Page 5 of Maybe My Baby

Clearly, she couldn’t answerhisquestion without divulging her own change in circumstances.

Donovan took the seat across the table and stared at her, his jaw tight. “You want to tell me what’s going on? I know you’re stressed, but I’ve never seen you like this. It’s scaring me, Sunshine.” His half smile held only a fraction of its usual wattage.

Ginny was a wreck. Emotionally and in every other way. Donovan had asked her to move in with him. That was huge. Forty-eight hours ago, she would have been over the moon. Now she didn’t know what to feel.

“It’s been a hard couple of weeks,” she said quietly. “Would you mind if we had a do-over? Tomorrow is Saturday. Why don’t I make dinner and you come over around six? We can talk about this.”

He was still. Watchful. His brain clearly operating on high speed as he tried to process all the things she wasn’t saying.

Finally, he sighed. “It’s okay to tell me you don’t want to move in. I’m a grown man. I can handle a little rejection.”

“I’mnotrejecting you,” she said, the words urgent. “But I don’t think I’m up for sex right now, so it’s best if I go home.”

Storms flashed in his eyes. “Maybe you have the wrong opinion of me, Ginny. I’m not with you just for the sex. I wantyou. All of you. Does that include intimacy? Of course it does. But I thought the two of us were building something special.”

She swallowed hard. He was breaking her heart into a million tiny pieces. “I did, too.” Tears welled in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. From Donovan’s standpoint, everything had been going great. What was he going to say when Ginny revealed the truth? “I should go,” she said. “I’m tired.”

“I’ll drive you. I can walk back,” he insisted. “It’s only a couple of miles, and it’s a nice night.”

She stood, managing a smile. “Don’t be silly. I can drive myself. But thanks.”

Donovan stood as well and took her in his arms. He held her carefully as if afraid she might break. “I’m sorry I upset you, Sunshine.” He kissed her forehead. “Everything will be okay, I swear. You’ll figure out the lease stuff, and you and I can keep the status quo.”

It wasn’t what she wanted, but she didn’t have the strength to handle this conversation right now.

He walked her to her car, opened the door, and tucked her inside. Then he leaned an arm on top of the door instead of closing it. “I’d feel better if you’d let me drive you,” he said, his tone troubled.

She smiled up at him. “You said it yourself. It’s only a couple of miles. Don’t worry about me. I’ll feel better in the morning.”

Ginny didnotfeel better in the morning. She lurched out of bed at six, dashed to the bathroom, and retched miserably. Then she sat on the floor beside the toilet and cried.

Thankfully, it was her Saturday to be off. She had a wonderful assistant manager, plus a part-time employee, who handled things beautifully whenever Ginny was away.

Even when the tears stopped, a sense of impending doom hung over her like an invisible cloud.

Donovan was the best thing that had ever happened to her. But how many couples got together because of a pregnancy and then didn’t go the distance? She and Donovan hadn’t even saidI love youyet, though she had expected those words soon. Maybe that was supposed to have been part of themove-in-with-meinvitation. Maybe if she hadn’t passed out, he might have been ready to go on record with the bigLword.

Instead, Ginny had created a huge scene, and she had hurt the man who was so very dear to her.

Shewantedto know he loved her. But she didn’t want him to feel trapped.

Clearly, there was no need to buy more expensive pregnancy tests. She would make an appointment with her ob-gyn, but the truth was staring her in the face. She was pregnant.

Donovan had been out of town for a few days last month. When he came home, they had indulged in wonderful reunion sex. That meant she probably knew when this baby was conceived.

Even now, sick and queasy, she found it hard to accept.

The only way she could get through the day was to compartmentalize. She made herself some hot tea and sipped it while eating saltines.

When she thought her stomach was under control, she dressed and went to the market. It would be dumb to attempt a fancy dinner given her iffy mental and physical state. Fortunately, Donovan loved her vegetable beef soup. It wasn’t exactly a summer menu, but if she threw together some biscuits to go with it, he would be a happy man. Plus, she could make the soup early and have it simmering during the afternoon.

The day crawled by. At one point, she took out the letter from her landlord and read it for the twentieth time. The rent hadn’t gone up in several years. Real estate on the town square was at a premium. She could understand the landlord’s point. But that didn’t make her situation any easier.

At four o’clock she put together the dry ingredients for her granny’s biscuits. Then she turned the soup to low and took a thirty-minute nap. The aroma emanating from the pot on the stove was usually tantalizing. Today, it filled the apartment, threatening to make her ill.

When her alarm went off at four thirty, she groaned and put a pillow over her head. Why had she invited him to dinner? She didn’t even know how or what she was going to say.

She made herself get up and splash water on her face. No cute sundress tonight. Stretchy leggings and a yellow tank top were comfortable and flattering. It was the best she could do.

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