack, I want to go to HR to resign my internship." She wrung her hands in her lap nervously, but the same plastic smile on her face remained.
"What? Why? You need that internship." I shook my head. I couldn’t let her give up this position when I knew how much she depended on it, how much she needed to prove her worth to her family.
"Listen?" she said quietly, and she still kept smiling. Sophia reached out and took my hand and held it, and I tamped down my emotions for the moment to listen to her. "My parents know.” Her eyebrows rose. "About us, the job, the baby.”
My shoulders felt tense as she said that, but her smile didn’t fade at all. I didn’t understand. She was so worried about this before. How could she be so happy now?
"I don't get it."
"Jack, Mom figured it out. She said she knew a while ago… Don’t ask me how. But they know." Her eyes clouded with some sadness. "Dad is upset, understandably. But he is willing to support us if you can go talk to him, man to man."
The dreaded "meet the parents" talk was something every young man got nervous about, but a man my age meeting a very strict man like Sophia's father sounded even worse. Maybe the horror stories about him were worse than I thought, considering he was willing to support us if I could man up and go chat with him. But after seeing Sophia wrestle with dread for months, I wasn't sure.
"And?" I asked her, sensing there was a catch.
"And nothing," she said, and her smile returned. "He got me a spot at UCHealth. I'll have a full five-year internship with one of their trauma surgeons, and you can keep working at Twin Peaks just like you are now."
She brought my hand to her lips and kissed my knuckles, and when she looked back up at me, I was speechless. For weeks, we were concerned about things that now had become completely irrelevant. Life had worked out in such a way that everything we feared was washed away in less than a moment, as if it never existed.
"What?" I asked, not believing what I was hearing for the second time today. It was like the fates had spoken and with a single breath had removed every obstacle to our happiness.
"You heard me… Now, tell me again how you want to be a father, because I've been so sick with worry that you aren't wanting another baby."
I pulled her onto my lap and kissed her hard, smashing her against my chest. The word relief didn't even begin to describe what I was feeling. It was like the weight of the world had been lifted and the joy of a thousand lifetimes had flooded my soul.
"I love you, Sophia, and I want this baby more than anything in the world." I gave her no chance to respond as I claimed her mouth in another scorching kiss.
Now if I could contain myself long enough to meet with her father and obtain his blessing for dating and someday marrying his daughter, the rest would all be downhill.