Emergency: single dad, mother needed Page 14

  “That’s wonderful.” She smiled at JT. “First rehab, then the next step is going home. I bet you’re going to make your rehab nurses chase you down the hall, aren’t you?”

  “Don’t give him any ideas,” Gabe warned half under his breath. “He’s already faster in his wheelchair than I can keep up with.”

  “Sorry,” she said with a smile. JT’s muscles still didn’t always work the way he wanted them to, but the good thing about being a kid was that learning to walk again was easier than it would be as an adult. Soon he’d graduate from the wheelchair to leg braces.

  Hopefully JT would be back on his feet, climbing the nearest tree.

  “You’re not going to sign off on JT’s care, are you?” Gabe asked.

  She nodded. “Yes, actually, I am. Rehab isn’t the same as inpatient treatment. Jeff will continue to follow JT’s progress in the clinic, but from here on you don’t need me.” She hoped her tone didn’t sound as dejected as she felt.

  “I guess that’s a good sign in and of itself,” Gabe mused.

  Oh, boy, she wished she felt the same way. But she’d always known Gabe didn’t need her anymore. Not as far as JT’s treatment was concerned.

  Maybe not as far as anything else was concerned either.

  “Actually, that helps because I was hoping you’d have dinner with me,” Gabe said, glancing at his watch. “Tonight. If you’re not doing anything.”

  Dinner? Tonight? Deep in the darkest corner of her heart a flicker of hope flared. Still, she hesitated. “Are you sure? I thought…Aren’t you spending the nights here, at the hospital?”

  “I’ve been leaving lately,” Gabe said slowly. “Needed to make sure the place was ready for when JT comes home.”

  She knew Gabe hadn’t been back to work yet, but suspected he’d need to return soon. Her tiny flare of hope dimmed. Maybe he was going to ask for help with JT. After all, she’d offered.

  And at this point she’d probably take whatever she could get.

  “Have to pay my bills. Wouldn’t be good if the power company shut off my electricity, now, would it?” Gabe joked.

  “No, it wouldn’t be good to be without electricity.” There was no reason to avoid having dinner with him. So much had happened in the weeks since JT was so sick that they had to start somewhere. “I’d love to have dinner with you,” she said abruptly.

  Gabe’s eyes widened in surprise but he grinned. “Great. I, uh, thought we could try Giovani’s. According to my mother’s expert opinion, it’s the only decent Italian place around.”

  “Perfect.” She wasn’t about to argue, especially not with an Italian cook like Gabe’s mother. “How is she, by the way?”

  “She went home, but she promised to return for a while once JT is released from the hospital.”

  She couldn’t help raising a brow. If he had his mother’s help, maybe he didn’t need hers. “Great.”

  “And Marybeth is recovering from her surgery. She’s been in to visit JT, too.” It was as if Gabe had read her mind, putting all her misplaced fears to rest. “Are you ready to leave now? Or do you have more patients to see?”

  Suddenly she didn’t feel very ready, but she nodded. “No more patients to see. JT’s my last one.” And it was officially her last visit as JT’s infectious disease doctor. She took JT’s hand in hers. “Glad to see you’re doing so much better, JT.”

  “Better,” he repeated.

  She smiled. “Be good to the nurses in Rehab, you hear? The sooner you do what they tell you, the sooner you’ll go home, okay?”

  This time he simply nodded.

  “Bye, JT.” She squeezed his hand and let go.

  “Bye, Dr. Holly. See you soon.” JT’s stilted speech, stringing six whole words together in two distinct sentences, sounded like music from the finest symphony. She had absolutely no doubt he’d get the rest of his vocabulary back soon.

  “Are you ready to go, then?” Gabe asked, his hand resting on her lower back.

  Her stomach fluttered but she forced herself to nod. “Yes. I’m ready.”

  Gabe finally had Holly all to himself, yet he was already having doubts about his plan. Maybe because he was having trouble figuring her out. Her attitude toward JT seemed the same as it had been before she’d known who his biological father was.

  Did that mean she didn’t care about Tom’s affair with his sister? Or did it mean she was treating JT only as a patient and not as a child she might someday call her own?

  He wished he knew what she saw when she looked at his son, but he didn’t.

  And he wasn’t sure how to ask.

  He hiked his jeans a little self-consciously as they made their way down the elevator to the lobby level. He’d lost a bit of weight through the time of JT’s illness and figured eating a good Italian meal was one way to help pack the carbohydrates back on.

  Besides, he had been remiss in not taking Holly out for a proper date sooner.

  There were a lot of things he should have done. Not least of which was to tell her how he really felt.

  “I’m glad to see you’re getting out of the hospital, at least for a little while,” Holly commented as he walked her toward his car. “How much longer will you be off work?”

  “Just a couple of weeks. JT should be home soon and then we’ll get things back into a normal routine.” A normal routine that he knew very well would consist of a lot of physical therapy, speech therapy and a variety of other doctors’ appointments.

  A fresh wave of doubt hit him. What was he thinking? Maybe he was committed to being JT’s father, but what right did he have to ask Holly to share in any of this? They’d only made love that one night, maybe he was crazy to be thinking about a future.

  Even if visions of the future were the only thing that had kept him sane over these past few weeks.

  “It’s amazing that he pulled through, isn’t it?” Holly said, settling in the passenger seat of his car.

  “Yes.” Gabe had to hide his momentary flash of annoyance. For once he didn’t want to talk about JT. Call him selfish, but for a brief hour he wanted to talk about something else.

  About Holly. About the wonderful feelings that had bloomed between them when they’d made love.

  And more than anything he wanted to know if there was anything left between them to build on?

  He swallowed hard and concentrated on driving. His mother’s opinion proved to be correct—Giovani’s was a great place. Once they were seated in a romantic corner, he felt a little of his determination return. He ordered a bottle of wine and took a sip to hide his nervousness.

  “Holly,” he began, after the waiter had taken their order. “I know it’s been a long time since the night I spent at your place, but I still think about those hours with you a lot.”

  A ghost of a smile played along her mouth. “Me, too. At this point it seems like more a dream.”

  More of a dream than reality? Not a positive note to move forward with. He frowned, and wondered if he ought to try another approach. “One thing I realized, sitting with JT, is that life is meant to be shared. You were the main reason I was able to keep going, even when JT was at his worst.”

  “Me?” She toyed with her wineglass. Was she nervous about this, too? “I don’t understand.”

  Gabe scrubbed a hand over his face and decided this beating around the bush was useless. Better to get straight to the point. “I love you. I knew I’d fallen in love with you that first night we spent together. But then JT was so sick I didn’t have a chance to tell you how I felt.” Since he was being honest, he amended that latter part by adding, “I didn’t take the time to tell you how I really felt.”

  Her mouth opened, and closed, no words coming out. Holly wasn’t often speechless.

  “But this isn’t just about us,” he continued slowly. “JT is officially my son. I received approval from the adoption agency this morning. So the real question here is about you, Holly. I guess I need to know if you’re ever going to be able to accept J
T for who he is.”

  There was a long moment of silence when his confidence wavered. He understood he was asking for a lot.

  “Yes,” Holly finally said in a soft but decisive tone. “Gabe, I love JT as much as you do. I could never hold his genes against him, any more than I could have held it against Kayla.”

  Hope flared, burning brightly in the center of his chest. “But Kayla was your daughter, too.”

  “I know. But what made her my daughter? Simply giving birth? I don’t think so. What makes JT your son?”

  Was this a test? He’d hated quizzes in medical school. “Love?” he guessed.

  “Love.” A tremulous smile curved her lips. “Love is what makes the relationship between a parent and their child special. Just like love is what holds a relationship between a husband and a wife together. With love anything is possible.”

  The truth shone from her eyes and he considered himself the luckiest man on earth to have found a woman like Holly. He reached for her hand, suddenly wishing he hadn’t chosen a public place like Giovani’s to talk to her. “Are you sure? Because if not I’ll give you time. As much time as you need.”

  “I’m sure.” Holly’s smile widened. “I’ve learned a lot over these past few weeks, too. The biggest thing I’ve learned is that I probably started falling in love with you a long time ago. The night I almost kissed you.”

  That was good, wasn’t it? He wasn’t sure. But then he decided that as he’d come this far, he’d better go all the way. “Does that mean you’ll marry me?”

  “Yes, Gabe.” Her fingers curled tightly around his. “I love you. I’d be honored to marry you.”

  He didn’t have a ring, but somehow he didn’t think Holly cared. He rose to his feet and came around to her side of the table, drawing her up, too. Pulling her close, he kissed her. Then, when he could hear the whispers moving through the restaurant behind him, he broke off the kiss and turned to the group and boldly declared, “Holly Davidson has just agreed to be my wife.”

  It wasn’t until a ripple of applause and wolf-whistles surrounded them that he realized what he’d done. Holly hated being in the limelight. She didn’t like being the center of gossip.

  “Damn. What was I thinking? I’m sorry,” he tried to backpedal to undo the damage he might have unwittingly done, turning back to wave at the people in the restaurant, trying to shut them up.

  Holly grabbed his arm, laughing. “For heaven’s sake, don’t be sorry. I’m proud I’m going to be your wife.”

  Relief flooded him. He hadn’t ruined things between them after all. “Good, that’s good.” Why couldn’t he think of something more intelligent to say?

  “Gabe.” She tugged on his hand until he stepped closer. She lifted her mouth to his, teasing his lips with hers. “After dinner, will you take me home?”

  “Yes.” That’s exactly what he wanted, too. A whole night, all to themselves. “I’ll take you home, tonight and forever.”

  Home had never sounded so good.

  EPILOGUE

  JT FROWNED when his daddy leaned down to let him look at his new baby brother. He wasn’t going to say anything, but he thought there might be something wrong because the baby’s face looked all red and wrinkly.

  “Isn’t he amazing?” his daddy asked.

  “Yeah. Amazing.” JT didn’t quite understand what was so amazing, although it was weird that one minute his new mom’s tummy was huge and now it wasn’t big anymore but there was a baby.

  What he really wanted to know was how that baby got in there in the first place. And were there any more babies in there, ready to come out? If so, maybe he should ask for a sister.

  “We thought we’d name him Jeffery, after the doctor who helped make you all better,” his new mom said.

  “Holly, you were a part of the medical team, too,” his dad argued, but when his mom gave him an exasperated look he lifted his hands in the air. “But if that’s what you want, Jeffery it is.”

  Jeffery didn’t sound like a bad name. “Hi, Jeffery,” he said to the baby.

  His dad rested a hand on his shoulder. “How do you think you’ll like being a big brother, JT?” his dad asked.

  He glanced up at his dad and then over at his mom. They were both looking at him as if they were afraid of what he might say.

  The baby didn’t look like he’d be able to run and play any time soon. Which was probably okay as he couldn’t run very well with the leg braces on. But he knew what they were really asking him.

  “Why? Are there more kids inside Mom waiting to be born?”

  His parents looked at each other and burst into laughter. They laughed until they were crying but he wasn’t sure what was so funny.

  “Uh, yeah. Maybe. There might be more kids in there waiting to be born,” his dad finally said.

  It figured. He sighed. He loved his dad and his mom. He figured he’d learn to love Jeffery and any other kids that came out of his mom’s tummy.

  He knew he was lucky to have a family.

  “Then I guess I like being a big brother just fine.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-3495-0

  EMERGENCY: SINGLE DAD, MOTHER NEEDED

  First North American Publication 2009

  Copyright © 2009 by Laura Iding

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