Empty Net (46 page)

“Okay, you fell victim to the Nashville crud?” Tara asked with a grin.

Audrey nodded. “Yes, and it’s lingering. I need something to knock it out. I’ve been like this for almost a week and a half.”

“Wow, all right, let’s get these questions out of the way. You said you’ve been like this for a week and a half?”

“Yup,” Audrey said with a nod. “It started with the fever, puking, and diarrhea, and now only the puking. It’s horrible.”

“Okay, when was your last menstrual cycle?”

Audrey shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I have pretty irregular periods.”

“Hmm … do you have sex?”

Audrey smiled. “Why, yes I do.”

“Okay, you use protection, right?” Tara asked in a matter-of-fact tone.

Audrey narrowed her eyes as she shook her head. “Why does that matter?”

“It is part of the questionnaire for women,” the nurse said.

Audrey shook her head. “No, we are both clean. We’ve been tested.” She didn’t know why she added that last part, probably because she didn’t want the nurse to think she was a nasty ho. It was different with Tate, she never had used protection and she probably never would. She trusted him, and it wasn’t like she could get pregnant, so why did it matter?

“Do your breasts hurt?”

Audrey took hold of her boob, and before she could even squeeze it, pain ripped through her chest. “Ow, yeah.”

The nurse marked a spot and then shook her head, moving around to gather things. When she turned back, she had a cup in her hand.

“Okay, pee in this, please.”

Audrey looked at the cup then back up at the nurse. “I just want something for the nausea, why am I peeing in a cup?”

“It’s protocol, Ms. Parker.”

“Okay then,” she said, taking the cup and following the nurse to the bathroom. After pulling down her panties, she did her business and then placed the cup where they’d asked her to. She padded through the office in her black stockings, back to her room, and sat back up on the patient’s table. Pulling her phone out, she saw a text from Tate.

As soon as Audrey hit Send, a doctor walked in with her chart and a grin on his face. She dropped her phone into her lap and grinned back.

“Hello, Ms. Parker, I’m Dr. Mann,” he said, holding out his hand. He was a young doctor, good-looking, probably in his mid-thirties. He had nice eyes too, kind ones, Audrey thought as he went on. “I see that you have been suffering from some nasty nausea lately.
Unfortunately, I don’t feel that medication would make it better. I would rather you try some natural home remedies first. And we are also going to need to do some further blood work to confirm some tests.”

He was an evil son of a bitch.

Audrey glared at him. “What do you mean, more tests? I just have a stupid stomach flu that won’t go away.”

“Your dipstick came back showing elevated levels of HCG. It appears that you are pregnant. We will need a blood test to confirm, and in the meantime I am referring you to an Ob/Gyn. Because of your irregularity, we are unable to determine how far along you are, but—”

Audrey had stopped listening; surely, she had heard him wrong. Putting her hand up, she said, “Excuse me? What did you say?”

“I said you are pregnant.”

“Pregnant? There is no way, I can’t have children.”

“Well you are, and you are exhibiting all the signs of morning sickness. Like I said, your dipstick came back positive, but we would like to confirm it with a blood test.”

“No, I’m sorry, you are incorrect. I can’t have kids. I was told that when I was nineteen.”

“Well they were incorrect, ma’am, because you are pregnant.”

“There is no way,” she said, her heart kicking up. She felt dizzy and something was bubbling inside her. Maybe panic because there was no way she was pregnant! She’d had sex with a lot of guys and never gotten pregnant, and …

Oh my God, Tate never used protection, not even once
.

The room felt like it was spinning as a wave of nausea hit her hard. She looked up at her grinning doctor and then promptly puked all over the floor.

For fuck sakes, am I pregnant?

“I need to see Dr. Richards.”

The receptionist looked up at Audrey, and she knew the girl thought she looked crazy. After rushing from Doctor’s Care to her Ob/Gyn, Audrey was frantically looking for some answers. The first doctor was pretty damn sure of himself when he said Audrey was pregnant, but for some reason it wasn’t clicking for her. She would need to hear it from Dr. Richards for her to believe it.

“Do you have an appointment?”

“No.”

“Then I’m sorry, ma’am, but he is—”

“No, he is never too busy for me, tell him Audrey Parker is here and it is an emergency,” Audrey gasped out.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that—”

“Yes, you can,” Audrey said, interrupting her again. “I know you can. Who are you? Where is Linda?”

The girl gave Audrey a snobby little look before saying, “Just a second.”

Audrey’s heart was pounding as she tapped her foot quickly against the hardwood of the lobby. Her stomach was queasy and her head was clouded with questions. She had ignored all of Tate’s texts and even his calls. She was pretty sure he was about to start panicking, but hell, at this point all she cared about was finding out if there was a baby inside her.

Because she couldn’t believe it.

After years of thinking she couldn’t have a child, she couldn’t grasp the fact that it could be happening, and she wouldn’t until Bryan Richards said it was true. When Linda Richards, Bryan’s mom, appeared behind the reception window, Audrey let out the breath she was holding.

“Linda, I need to see Bryan. Like yesterday.”

“Audrey Jane, you’re white as a ghost, are you okay?” she asked, cupping Audrey’s face. When Bryan and Audrey used to date, eons ago, their families had become very close, and still were. Everyone had been convinced they would get married, but during his senior year of high school, Bryan dropped the “Hey, I’m gay” bomb on everyone. Audrey always thought it was true, since Bryan never really liked sex, but she had loved him. She still did, but more as a brother.

“No, I need to see Dr. Richards, Sr., or Bryan, ASAP.”

“Okay, darling, my goodness, you got my hands shaking!” Linda turned quickly to the nurse standing behind her, “Put her in Room 3. Tell Bryan to see her next. Audrey, honey, Matthew is sick today, so Bryan will have to work.”

“That’s fine, thank you so much, Linda,” Audrey said as the door opened and she followed the nurse to Room 3.

“Anything for you, honey, I hope you’re okay,” she heard Linda say as she entered the room. Audrey sat on the patients’ table and looked up at the ceiling. She felt bad for making Linda think she was dying, but she needed to see someone who knew her, and that person was Dr. Richards, or Bryan. Dr. Richards had been her Ob/Gyn since she was sixteen, and Bryan used to … well, they dated for a very long time. Bryan had graduated from Vanderbilt last year and then started interning in his dad’s practice. She knew that he was more than qualified now. He had always wanted to deliver babies, and she was proud of him for living his dreams.

Kicking her legs back and forth, she looked down to see her hands settled against her stomach. She slowly poked her stomach as her eyes pooled with tears. Was there a little someone in there? Would it have Tate’s eyes and her hair color? Was it a girl or a boy? Audrey felt the tears come hot and fast down her cheeks as her heart skipped a beat. Could this be her chance? Did God bless her with a miracle?

When the door opened, she looked up to see Bryan Richards with a worried look on his face. Bryan was a beautiful man. Sharp angles to his face, light green eyes, and blond hair that was cut high and tight. He had a friendly, happy face, and was overall one of the best guys she knew. The whole Richards family would basically do anything for her.

“Audrey, are you okay?” he asked, coming in and shutting the door. He came over to hug her. She basked in the hug. She needed it.

When they parted, she looked up at him and said, “I was just told I’m pregnant.”

Bryan paused, then lowered himself to a rolling chair. “Okay. That isn’t an emergency, honey, it’s a part of life.”

“No, Bryan, Dr. Richards told me I couldn’t have kids because of that crappy abortion I had all those years ago,” she said through shuddering breaths. “I’ve gone almost nine years thinking I couldn’t have kids. I’m crying because I thought I wasn’t a complete woman, but apparently I am! And I’m pregnant now!”

“Okay, wow, this is a lot to process,” he said. “I didn’t know you had an abortion. It’s not in your file.”

“Yeah, I did, Derek knocked me up and left.”

“Well, hell, okay, so bad abortion leads to what?”

“Blockages of the fallopian tubes and severe irregularity, apparently. I haven’t had a
period in four months, but I know damn well I’m not four months pregnant.”

Lord, she hoped not, that would mean it was Levi’s baby.

Holy fuck.

“Okay, calm down,” he said, looking over her chart. “You were here in November for a screening, everything came back good, and you weren’t pregnant then.”

Oh yeah, thank God! Audrey thought as she nodded. “Yeah, had unprotected sex with my now boyfriend, back when he was the one-night stand.”

“Wow, you’ve been busy,” Bryan said with a grin.

Audrey laughed. “Shut up!”

Bryan chuckled some more. “Okay, so who said you were pregnant?”

“Doctor’s Care said they did a pregnancy test and it came back positive.”

He nodded as he stood. “Okay, we’ll do one now and also take some blood samples to send off. I’ll meet you in the ultrasound room.”

“Ultrasound?”

“I know you, you won’t believe this till you see it, so let’s see if we can see this baby.”

“But, Bryan, I can’t have kids,” Audrey insisted, tears rolling down her face.

“Well, Audrey, apparently something was overlooked or something changed. It’s been nine years, and there could have been a lot of changes in your body during that time.”

“Oh my God,” she whispered as she wiped away her tears.

“Why are you crying? This is a good thing.”

She looked up as the tears ran faster down her cheeks. “I want this so bad, Bryan, but I can’t let myself get excited ’cause what if everyone is wrong and this is just some mean joke nature is playing on me?”

Bryan came over, smiling, as he held her gaze with his, and said, “Audrey, come on, let’s get this stuff done so we can have your answer.”

Thirty minutes and a positive pregnancy test later, Audrey was looking at a fuzzy screen showing her uterus, from what the tech, Rachel, had informed her. Bryan stood behind Rachel as Audrey lay with her legs wide open and Rachel’s hand between her thighs.

It wasn’t very comfortable.

Audrey watched as Rachel pressed buttons and then moved the ultrasound probe deeper and then up. Audrey’s eyes cringed a little, in pain, but she wouldn’t take her eyes off that screen for anything. When Rachel stopped and pointed, looking back at Bryan, Audrey said, “What? What’s that? What’s wrong?”

All Audrey could see was an empty space and what looked like a ball. Squinting her eyes, she waited for an answer from someone, but they were both looking very closely at the screen, not paying her any mind.

Was that a baby?

Her heart had beat rapidly since that morning, but now it was in overdrive, and she felt light-headed. Hell, she felt like she was going to puke.

“Audrey, look,” Bryan said, a grin forming on his face. “Rachel, zoom in closer, please,” he said as he bent over her, pointing at the screen. Looking back down at Audrey, he explained, “That is the yolk sack, and that is the embryo.”

Embryo? Embryo! That meant baby!

“I’m pregnant?” she asked as tears filled her eyes before running down her face. Rachel smiled at her as Bryan nodded.

“Yes ma’am. Your baby has a nice strong heartbeat of 126 beats per minute.”

“My baby has a nice strong heartbeat?” Audrey asked. “I have a baby in me?”

“You sure do, buttercup, congratulations, it looks like you are six weeks along, making your due date …” Rachel looked down at a little wheel and then smiled up at Audrey. “… August third.”

“I’m due August third?”

“Yup,” Rachel said with a grin, “so this was a surprise I see? I bet Daddy is going to be excited.”

Audrey couldn’t breathe as she watched the little spot on the screen twitch. Not even a couple days ago she had asked how life could get any better, and here she was. A little person was growing inside her! She had waited for this moment for the past nine years, and it was happening! She was going to be a mommy, and Tate was going to be a daddy. To their baby. She choked on a happy sob as the tears rushed down her face. When she looked up at Rachel and Bryan, the biggest, brightest grin ever came across her face as she gushed, “He’s gonna flip.”