anemic before. Yes, I’ve been busy lately and under a bit of stress, but why would that lead to anemia?”
“Did the nurse not let you know?”
“She hasn’t been back. Let me know what?” Sally’s voice rose in frustration, but Kirk had a feeling he knew exactly what the doctor was going to say.
“You’re pregnant,” the doctor said without preamble.
Bingo.
Kirk listened while Sally argued with the doctor, insisting that it couldn’t be true, but apparently the proof was right there in the test results. Kirk said nothing, just let the news sink in. He’d been relieved when Sally had told him the home test had been negative. Hugely relieved. His life plan had been in the making from when he was in his early teens, and he’d seen no reason to ever veer from that. Marriage and children were far down the line in his ten-year plan. And yet...
He was going to be a daddy. The words resonated through his mind over and over. Together with the woman on the hospital bed, a woman he’d been completely unable to resist the night they’d met, he was going to be a parent. Sally, it seemed, was having an even harder time than him in accepting the news.
“I can’t be pregnant,” Sally said again, this time more adamantly than before. “It was only that one time.”
“That’s all it takes sometimes, I’m afraid. Perhaps I could refer you for some counseling?” the doctor said.
“I don’t need counseling. I just don’t see how this could have happened.”
“Look, we’ll deal with it together,” Kirk hastened to reassure her.
“I guess we’ll have to,” she replied bitterly. “I didn’t want this.”
“I didn’t plan for it, either,” he agreed. “But now that we’re faced with it, we can make plans.”
And they would make plans. There was no way he was missing out on his child’s life the way his father had missed out on his. His father’s descent into drug addiction had seen him not only lose his position as the development manager for Harrison IT in its earliest incarnation, it had also resulted in Frank Tanner’s death by suicide several years later—leaving his twelve-year-old son and his wife with more questions than answers and very little money to make ends meet. If it hadn’t been for Orson Harrison’s assistance, who knew where they’d have ended up?
No, his child would not go without—neither emotionally nor materially.
“Can I go back to work now?” Sally asked the doctor, interrupting Kirk’s train of thought.
“Of course. Pregnancy isn’t an illness, but I’d like you to reduce stress and get into a good routine ensuring you eat properly and regularly, take prenatal vitamins, and fit a little exercise into each day if you don’t already.”
“Surely you don’t want to go back to work today,” Kirk stepped in before Sally could respond. “Your body has had a shock. Take the day to recover fully.”
She gave him a scathing look. “You heard the doctor. I’m pregnant, not sick. Besides, I need to get back to my team and find out the result of the Q and A after the presentation.”
Kirk knew when to pick his battles, and this definitely wasn’t one he’d be able to win. Better to give in gracefully rather than cause a scene in front of the medical center staff.
“Fine, we’ll head back.”
“Thank you.”
Although she’d said the words with every nuance of good manners, he could sense the sarcasm beneath them. She was used to making her own decisions, and she wasn’t going to accept him telling her what to do. He was going to have to become inventive if he was going to achieve his objectives with respect to being there for her and their baby. That was fine. He was nothing if not inventive.
They took a cab back to the office, barely speaking. Clearly Sally was still digesting the news about the baby, but this would be the last time she’d be doing any of it on her own—he’d make certain of that. Still, it wasn’t the kind of discussion he wanted to have in the back of a cab, so he’d have to shelve it until they could be alone together again.
While he took care of paying the cab driver, Sally made her way into the building, and he managed to catch up with her by the elevators.
“In such a hurry to get back to work?”
“This is important to me, Kirk. It might have escaped your notice, but I’m the boss’s daughter. As such, people either treat me as if I’m their best friend because they think being nice to me will advance their career, or I’m their archenemy because they think I’ll run back to Dad and narc on them for any minor transgression—or you, now, since Dad’s still recuperating. Many think I shouldn’t be here at all. I have to work twice as hard and twice as long as anyone here for people to take me seriously, and all my hard work is probably ruined now thanks to fainting during the presentation today.”
“I’m sure you’re exaggerating.”
“You think? Aside from my team and Marilyn, there are very few people here who believe I’m capable of doing the job I was hired to do. Yes, hired. I applied for that position just like anyone else, and that was after interning here during my summer and semester breaks as often as my father would let me.”
“If it’s all so hard, why bother? Why not go elsewhere? You are eminently employable. You have a sharp mind and great ideas. Any company would be lucky to have you,” Kirk hastened to assure her.
He already knew a lot of what she’d just told him about her credentials and experience, but he’d had no idea that she was a pariah to so many, as well.
“Because my father started this business. It’s in my blood, and as such I feel invested in it, too. And while I’ll probably never be good enough to take over the company when he’s ready to retire, like I always dreamed of when I was younger, the company and my father deserve my best—not some other nameless, faceless corporation.”
The elevator doors opened onto Sally’s floor, and she stepped out.
“Sally, wait. We need to talk about this.”
“Thank you for your help today,” she said, holding the elevator door open. “Call me and make an appointment if you want to talk. Right now it’s—”
Her voice broke off, as if she couldn’t even bring herself to discuss the child now growing in her belly.
“It’s just too complicated,” she continued, her cheeks flushing.
With that, she let the door close, and he caught a last glimpse of her walking away. Kirk wanted to refute her statement. It wasn’t complicated as far as he was concerned. She was pregnant with his baby, and that meant they had a future together whether she realized it or not.
With the chemistry they shared, being together would be no hardship. But it seemed he had to convince her of that. He’d let her think she’d had the last word on the subject, that she had the upper hand. And then he’d try to change her mind.
* * *
Sally
