Page 54 of Prognosis Temporary

Callie was stunned. That she hadn’t expected. ‘I thought you didn’t want children.’

‘I didn’t.’

‘You told me that some people in this world shouldn’t have them and that you were one of them. Me included, you said.’

He pulled up at a traffic light and turned to face her. ‘And I still believe that not everyone is equipped to handle the responsibility of a baby. But not wanting a baby when there isn’t one is completely different to not wanting a baby when there is one.’

He put his hand on her knee and gave it a gentle squeeze. ‘Circumstance may have forced my hand, Callie, but I’m in. Fully in. And I want to be a part of my child’s life.’

Callie’s head started to spin. She could hear the words but nothing seemed to make any sense. Part of my child’s life? What did that mean exactly? A life with her, too? Or just him and the baby? The baby she wasn’t even sure if she wanted.

Her brain was full. Just too full of startling information to comprehend.

‘So what does that make me? Some kind of unnatural freak because I’m still confused about this while you’re painting the nursery?’

‘Oh, Callie,’ he said softly, lifting his hand and reaching across but stopping when she flinched away. ‘It makes you human.’

A car behind hooted and Sebastian turned his attention back to the road accelerating away as Callie looked out the window, her brain grappling with the knowledge he suddenly wanted to be a daddy.

‘What if I don’t?’ she asked, glancing at him, her pulse fluttering madly at her temple. ‘What if I don’t want this baby?’

‘Then I guess we have a problem,’ he replied.

He didn’t take his eyes off the road but there was steel in his voice and the grim determination she’d seen on his face that day on the bridge tightened his profile.

He’d been adamant then. He looked immovable now.

Callie turned back to the window. ‘My mother was bipolar. My brother was schizophrenic. Both of those are familial mental illnesses.’

The car slowed and stopped for another red light. ‘I know what it’s like to have the sword of mental illness hanging over your head,’ he said gently. ‘It’s okay to be scared, Callie.’

‘Well, that’s good,’ she said, a hitch in her voice, as she turned back to face him. ‘Cos I’m terrified.’

‘Callie.’

He went to touch her again but Callie shrunk away. She was just barely keeping it all together. If he touched her she might shatter into a thousand pieces.

‘Well, I’m not,’ he said. ‘Terrified. Everything’s going to be okay, Callie. I’m going to be here for you.’

‘Except for when you disappear off back to Melbourne.’

He shook his head. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’

Callie blinked. ‘What?’

‘I’m going to stay in Brisbane. Or you could come to Melbourne. But I figured you’d want to stay close to Zack and I’d really like to keep going with Bree and Frank. And I think we should get married.’

Callie gaped at him. ‘What?’

Holy freaking cow. What was even happening right now?

‘Okay. Okay.’ He nodded a couple of times. ‘I didn’t plan on saying that. But, you know what? Why not? We were going to have a long distance relationship, so why not this?’

Callie put a steadying hand against the dashboard as the light turned green and the car moved forward. The whole world suddenly seemed topsy-turvy. ‘Oh, I don’t know. What about love? I think that’s kind of vital, don’t you? You don’t even love me, Sebastian.’

‘Yes, I do.’

His quick rejoinder hit Callie like a tonne of bricks and she gasped feeling winded by the unexpected declaration. ‘You love me?’ Since when?

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