Page 45 of His Bittersweet Regret

Dr. Burns turned to Marsh after that. “I take your accusation very seriously, and she will be put on administrative leave while we handle the complaint.

Once we got my appointment straightened out, and left the office, I realized that I forgot the most important thing, securing a ride home.

“Dammit,” I hissed under my breath while pulling my phone out.

“What’s wrong?”

“Thanks to your bitchy girlfriend, I forgot to text Joe for a ride home, so that he’d be here when I got out.”

Marsh put his hand over mine, so I wouldn’t be able to text. “Stop. First, she’s not my girlfriend. Never was. The only person who has ever held the distinction was you. Second, my truck is just across the street. I can take you home.”

“No offense, Marsh, but I can’t climb into your truck like this.” I pointed to my belly for emphasis.

“I’ll help you get in. Please, let me take you home. We have a few things to discuss anyway, don’t you think?”

I sighed because it was true. We did have things to work out, especially since it looked like our son might make an earlier arrival, rather than a later one. “Fine. If you can manage to get my whale of a body up into your truck, you can take me home,” I relented much to Marsh’s amusement.

“You do not have a whale’s body.”

“Whatever,” I huffed in response.

18

Marsh

My heart soared when Opal agreed to let me take her home. It made what I had to do far easier, because the only other alternative was to kidnap her or make my brother pick her up under false pretenses. While I appreciated Ryker being there for my girlfriend – ex-girlfriend, I didn’t want him there for what I had to show her. That was a memory I wanted to savor between the two of us.

“Where are you going? My apartment is in the opposite direction.” Opal demanded.

“Maybe so, but your home is in this direction, and I told you that I’d take you home.”

Her frustrated grumbling didn’t go unnoticed, even as I pretended not to hear her. There was little hope left in my heart that Opal would forgive me for everything I’d put her through, especially after that confrontation with Monica just put what I’d done at the forefront of her mind, but if anything might help – it would be the surprise I had in store for my girl.

Opal took in another exaggeratedly deep breath. “Please, Marsh, you heard the doctor. I’m not supposed to stress myself out.”

“I know. You’re also supposed to have someone stay with you, especially since you might go into labor at any time. I promise, this will all make sense when we get there.”

Another major sigh that seemed to suck all the available oxygen out of the cab of the truck later, and we turned off onto the road that went to the school where Opal worked.

“You heard ‘destress’ and decided to take me to work?” She commented dryly.

I laughed. “Just wait, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“What?”

“Sweetheart,” she answered.

“Why not? That’s what you are to me.”

“No, it’s not. I don’t have a place in your heart anymore, Marsh.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Opal. You might not believe me just yet, because I let you down and screwed everything up, but you will.”

She didn’t think I noticed when she rolled her eyes, but I did. Eventually, she would believe me again. She had to because I didn’t think I could live with myself if I saw her go off on a date with Joe freaking Uber driver, or anyone else for that matter.

Two minutes later, I pulled into the driveway of the house that I only managed to close on two days previous. It was two weeks earlier than the owners originally wanted, but my parents helped me finagle a deal to get them to approve getting it done sooner.

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