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“No! Kara. We aren’t finished. Don’t you dare leave right now,” Simon bellowed loudly after her retreating figure. Angry and completely desperate, he plowed after her, determined to track her ass down until she explained what was going on.
Simon never made it out the door, his brother jerking him back into the room with a strong grip on the back of his shirt. “Whoa, bro. Let her go. It doesn’t look like you were resolving much of anything.”
Simon turned to face his brother, absolutely livid. “Take your fucking hands off me. She’s going to listen.”
Sam let his brother turn, but firmly gripped Simon’s shirt in the front, pulling his younger brother closer. Nose to nose, Sam drilled Simon with an icy stare, his voice as cold as his eyes as he replied, “Oh yeah, you both looked like you were totally ready to have a rational conversation.” Sam shook Simon lightly. “Calm the hell down and think about what you’re doing. The woman was dissolving in a puddle of tears. You love her. Is this really the mood you need to be in when you talk? You’ll say stupid things that you’ll regret later. Trust me.”
Deflated, Simon’s body relaxed, allowing Sam to loosen his grip. “Fuck. I already did.” He flinched as he heard the door to the condo slam closed, his heart sinking to his feet at the realization that Kara had left their home. Lefthim.
Sam stepped back and grabbed Simon by the shoulders, asking quietly, “You good now?” His older brother was really asking if Simon had a grip on himself.
“Yeah. Yeah, I think so.” Shrugging off Sam’s light hold, Simon dragged himself back to his desk, slumping into his computer chair. Burying his face in his hands, he groaned. “I really need to talk to Kara. Work things out. Something’s wrong.”
Sauntering to the circle of computers, Sam grabbed up a chair, swinging it around and seating his large body in the chair backwards. Resting his forearms on the back of the chair, Sam locked his fingers together and shook his head, causing the curly blond locks of his hair to ruffle lightly as he told Simon in a grave voice, “Bro, you really need to work on your communication skills. If that was working things out, I’d really hate to see what happens when you two are having an argument.”
“You’re not sick. You’re pregnant.”
Kara cringed, her head shooting up to give the vivacious redheaded physician walking through the door of the exam room an alarmed stare. Her jaw dropped and she shook her head. “How is that possible?”
Dr. Madeline Reynolds came to a stop in front of the exam table Kara was seated on and folded her arms in front of her. “You’re a nurse. Do we really need a refresher on anatomy and physiology?” Maddie lifted her arms and made a circle with the middle finger and thumb of her left hand while inserting her index finger of her right into the circle. “Part A is inserted into part B, which may result in pregnancy.” She shrugged, smiling at Kara as she dropped her hands to her side. “You know the other details.”
“I’m on the pill, Maddie. It’s not possible.”
“You know it can still happen. And I think it’s entirely possible that you conceived soon after you had that stomach virus between Christmas and New Years,” Maddie answered, her voice contemplative. “You missed your period recently, didn’t you?”
Kara nodded reluctantly. “But I still took my pill every day when I was sick. I didn’t forget. And I didn’t take any antibiotics that would interfere with the effectiveness of my pill,” Kara answered, her voice panicked.
Maddie gave her a wry look. “But you were vomiting every day for a week. I suspect most of your pill came right back up and was never dissolved in your bloodstream.”
“Shit, shit, shit.” Maddie was probably right and Kara was experiencing some serious denial. All of the symptoms had been there. She just hadn’t wanted to acknowledge them. Cursing herself for not thinking about the possibility that Maddie had just mentioned and using an alternative method of birth control, Kara’s eyes dropped to the floor.
“You were sick. Don’t blame yourself because your brain was scrambled.” Maddie handed Kara the paper in her hand. “Here’s the result of your HCG. It’s positive. You know the test is pretty damn accurate, but we can repeat it in a week if you want to.”
Kara took the test results from Maddie, staring down at the positive result in shock, her eyes flooding with tears. Again. “I can’t believe it. Oh God, how am I going to tell Simon?”
Maddie plopped her ass on a rolling stool, wheeling herself between Kara’s feet, which were dangling from the exam table. Snatching the test results from Kara’s trembling fingers, Maddie dropped the sheet of paper on the table and grasped both of Kara’s hands, staring up at her with a concerned expression. “You think Simon will be upset? Kara…I don’t think he will. You’re getting married in a month. It’s a little soon, but I think he’ll be delighted. And I know you want kids.”
Kara looked down at Maddie, her expression grim. “I do want children. I’m thirty years old and I’d like to have more than one. But any time I bring up the subject with Simon, he shuts it down immediately. He wants to wait.” She covered her flat stomach reflexively, sighing at the thought that she was carrying Simon’s child. She wanted this baby desperately, already loved it. “I don’t think he’ll be happy. His expression looks pained every time I talk about it. And we fought this morning.”
“About?” Maddie prompted gently.
“I was being a raving bitch. I haven’t been myself for the last few weeks. That’s why I wanted you to run a few blood tests. I think I knew I could be pregnant, but didn’t want to admit it. I feel so emotional all the time, so scared. I had a premarital agreement drawn up by an attorney to protect Simon and he wouldn’t sign.”
Maddie squeezed Kara’s hands lightly. “You know, I like that man more and more every day. Good for him. He trusts you enough to know that you would never screw him.” Maddie smirked. “Not financially anyway. Any other billionaire with Simon’s money would have already had your signature on a prenup the moment he put that gorgeous ring on your finger. Why would you argue about that?”
“I insisted he sign. He refused. Told me I didn’t have enough faith in him. Then I told him that maybe we should reconsider this marriage because we were just too different. God, I don’t even know why I said that. Simon is like a missing piece of my soul, my other half. I don’t know what I’d do without him. We fit in every way except for the money. I guess I panicked.”
Kara shuddered as she remembered the shattered look of pain on Simon’s handsome, beloved face and wanted to start crying all over again. Why had she said that? Simon was her world, and she knew he felt the same. The man had suffered enough pain in his past. He shouldn’t have to receive it from the woman he loved, the woman he wanted to marry and spend the rest of his life with.
“You’re pregnant, girlfriend, and your hormones are raging out of control. It’s normal to be a little touchy, do and say irrational things, and to have mood swings. Tell Simon. Let him understand and be there for you. You need him right now,” Maddie told her in a persuasive tone.
Kara smiled at her friend weakly. “It’s hard to believe that you once hated him.”
“I never hated Simon. I didn’t know him. I was just afraid he’d end up being a snake like his brother, Sam.” Maddie’s voice was soft, but it held a trace of bitterness. “It’s pretty clear that he’s not. He adores you, makes you happy. For that alone…I love the guy. But he’s also a very good person. He’s helped me keep this free clinic afloat with his donations.”
The money that was donated belonged to Sam too, a charitable gift from the Hudson Corporation, but Kara wasn’t about to mention that fact to Maddie. Sam Hudson and Maddie had a past--and things obviously hadn’t ended well. Maddie never wanted to discuss it, but Kara knew that neither one of them were exactly over it, even though Kara surmised it was an incident in the distant past. “Sam’s a good man, Maddie. He saved my life.”
“Yeah. After he insulted you,” Maddie snapped, irritated.