Chapter 11
LUKE
Luke’s heart was beating so fast he was sure his patient could hear it. Forcing himself to remain calm, he turned back to Jennifer and flashed her a smile.
“All right, Mrs. Hayes. Your stitches are all done. We’ll just keep you here for a little longer for observation, since you hit your head, and then you can go home.
” He glanced back at Bella, who was now sitting on the edge of a hospital bed, before pulling his attention back to his patient. “Do you have any questions?”
“No. Thanks, Doc.” Jennifer smiled, and Luke got to his feet. In a daze, he crossed the room towards Bella.
She was pregnant. About six months pregnant, if he’d estimated the size of her bump correctly, which he almost always did.
It didn’t take a mathematician to figure out who the baby’s father must be — him.
They’d spent the night together six months ago, and while they’d been careful, Luke’s medical training and common sense reminded him that protection wasn’t one hundred percent effective.
He was going to be a father. He just hadn’t known it.
Maybe Bella had tried to tell him but hadn’t been able to track him down — or maybe she didn’t want him in her life, or the baby’s.
Maybe he’d misunderstood and the baby’s father was someone else.
Maybe she was here now to tell him that this was his baby.
The last thought shocked Luke out of his racing thoughts. Bella wasn’t here to tell him he was going to be a father. She was in the ER, which meant that something was wrong. He needed to focus on that right now, not on the complicated personal relationship, or lack thereof, between them.
He stopped beside her bed, and she looked up, her green eyes wide. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, her hands clasped together, still wearing the flour-streaked apron.
“Luke—”
He held up a hand to stop her. “Hi, Bella. What seems to be wrong today?”
“I…” She bit her lip and looked down at the swell of her stomach. One hand rested there, seemingly without her realizing. “I’m pregnant. Um, six months pregnant.” She glanced up at him again, and Luke saw the worry in her eyes. His stomach flipped. “And I’m having some pain in my stomach.”
“Can you describe the pain?” Luke asked. Worry flared in his own heart. No matter what was happening with Bella, or what she was thinking, he needed her to be all right. Her and the baby. His baby. Because why else would she look at him with so much worry and guilt if it wasn’t his?
That realization came with another. She hadn’t told him about the baby, which must mean she didn’t want him involved. He needed to reassure her that he could be professional.
“It comes and goes,” Bella said. “Um, it hurts for a few seconds, then feels all right, and it kind of feels like squeezing pain.”
“How often is the pain coming?” Luke asked.
“It was every few minutes for a little while, but now it seems to be less frequent. I haven’t had any pain since I got here, actually.” She looked up at him again. “Do you think the baby’s all right?”
“It sounds like you’re having Braxton-Hicks contractions — practice contractions, you could say.
That’s pretty common for people about to enter the third trimester, and usually, it’s no cause for alarm.
The fact that the contractions are less frequent now makes me think you aren’t really in labor, which is a good sign.
All in all, I do think the… baby… is fine, but we’ll run a few tests, just to be sure. ”
Luke was proud that he was able to speak so clearly and calmly, as though Bella were any other patient in his ER.
“Okay.” Bella bit her lip again. “Thank you. I know this must be confusing, and I can explain—”
“You don’t need to explain anything,” Luke said, as gently as he could. “No matter what’s happening here, we’re going to give you the best care possible.”
“Thank you.” Bella looked away.
“The first thing we need is an ultrasound,” Luke explained. “We’ll also set you up to monitor the baby’s heartbeat for a little while.”
“Okay.” Bella bit her lip again.
“What were you doing when the contractions started?” Luke asked. He flagged down a passing nurse, an experienced ER nurse he’d worked with on multiple occasions before. “Could you grab the portable ultrasound for me, Juan?”
“Right away, Luke,” the nurse said.
“Thank you.” Luke turned back to Bella.
“I was working,” Bella admitted.
“And what do you do?”
“I’m a caterer.” She wouldn’t meet his eyes now. “I was working a wedding, finishing up the last of the food prep and plating, when the first pain hit. The client is furious at me for leaving in the middle.”
“You’re a caterer.” Luke nodded. “I never would have guessed. Did you make the food for the conference? That’s why…” He cut himself off. He’d wanted to say, “That’s why I couldn’t find you,” but he didn’t want Bella to think he’d been looking for her when she clearly hadn’t been looking for him.
Luke wasn’t hard to find. She knew his first name and that he was a doctor in Portland.
A simple web search would have led her straight to him — and she’d decided not to do that.
It was clear she didn’t want him in her life.
The way she was avoiding looking at him now and acting guarded was further proof of that.
Luke swallowed his own feelings about the situation. The important thing right now was making sure Bella and the baby were all right.
“So, you were working today?” he continued. “How often are you working?”
“I have catering jobs two or three times a week, in a good week,” Bella explained. “And then I do some work in between — finding new clients, planning menus, ordering ingredients, that kind of thing.”
“How many hours do you work a day?”
“Um…” Bella looked away. “Maybe eight?”
“I’m not sure I believe that. I think it’s more, and as a caterer, a lot of those hours must be on your feet.
” Luke looked straight at her until she met his eyes.
“Listen, you’re pushing yourself way too hard for being six months pregnant.
And your job is clearly stressful, since you said your client today was upset with you for leaving to get medical care.
You need to step way back. I’d guess that you need at least two weeks of bed rest, or as close to bedrest as you can get.
Let your staff take over, and spend as much time resting as you can. ”
Bella’s expression closed. “I don’t have staff.”
“You need to get some,” Luke said firmly. “If you keep working this hard, you’ll keep ending up in the hospital. You need rest.”
Bella folded her arms and looked away. “It isn’t that simple.”
Just as Luke was about to reply that it actually was that simple, the nurse returned with the ultrasound. Luke thanked him and took a moment to recenter himself. He wouldn’t push a normal patient this hard, so he shouldn’t push Bella, either. He couldn’t treat her differently from other patients.
Luke pulled the curtains closed around the bed and squirted a little gel onto the wand.
“I’m going to use the ultrasound to check on your baby. Could you please lie back and lift your shirt?” he asked. Bella hesitated. “I can get someone else to do this if you feel uncomfortable.”
“No, it’s fine.” She lay down on the crinkly paper of the exam table, setting her apron aside and pulling her blouse up. Luke gently pressed the wand to her stomach, and grainy images filled the screen.
“This is your baby,” Luke said. “Two legs, two arms… the heartbeat right here… he’s fine. He’s even sucking his thumb, see?”
“He?”
Luke’s stomach dropped, and he turned from the screen to look at Bella. “You didn’t know you were having a boy?”
“I didn’t. I was going to wait…”
Luke felt like a complete jerk. With a regular patient, he’d have asked if they knew the gender, but he’d been distracted by the fact that his patient was the mother of his child.
“I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine.” Bella looked down at her stomach. “A boy. Hey there.”
“I really didn’t mean to—”
“It’s fine.” She raised her gaze to meet his. “You said he’s okay?”
“He should be, but we’ll need to keep you in for observation for a few more hours. These contractions appear to have been Braxton-Hicks, but we need to make sure they weren’t the start of actual labor.”
“Okay.” Bella looked away.
“I’m sure you understand,” Luke said, “but this is very serious. If you go into labor this early, it would be hard on you and the baby.”
“I do understand. I just…” She shook her head. “My problems aren’t your problems. It’s fine.”
“Right.” Luke stood and handed her a tissue to wipe the ultrasound gel off her stomach. “I’m going to get a fetal heart-rate monitor and check in with our OB on call, then I’ll be back. Stay right here, okay?”
“I will. Thank you.”
Luke slipped back out through the curtains. In truth, he could have asked a nurse to get the fetal heart-rate monitor, and there was no need to check in with the OB for such a simple case. What he really needed was a moment of space.
Bella was pregnant. With his baby. And she didn’t want anything to do with him. He wanted to be professional and helpful, but it was all he could do not to ask her what had happened. He’d thought they’d shared something special that night at the conference, but maybe it was all in his head.
Still, he couldn’t ignore the fact that Bella was carrying his child. He was going to have to talk to her about it. Even if she didn’t want him in his life, he wanted to be in the child’s life, if she’d let him. He couldn’t stand the thought of being a father and not knowing his own child.
He was going to be a father.
Luke’s thoughts chased themselves in circles.
He managed to cross the ER and went into the hallway, where he found the supply closet.
He leaned against the wall inside, arms folded, mind still racing.
He had no idea what to do. Years of medical training had done nothing to prepare him for a situation in which the patient was his one-night stand carrying his baby.
But Bella felt like much more than a one-night stand. When he’d seen her again, his heart had soared for a fraction of a second, before reality came crashing down. He’d hoped there was something between them, and he’d hoped he might someday get to know her better. He’d even looked for her.
And all the while, she’d been out there, pregnant with his baby, not even trying to find him.
That made Luke’s chest tighten and his heart ache. He had to hold it together, though. He needed to be a doctor right now, not a father or an ex (or whatever he was to Bella). Taking a deep breath, he grabbed the fetal heart-rate monitor and headed back towards Bella’s bed.