Читать книгу: «The Christmas Bouquet»

1

It was all because of that blasted bridal bouquet, Caitlyn Winters thought as she stared in dismay at the positive pregnancy test in her hand. From the moment she’d caught the bouquet at Jenny Collins’s Christmas wedding in New York a little over a year ago, she’d been doomed. That instinctive grab of an object flying straight at her had changed her life.

Her twin sister, Carrie, who’d all but shoved her aside to try to snatch the bouquet from the air, was going to laugh herself silly at what had transpired since that night. So were the rest of the O’Briens, for that matter. They loved irony.

Noah McIlroy, the family medicine resident whom she’d met soon after the wedding and with whom she’d been having a serious relationship since last September, tapped on the bathroom door.

“Caitlyn, are you okay?”

A hysterical laugh bubbled up, but she fought to contain it. This was no laughing matter. “Fine,” she managed to squeak out just as the door opened. Noah’s gaze shifted from her face to land on the test strip she was holding. Concern immediately evolved into astonishment.

“You’re pregnant?” he asked, his eyes filled with surprise, but a smile already tugging at his lips.

His wonderful, sensual lips, which had gotten them into this mess, she thought wryly. Of course, she was well aware those lips hadn’t caused her pregnancy. Heck, she’d known about the birds and bees long before that, thanks to all the romances in Chesapeake Shores and among her amorous O’Brien relatives.

But it was her inability to resist Noah’s heated kisses that had led to all the rest. That and an apparently defective condom. Given her cautious nature, she probably should have insisted on at least three methods of birth control, but no, she’d trusted Noah when he’d assured her that the condoms would be sufficient.

The man had cast a spell over her from the minute they’d met, literally one week after she’d caught that blasted romantic bouquet with all its superstition attached like streamers of satin ribbon. The deft catch had earned hoots of laughter from her family and a stunned, disappointed scowl from her twin, who’d been angling for the bouquet all evening.

And now, here she was, barely more than a year later, and pregnant. She hadn’t even accepted Noah’s repeated pleas that they live together, even though he was in her apartment more often than he was in his own. She’d drawn a line at that, knowing that she’d never be able to keep his presence in her life a secret from her nosy family if they were actually living under the same roof.

And she’d wanted to keep this relationship a secret. After all, she was supposed to be the grounded, goal-oriented sister. Carrie was the one everyone had expected to fall madly in love and marry before her college graduation. Instead, Carrie was jetting around the world, leading a completely carefree life, building a career in public relations for a big fashion designer and tossing away men like used tissues while she pined for one unobtainable man. And Caitlyn, thanks to that bouquet, was standing here with a positive pregnancy test in her hand!

She recalled the forget-me-nots that her aunt Bree had tucked into Jenny’s simple bridal bouquet and fought back another hysterical laugh. She was hardly likely to forget this moment, that’s for sure.

She drew in a deep breath and finally dared to meet Noah’s gaze. For a man supposedly as dedicated to his medical career as she was to hers, he looked awfully pleased about this unexpected bump in the road. Of course, he was just a couple of months away from launching his career, while she still had the long years of an internship and residency to complete.

“Wipe that smile off your face,” she instructed him firmly. “This is not good news.”

His smile only spread, revealing that appealing dimple that had also sucked her right in. “It’s the best possible news,” he contradicted.

“Noah, you may see the light at the end of the tunnel, but be real. You’ll finish your residency at the end of June and you still have to decide where you want to go into practice and get established. I haven’t even started my internship. We might not even be living in the same city a few months from now. A baby doesn’t fit into the plan.”

“You know what they say,” he began.

“Don’t you dare remind me that God laughs while we’re making plans.”

She frowned for emphasis as she passed him on her way into the bedroom, where she sank down on the side of the bed. Maybe if she sat for a minute, she could think. Thinking clearly had always been her best trait.

She’d known what she wanted for her life by her teens. After spending a summer volunteering in a doctor’s office in a medically underserved community in Appalachia and seeing reports about villages in third-world countries that were even worse off, she’d found her calling. Her reward had been the healthy children who’d clustered around her at the end of the summer to say goodbye, the moms who’d hugged her with tears in their eyes.

Just like her ambitious mother, Abby O’Brien Winters Riley, Caitlyn had thought her future through very carefully. There would be college, medical school, an internship and residency. Then she’d use all that knowledge to help children in parts of the world where medical help was severely lacking. She’d make a difference, just like everyone else in her family had in their own way. This was her way to shine, to live up to all those family expectations and at the same time do the kind of meaningful work she’d been born to do.

She’d been so focused that she’d managed to complete college in three years, then set out to whip through medical school and all of her rotations as fast as they’d allowed her to. Every summer she’d either crammed in more courses or served in another needy community, most recently in Africa with the Red Cross. While Carrie was the social butterfly, Caitlyn had been driven, not allowing a single distraction. Not until Noah, anyway.

She glanced up at him as he studied her with a worried expression. He was so incredibly gorgeous, it was little wonder that her heart seemed to stop whenever she looked at him. But it wasn’t his looks that had made her fall in love. He’d seemed as driven as she was, determined to be the kind of old-fashioned doctor who was more concerned with treating his patients with compassion and dignity than racking up huge bucks on office visits and unnecessary testing.

They’d met on her rotation through the family medicine service right after that fateful wedding. She’d been immediately smitten by his dedication, the thoughtful kindness he displayed to everyone from patients to the most inept medical students still struggling to adapt book learning to practical experience. He’d turned her into a better doctor by example, no question about it. He’d suggested she waver from her original intention to focus on pediatrics and steered her into choosing family medicine. He’d helped her see that she could serve even more people with that well-rounded specialty.

Until she’d worked with him, she’d understood everything in her textbooks, but she hadn’t mastered the instinctive diagnostic skills that made the difference between being competent and excelling. He’d taught her to listen to more than a list of symptoms, to hear what her patients weren’t saying, as much as to what they said.

By fall, when she’d started her final year of medical school, they were in an exclusive relationship, stealing time to be together whenever they could. With their competing, demanding schedules, those stolen moments had been few and far between. Given the test strip she was holding, they’d been more than sufficient to alter her life apparently.

Noah dropped down beside her now and took her hand in his. “We’re going to be okay,” he said softly, his warm brown eyes filled with tenderness.

When she didn’t answer, he touched her chin. “Look at me, Cait.” Only after she’d turned her head, fighting tears, did he repeat, “We’re going to be okay.”

“How?” she asked him, unable to imagine it, unable to accept his confidently spoken reassurance.

“We’ll get married,” he said without hesitation. “I know we haven’t talked about that yet, but you know I love you. I want a future with you. This just bumps up the timetable. I’m all but finished with my residency. I’ll go into practice in July. You’ll finish your internship and residency. Then you can join me in the practice.”

She listened to the logical simplicity of his plan and regarded him incredulously, panicked by the certainty in his voice.

“That’s your dream, Noah. Not mine. You know what I want, what I’ve worked so hard for. There’s a big world out there in desperate need of medical help. I want to save the lives of babies in third-world countries who might not make it without a doctor in their village. The two weeks I spent in Africa last year...” Her voice trailed off and hitched as she thought about the desperation she’d seen everywhere she’d turned. “That time confirmed everything for me. I was meant to do that kind of work. I promised I’d be back.”

To his credit he didn’t dismiss her dream or the promise she’d made. They’d talked about it often enough. He knew how much it meant to her to go where she was needed. It was what she’d stayed up nights studying for. She’d known it from the first time she’d seen those malnourished children with their wide desperate eyes on the news. Every volunteer assignment she’d taken after that had only solidified her resolve.

“Then how do you see this going?” he asked quietly.

She wanted to blurt out that she’d have to end the pregnancy, but how could she? While she might believe in every woman’s right to choose, she knew she’d never be able to live with herself if she chose abortion. She was a healer. And this was Noah’s baby, an unexpected blessing under any other circumstances.

“I don’t know,” she whispered, hot tears falling.

Noah pulled her into his arms and held her against his chest, surrounding her with his strength and heat and that scary, unwavering certainty. “We’ll figure it out,” he promised. “Together, we’ll figure out what’s best.”

For just an instant, Caitlyn allowed herself to believe that. She desperately wanted to hold on to the possibility that there was an answer that worked for both of them. But in every scenario she envisioned, she lost.

* * *

Noah knew a baby wasn’t in Cait’s plans, not right now, anyway. It killed him to see her so utterly miserable when he wanted to shout his joy from the rooftop. The timing might be lousy in so many ways, but the news filled him with hope that this child would bind the two of them together forever.

She’d been right about one thing: marriage and sharing a medical practice was his dream. He’d wanted that from the minute she’d started on his service at the hospital with her exhaustive textbook knowledge of medicine, her instinctive diagnostic skills that even now she didn’t recognize that she possessed and her unquenchable thirst to learn everything he had to teach her. Her silky skin and untamed red curls had captivated him, too, no question about it. Every male at the hospital stared after her as she bounced through her days with boundless energy and optimism, spreading smiles in her wake.

Over the next few weeks they’d shared enough late nights and coffee it was a wonder either of them had ever slept a wink with all that caffeine racing through their systems. He’d never been much of a talker, but with Caitlyn, he hadn’t been able to keep quiet. There’d been so much he’d wanted to share, so many things about her he’d wanted to learn.

She’d made him laugh with her endless stream of stories about her large Irish-American family and teased him unmercifully because his own background was Scottish. She’d claimed she could never take him home because of it.

He’d thought at the time she was joking, but now he couldn’t help wondering. They’d been inseparable for most of the past year, but he still hadn’t been invited to Chesapeake Shores, which wasn’t that far away. Was he wrong about how much he meant to her? Was he only someone with whom she could spend time until the day she finished her residency and went off to begin her “real” life? Did she view him as safe, someone she could leave behind without regrets?

No, he thought heatedly. He wasn’t wrong about their feelings. He couldn’t be. He wasn’t the only one in love. Cait loved him, too. He might not have a lot of experience with serious relationships—how many doctors had enough time to properly date during all those years of school and training, after all?—but he could recognize that what he’d found with Cait was special.

Sitting across the room on the edge of the bed where she’d left him, he watched her now as she pulled her strawberry-red hair into a severe knot intended to tame the curls. He smiled as a few escaped to brush her cheeks. It reminded him of the way she lived her life, desperately trying to control everything, but a wild streak coming out when she least expected it. He could recall with total clarity the last time she’d cut loose with total abandon. He liked imagining that was the night this baby had been conceived, with neither of them thinking of anything but each other.

“Cait,” he said softly. “I think it’s time I meet this crazy family of yours.”

In her mirrored reflection, he saw her eyes go wide with alarm.

“Now?”

“Can you think of a better time? They have to be told about what’s going on.”

She shook her head. “Not a chance, Noah. Not until we know what we’re going to do. Maybe not even then. My mom, she’s great. She’ll handle this okay. My great-grandmother—”

“Nell O’Brien, right?”

She nodded. “She’ll be worried, but she’ll support whatever I decide to do.” As she spotted his frown reflected in the mirror, she quickly corrected herself. “Whatever we decide to do.”

Noah let it go, shoving aside his sense that she really did intend for this to be her decision and hers alone.

“With the two of them in your corner, what’s the problem?” he asked. “Maybe that’s just what you need right now, two women you respect giving you some advice.” He held her gaze. “And the advice will be more meaningful if they’ve met me and know how committed I am to you.”

“I can’t deny that talking to them might be helpful,” she acknowledged, her expression turning wistful. “And Nell is incredible. She’s wise and compassionate. She won’t judge me.”

“Well, there you go,” he said, as if that settled the matter. “It’s time to head to Chesapeake Shores.”

She shook her head. “For me, maybe. Not you.”

“But I’m in this with you,” he protested, digging in. “They need to know that. I don’t want them to think for a single minute that I’ve left you to deal with this alone.”

“You’re forgetting one thing,” she said, looking visibly worried. “Two, actually. My grandpa Mick is likely to beat you to a pulp first and ask questions later and my stepdad will help him. Trace has managed to convince himself that I have never, not even once, gone on a date, much less slept with anyone.”

“You have to be joking!” Noah said. “What does he think is going on with you and me?”

She flinched. “I haven’t mentioned you.”

He froze as the implication sank in. “Your stepdad doesn’t know you’re in a committed relationship?” he asked slowly, not able to believe she’d kept something like that secret given how close she was to her family.

“It hasn’t come up,” she said defensively. “Actually, no one back home knows.”

Shock nearly rendered him speechless. “But your mother works less than an hour away,” he said at last. “She’s been here. Surely she’s wondered about finding my clothes scattered about.”

“The past few months I’ve managed to steer her away from here,” she admitted. “The couple of times she has stopped by, I’ve had enough notice that I’ve had time to tidy up.”

“Meaning exactly what?” he asked, trying to remain calm. “You’ve hidden away all traces of me?”

“Pretty much,” she said, then gave him a defiant look. “It was better that way, Noah. You have to trust me on that. If anyone in my family knew about you and me, they’d be pestering us every minute about our plans for the future. Neither of us needed that kind of aggravation or distraction.”

He resisted the urge to confess that he’d be interested in hearing her response to that question about their future himself, especially now. If he went down that path, they’d only wind up arguing and there was a more pressing issue on the table right now: the baby.

“How have you managed to keep your mother and everyone else so conveniently out of your personal business? I thought they were constitutionally incapable of not meddling.”

“Which is exactly why I haven’t mentioned you,” she reminded him. “It keeps their attention on my work. They think I’m a bit of a boring drone.”

“You’ve deliberately steered all of them away from visiting, too, haven’t you?” he said, realizing how deliberate her actions had been. “How did you pull that off so well? You told me yourself that their drop-in visits were constantly disrupting your study time, yet you couldn’t seem to prevent them from showing up.”

Cait flushed guiltily, then shrugged. “I guess I finally got through to them that my schedule is even more demanding now that I’m doing all these rotations at the hospital. Half the time I’m there, so they’d miss me if they did drop by the apartment. After a few wasted trips up here, they gave up. Instead, I’ve gone home when I can. That seems to satisfy them, that and about a million phone calls a week.”

“But your mom is close by most of the week,” he persisted. “How do you get away with keeping her at arm’s length when it’s no big deal to pop over from her office?”

“Her schedule is just as crazy as mine and this is actually out of her way. She’s always rushing through her day to get home to Trace and my brother. We grab a bite to eat when we can, usually at her desk. If I take the initiative and call frequently, there’s no reason for her to come by.”

“And if she does announce an intention to visit, you ‘tidy up,’” he said, unable to keep an edge of irritation from his voice. He was offended and saw no reason to hide it. “What about your sister, then? You and Carrie talk at least once a week. How have you kept her away? From the way you’ve described her, it seems doubtful to me that she’d take a hint.”

“No, Carrie definitely wouldn’t respond to subtlety,” she agreed. “She’s been out of town a lot, thank goodness. And she’s mostly so self-involved with her own chaotic personal life that she doesn’t ask a lot of questions.”

Noah could see that Cait had been much more circumspect with her family than he’d realized. He understood that she was a private person. He certainly understood her not wanting their colleagues at the hospital to know they were involved, though most did, of course. But keeping her own family in the dark? It defied everything he knew about how important they were to her.

Right now, though, there was no time to delve into her reasoning. This pregnancy news changed everything. It was hardly something she could keep from them, not for long, anyway.

“Cait, how far along are you? Do you have any idea when the baby might be due?”

“I won’t know for sure until I see the doctor,” she said.

“But you must have some idea,” Noah pressed.

“I missed a couple of periods,” she finally admitted, her expression chagrined. “I was stressed out. I didn’t think too much about it. Then I had a couple of bouts of morning sickness this past week and it dawned on me I might be pregnant. I guess I’m not such a great diagnostician, after all, huh?”

He allowed himself a small smile. “More like a woman in denial, I imagine.”

She sighed. “Denial was lovely,” she admitted.

Noah could understand why she might think that, but with reality setting in, there was no more time to waste. “So, you’re about two months along?”

“Something like that. I think the baby’s probably due in December.”

“Sweetheart, I know you’re not exactly overjoyed about this. You need to open up with someone.”

“I just told you,” she said.

“But right now, I suspect you’re thinking of me as the enemy,” he told her. He scrambled for an alternative. If she didn’t want to talk to her mother or Nell O’Brien, then perhaps her sister. Weren’t twins supposed to have an extraordinarily strong bond?

“Couldn’t you talk our situation over with Carrie? Get some family backup before you spill the news to everyone else? Would that help?”

She looked horrified by the thought. “Good heavens, no! If Carrie knew about us or about the baby we’re expecting, every O’Brien in Chesapeake Shores would know by the end of the day. The situation would spin out of control.”

“Are you absolutely sure they don’t already know that something’s up?” he asked. “With us, anyway.”

“Did you not hear what I just said about my stepfather and my grandfather?” she asked impatiently. “If either of them had a clue, you’d be a dead man.”

Noah couldn’t believe she was right about their likely reaction. “Come on, Cait. You’re in your twenties. You’ve been away at school for years now. Surely they can’t believe there’s never been a man in your life.”

She finally smiled, the tension in her shoulders visibly easing. “Well, they knew about Ronnie Jessup in fourth grade,” she told him. “That was after we moved from New York to Chesapeake Shores. He sent me a dozen valentines that year. Grandpa Mick immediately wanted to have a talk with his parents, but Nell stopped him. And my mom managed to keep Trace from following me to my high school prom. I’m pretty sure Grandpa Mick was lurking around somewhere in the shadows, though.”

Noah laughed, then realized she was serious. “They’re that protective?”

“Carrie and I were the first grandchildren. Grandpa Mick might have gone a little overboard. While I can’t imagine building my entire life around dating the way Carrie has, she might have had the right idea. She’s trained them to deal with it. I was the responsible, serious one. I was in love with my books. I probably lulled them into a false sense of complacency thinking I’d never do anything outrageous. This is going to come as a huge shock to them.”

“Oh, boy,” Noah whispered, then regarded her with a renewed sense of determination. “Sweetie, we need to get this over with. Neither of us is on duty this weekend. It’s the perfect time to go to Chesapeake Shores.”

“But I have to study,” she protested.

He met her gaze. “With all of this on your mind, do you actually think you’re going to be able to concentrate?”

“I can always concentrate,” she insisted.

Noah thought that actually might be true, but he shook his head. “Cait, I won’t have your parents or anyone else thinking I’m reckless and irresponsible or that I’ve treated you carelessly. That would be a terrible way to be introduced to any family, but especially to one as protective as yours. I want them to like me or at least to accept me.”

“Noah—” she began.

Since a protest was undoubtedly coming, he cut her off. “I know how much you love and respect your family. If you’re determined to stay here and avoid this, go right ahead, but I’m going to speak to them. They need to know my intentions are honorable, even if we ultimately decide not to get married.”

She looked stricken by his vehemence. “You wouldn’t.”

“I would,” he told her solemnly. “I love you, Cait. More than that, I respect you. I’d like to prove I’m worthy of your family’s respect, too. They need to know that I’ll do whatever it takes to protect and support you and our child.” He lightened his tone. “And if you’re right about your grandfather and stepdad beating me to a pulp, at least I’ll have time to heal before our child gets his or her first look at me.”

She scowled. “That’s not even remotely amusing.” She sat down beside him and wove her fingers through his. “Look, I love you for wanting to stand beside me and face my family, but maybe that’s not the best idea.” She drew in a deep breath, then conceded, “You are right about one thing, though. I should probably go down there this weekend and fill them in on what’s going on, even get some of Nell’s sage advice. The whole family relies on her to put things into perspective.”

Noah frowned, not entirely pleased about her plan. “And then you’ll do what? Come back here and announce your decision to me?”

She winced at his caustic tone. “No, of course not. We’ll decide this together. I promise. Going home will help me to think everything through, though. I’m reeling right now. I need this space, Noah. You know how I am. I ponder things, especially important decisions, and I won’t be able to do that with you watching me every second. Please don’t push to go with me.”

He nodded finally, reluctantly accepting her decision. “As long as you swear you’ll come back and talk it over with me before you do anything crazy.”

She obviously knew what he meant by crazy, because she rested her hand against his cheek, tears in her eyes again.

“There won’t be an abortion, Noah. That much I do know. I swear it.”

A wave of relief washed over him at the sincerity he heard in her voice, at the commitment shining in her eyes. He knew he could trust her to keep her word. Now he just had to pray that whatever went on with her family would work in his favor.