Soraya Lane – The Secretary's Secret / Rodeo Daddy: The Secretary's Secret / Rodeo Daddy (страница 3)
‘Dizziness? Nausea?’
‘I’ve felt faint a couple of times.’
‘Blurriness of vision?’
Kit shook her head.
‘Well, let’s not waste any more time.’ Dr Maybury handed Kit a cup. ‘We’ll test your urine.’
Ten minutes later, Dr Maybury turned to her and folded her arms. ‘I’m pleased to say you are not diabetic.’
Kit slumped in relief. ‘Oh, that is good news! The thought of having to give myself daily insulin injections …’ She shuddered.
‘Kit, you’re not diabetic, but you are pregnant.’
Kit blinked. She shook her head. ‘What did you just say?’
The doctor repeated it.
She shook her head again. ‘But …’ Her chest tightened, her stomach cramped. ‘But I can’t be! I just had my period.’
‘Some women maintain their period throughout their entire pregnancy.’
Kit could only stare. ‘Heavens,’ she found herself murmuring, ‘how unfair is that?’
Dr Maybury smiled and Kit shook herself again. ‘No, you don’t understand. I can’t be pregnant. I haven’t had morning sickness and … and my breasts haven’t been sore … and … I mean you have to have sex to get pregnant and I haven’t had sex in, like, forever!’
She hadn’t had sex since that magical night with Alex. Her mouth went dry. ‘Except … One night … ‘
‘One night is all it takes.’
‘But … but that was three months ago.’ She couldn’t have been pregnant for three months and not known.
Could she?
She thrust out her arm. ‘Please, do a blood test or … or something!’
‘I will take blood and send it off to the lab to make a hundred per cent certain. But, Kit, the pregnancy test I just used is roughly ninety-seven per cent accurate. I can do an internal examination to eliminate that final three per cent of doubt if it will put your mind at rest.’
Kit nodded mutely.
After the internal exam and when Kit was dressed again, she forced herself to meet the doctor’s eyes. ‘Well?’
‘There is not a doubt in my mind that you are pregnant. And, like you say, I’d put you at about three months. The results of the blood test will give us a better indication of your due date.’
She could tell the doctor the exact date of conception, only she didn’t have the heart to.
‘Kit, what do you want to do?’
She couldn’t be pregnant. She just couldn’t be. Alex, he’d …
She closed her eyes.
‘If you’d prefer a termination, we can’t leave it too much longer.’
Her eyes flew open.
‘Do you want children, Kit?’
‘Yes.’ The word croaked out of her.
But she’d wanted to do it the right way—married, with a divine husband whom she adored and who adored her in return, and with a mortgage on a cute little house and … and planned. Not like this!
‘You’re twenty-eight. How much longer did you mean to leave it?’
She didn’t have an answer for that. Through the fog of her shock, though, one thing started to become increasingly clear. She swallowed, twisted her hands together. ‘I don’t want to terminate my pregnancy.’
Her doctor smiled.
The answering smile that rose up through her suddenly froze. ‘Oh, but I’ve been drinking tea first thing in the morning and again at lunchtime and—’
‘You don’t have to give up caffeine altogether. Are you exceeding more than three cups a day?’
‘No.’
‘Then that’s okay. Alcohol?’
She winced. ‘I usually have a glass on Friday and Saturday nights.’
‘Any alcoholic binges in the last three months?’
‘No.’
‘Then there’s nothing to worry about.’
‘I haven’t been taking folate.’
‘You can start that today.’
Kit leaned forward. ‘You really think my baby is okay?’ She couldn’t stand the thought that she might have somehow hurt her unborn child.
The doctor patted her hand. ‘Kit, you are a healthy young woman. There’s absolutely no reason to suppose your baby isn’t healthy too.’
She let the doctor’s words reassure her. Finally, that smile built up through her again. ‘I’m really pregnant?’ she whispered.
‘You really are.’
‘But that’s lovely news.’
Alex Hallam wouldn’t think it was lovely news.
The doctor laughed. ‘Congratulations, Kit.’
Who cared what Alex Hallam thought? She was through thinking about him, remember? She beamed back at the doctor. ‘Thank you.’
Pregnant!
Kit left the surgery and turned in the direction of the train station. When she arrived there she couldn’t remember a single step of her journey.
Pregnant? A tentative excitement wrestled with her apprehension. One moment joy held sway. In the next, anxiety had gained the upper hand. An unplanned pregnancy? She gulped. It sounded so irresponsible. Irresponsible people shouldn’t be allowed to raise children.
She hugged her handbag. No. She hadn’t been irresponsible. She and Alex had taken precautions. It was just that sometimes, obviously, accidents happened.
She frowned over that word—
Alex wouldn’t think their baby lovely. He’d definitely think it was an accident, a mistake. She closed her eyes. It was pointless telling herself now that she was through with thinking about Alex. They were having a baby. That changed everything.
Her hand moved to her abdomen, cradled it. She imagined the tiny life inside and her mouth went dry. How on earth would Alex react when she told him the news?
Nausea swirled through her. Her eyes stung. Would Alex reject their child as ruthlessly and dispassionately as he had rejected her? Her throat thickened and then closed over completely. When her train arrived she boarded it like an automaton, found a window seat and concentrated on her breathing.
A baby deserved a mother
The rush and clatter of an oncoming train as it sped past her window made her flinch and then sit up suddenly straighter. What was she doing? She couldn’t control how Alex would react, but she could control how she dealt with the news. She had a miracle growing inside her and she wanted this baby with every atom of her being. The weight pressing down on her shoulders melted away. A smile built up inside her.
She was having a baby!