Chapter Nineteen
What in the hell was wrong? Aria looked like death warmed over. She lay on the floor, curled in a ball, with the baby beside her, sound asleep. “What’s wrong? Did you hurt yourself? Are you sick?”
“My stomach. Hurts … so bad.”
He knelt down and gathered her into his arms, then stood. “Why didn’t you call me?” He carried her into the bedroom and lay her on the bed.
“Sophie.”
“She’s asleep on the floor. She’ll be all right for a little while. She’ll cry when she wakes up.” He put his hand on her forehead. “You’re a little warm. Can you straighten out so I can examine you?”
“Don’t … want to. Hurts.”
“I know, baby, but I need to examine you.” He finally convinced her to stretch out as much as she was able.
Gently, he pressed on her stomach in different places, leaving her right lower quadrant for last. When he pressed on it she screamed.
Unsurprised, he said, “We need to go to the hospital. Where is Whitney? She’s usually here until I get home. ”
Aria was having a hard time answering him so he called Whitney.
He explained what was wrong and that he needed to get Aria to the hospital.
She said she’d had an appointment but she was home now and could come take care of Sophie.
“I have no idea how long we’ll need you to stay. Possibly overnight.”
“Whatever you need. Don’t worry about me and Sophie.”
“Thanks, Whitney. I’ll call you as soon as I know something.”
Luckily, she didn’t take long to get there and he was able to leave for the hospital quickly.
In the meantime he called the ER and got hold of one of the ER docs he knew well, Sean Gallagher.
“Hi, Sean. Ryan Hunter here. My”—what to call her?
—“girlfriend is presenting with symptoms of appendicitis. I’m bringing her in. Who’s the surgeon on call?”
“Samantha Striker. I’ll let her know you’re coming. I’ll need to examine her first, though.”
“That’s fine. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
That was good news about the surgeon. Dr. Striker was a trauma surgeon but took calls for general surgery as well.
She was married to Dylan Gallagher, so she was Sean’s sister-in-law.
Ryan had worked with her before and knew she was good.
Sure, appendicitis was an operation most general and trauma surgeons could do in their sleep, but he felt better knowing it was someone he knew was an excellent surgeon.
He tried talking to Aria on the way but she was in too much pain to pay attention. On his way out he’d grabbed her purse, hoping she had her medical insurance information in it. He’d worry about it later if it wasn’t.
Once at the hospital he parked at the entrance to the ER, got Aria out of the car and put her in the wheelchair an aide had brought.
Sean had a cubicle waiting for her. He left her in the nurse’s care long enough to move his car to the doctors’ parking lot.
When he returned she’d been changed into a hospital gown and was on her way to get a CT.
“Thanks for putting a rush on her,” he told Sean when he saw him.
“No problem. Luckily we weren’t jammed up. What did you do with the baby?”
“The sitter came back. I sure didn’t want to bring her up here. By the time I saw her, Aria had been in progressively worse pain all day. I examined her and she had severe right lower quadrant pain, so I brought her in.”
“I’ll let you know when I get the scan and the results,” Sean told him.
Ryan went to Aria’s cubicle to wait with her. “Hey, how are you feeling?”
She smiled weakly at him. “Better. They gave me something for the pain. Made me loopy.” She stuck out her hand and he took it in his. “Thank you.”
“For what? Taking care of you when you’re sick?”
“That. But more for loving me and Sophie.”
He wasn’t sure what to say so he just kissed her on the forehead and smiled.
“Where’s Sophie? Did you bring her—”
“She’s at home with Whitney. You don’t need to worry.” Obviously, she’d forgotten that but she’d been in a lot of pain at that point.
Not too much later, Sean came in with a laptop. He showed them the CT scan. “The radiologist did a wet read and confirmed it’s appendicitis and it needs to come out.”
Looking at the scan, Ryan agreed. “Is Dr. Striker still able to do the surgery?”
“Waiting for her as we speak. Aria, we’re going to take you up to the OR and take out your appendix. Sound good?”
“Yes.” She hadn’t let go of Ryan’s hand since he entered the room, but at this point she squeezed it, let go, and tried to curl up into a ball. “Hurts.”
Soon after, they wheeled her out and took her to surgery. Sean clapped him on the shoulder. “She’ll be fine.”
“I know.” That didn’t make the knot in his stomach go away, however.
“Are you going to observe?”
“Long enough to make sure everything is going okay.”
“All right. I need to get back to the ER.”
“Thanks.” He put out his hand and Sean shook it.
And Ryan settled down to wait.
*
A few days after her surgery, Aria was at home with her baby.
Ryan had taken care of everything after her surgery.
All she had to do was rest and recover. He got up with Sophie at night, which made her feel guilty but he insisted.
He seemed to think Sophie was borderline too heavy for Aria to pick up, and he wouldn’t hear of her doing it.
When she suggested she could get up with the baby at night, he simply ignored her.
If it wasn’t so sweet it would be frustrating.
Okay, scratch that. It was definitely frustrating. But sweet.
Whitney came daily and stayed until Ryan came home. Ryan wanted Whitney to stay overnight when he was working but since he was able to be with them at night until Aria was ten days out of surgery, Aria vetoed that idea.
“I’m perfectly capable of taking care of Sophie now. I feel fine.”
“You’re still recovering. You need rest and—”
“When did you get to be such a mother hen? Go to work. Sophie and I will be fine.”
“I don’t like it.”
“I’ll call you and check in. If you’re in surgery, I’ll have them give you a message. And Whitney is coming back until after Sophie’s bedtime.”
“All right.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m just trying to be careful.”
“Overly careful.”
“So sue me. I care about you two.”
“I know.” She stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “Go to work. We’ll be fine.”
He pulled her close and kissed her mouth. “I’d better go.”
Sighing, she watched him leave. Could this possibly be as good as it seemed? She and Ryan together, with Sophie, happy and in love? She was almost afraid to count on it but the longer they were together the more hope she had.
She believed Ryan when he said he loved her.
But she’d known he cared about her in the past, even if he hadn’t admitted he loved her then.
That didn’t stop him from leaving, though.
Of course, he hadn’t been a father then.
Hadn’t fallen in love with his baby. He was absolutely crazy about Sophie. Aria had no doubts about that.
But was that enough? Were she and Sophie enough to keep him here? To keep him happy and not restless? She hoped like hell they were. How could she be sure, though?
*
Aria almost had been able to put her father out of her mind. But not quite. Especially once she was basically recovered from her surgery. Ryan had told her the odds against her father’s recovery. Not good, especially given his overall health and age.
Could she live with herself if he died and she never forgave him?
She wasn’t heartless, even though she’d been so badly hurt by her father’s actions.
Following her conversation with Ryan, she’d read more about veterans and PTS or PTSD.
Ryan was right. PTS could sometimes either be cured or the person could learn to deal with it, possibly never needing counseling or not much.
But PTSD was severe, often requiring hospitalization and years of counseling, and even then there was no guarantee the person would ever get better, much less be “cured.”
Holding that against him would be as bad as holding it against him that he had cancer. She’d talked to Ryan about it. He’d been very careful to say it was completely her choice whether she wanted to see more of her father or not. But she could tell he thought she should.
Or maybe she was projecting onto him what she believed should be her reaction. When in truth she had no clue what she actually felt.
She decided to go to the store and find something nice to fix for dinner.
Ryan had been so great about picking up food for them, she thought he deserved a break.
Besides, she liked to cook when she had time.
Sophie was down for her nap but Whitney was there so she was able to go shopping by herself.
Which was a treat. Much as she loved her baby, grocery shopping with a baby wasn’t always fun.
If Sophie was hungry or sleepy or just out of sorts, that made it very hard to think, much less accomplish anything.
She’d just about finished her shopping when she ran into Melvin Mercer, her real estate agent who’d found the house for her. He’d told her he thought he’d found the perfect place for what she needed and to her surprise, he’d been right.
“Aria, how are you? It’s great to see you. I’ve been wondering how you’re doing.”
“Hi, Melvin. I’m good. I’m going to be opening the nursery before long.”
“Be sure and send me a card for the opening. Where’s the baby? Have you got Ryan staying with her?”
Marietta being the small town that it was, Melvin had heard about her connection to Ryan early on. Not to mention, he’d been Ryan’s Realtor when he’d come to town.
“No, he’s at work. Whitney is with her.”
“Oh, that’s right. You have a nanny.”
More than a nanny. Whitney was her right hand.
“Listen, I’m glad I ran into you,” Melvin continued. “I’ve been meaning to call Ryan and haven’t had a chance. Tell him to call me. My contact told me that property in Boise that Ryan was interested in is about to go on the market. I wanted to give him a heads-up.”
“Boise? You mean Idaho?”
“Yes. Didn’t he tell you? I know it will still be a while since he committed to be here for at least a year, but this is too good a deal to pass up if he’s serious about moving anytime within the next six months or so.”
Moving? To Idaho? Within six months? Her stomach dropped to her toes.
Ryan wanted to move to Idaho? What the hell?
He’d said he was committed to Sophie. To raising Sophie.
To being with her and Sophie. Hadn’t he?
Or had she totally misunderstood? Melvin was droning on while she stood there in complete shock.
He’d told her he loved her. She’d admitted she loved him. And now to find out he was still planning on moving to freaking Idaho?
“I hope I didn’t speak out of turn,” Melvin said. He must have finally noticed she was struck mute.
“No, no. I’ll tell Ryan. Good to see you.” She went to the register, desperate to leave before she completely melted down.