From Dare to Due Date

by Christy Jeffries

Her response was an over-the-shoulder wave that she threw out while darting across the parking lot before quickly getting into her car. Hmm. Her knee clearly didn’t seem to be bothering her anymore. Or maybe she just wanted to get away from him that badly.

  After watching her drive away safely, he turned and sat down heavily in one of the chairs in the waiting area. Mia Palinski was truly unlike any other woman he’d ever met. On one hand, it was refreshing considering he’d spent the past ten years avoiding women like Cammie Longacre—women who would just want him because of his family’s money and his father’s notoriety. But on the other hand, it was also quite perplexing because he just didn’t know what to make of her. He hoped that she was a solid, trustworthy person who had his and his child’s best interests at heart. If not, eighteen years was a long time to have to engage with someone who was only looking out for number one.

  * * *

  On Thursday night, Garrett found himself sitting in Cooper’s living room, getting ready to play poker with Mia’s best friends’ husbands and some other men he’d met since he’d moved here. Actually, he’d known both Cooper and Drew Gregson from the Shadowview Military Hospital—way before he’d even learned Mia’s name, let alone that they were married to her friends.

  So it wasn’t as if he could be accused of trying to infiltrate her ranks in an effort to spy on her. But, hey, if the guys wanted to provide a little background intelligence on her during their weekly poker game, Garrett wouldn’t stop them.

  Besides, the only thing he’d been able to find out about Mia on his own so far was an article on the internet about her being attacked by some sort of stalker back when she’d been a professional cheerleader. But it was weird that there wasn’t more information on what exactly had transpired or who the attacker was. There were no court documents, no police reports, no media statements. At least none that his limited research capabilities could find.

  Someone must have paid good money to keep that incident under wraps because in Garrett’s former world of reality television, the spotlight would have shown brightly on something like that, and there would have been no end to the bad press.

  Being attacked would explain why Mia was so jumpy, but it only left him with more questions. It also made him think that someone with some deep pockets had helped that situation go away—which usually translated into a cash settlement of some sort.

  Mia certainly wasn’t flashy or living a glamorous lifestyle, but maybe she’d blown her monetary award already and was patiently awaiting her next meal ticket to arrive. And arrive he had. Hell, Garrett had practically been delivered to her on a room service cart.

  The shuffling of cards brought him back to the present.

  “So the buy-in is a dozen chocolate-chips and six maple-pecans.” Cooper made the announcement while looking around at the men who were pulling cookies from Maxine’s famous bakery out of cellophane wrappers and stacking them neatly on the green baize-covered table.

  Luke Gregson, Drew’s twin brother, walked in the door with his own set of identical sons and said, “We got to the bakery right before closing, but by the time these two hungry monkeys got their little hands on the bag, all I have left are some cranberry-orange ones and those pumpkin-nutmeg things left over from last week.”

  The eight-year-old boys still had their mouths full and gave Luke a chocolaty hug before running off to Cooper’s stepson’s room to play with Hunter. The former navy SEAL looked as if he certainly had his hands full. And judging by the tired look on the man’s face, Garrett was sure glad Mia’s obstetrician had heard only one heartbeat.

  The men were on their second hand when Kane Chatterson, Kylie’s brother, who’d done the renovation of the old lumber mill for Garrett, came in through the door carrying a white sack from Domino’s Deli.

  “I hear congratulations are in order,” Kane said as he passed out sub sandwiches. Garrett looked around the room to see who the former baseball pitcher was talking to, but all eyes were on him. Realizing what they were talking about, Garrett was surprised that he didn’t feel any need to hide it. In fact, he was glad the secret was finally out.

  “Word travels fast.” Garrett took a sip from his bottle of beer, wondering who had spilled the beans.

  “That it does,” their host and the police chief said. Cooper knew about Garrett’s family because, well, he was Cooper and tended to find out anything he wanted. Hopefully, he also knew what would happen if the rest of the world found out. But his next comment allayed some fears. “At least you can rest assured that it will end at the city limits signs. This town protects its own.”

  “Maybe.” Kane shrugged, not looking entirely convinced. Garrett had confided in him about his identity as well, once he realized that the man was also performing his own disappearing act to avoid the limelight. “Time will tell.”

  “So everyone in Sugar Falls knows? I wonder how Mia will react to that.” Garrett casually moved his sandwich to the side and ate a snickerdoodle—the poker cookie with the highest value and the closest proximity—hoping nobody noticed his subtle attempt to fish for information.

  “I heard it from Donatella Patrelli, who just hired me to add a bathroom on to her house,” Kane said.

  Alex Russell, who owned the sporting goods store, folded before adding his own two cents. “I heard it from Jake Marconi’s dad, who stopped by the store to pick up the new basketball team uniforms. He told me Mia was at his gas station filling up the other day. I guess she went inside to pay and when the person in line ahead of her opened up the beef jerky dispenser, she threw up right in front of the snack cake display. Said his wife knew then and there she was in the family way.”

  “The twins told me about it.” Luke reached inside the deli bag and pulled out a container of hot peppers. “They found out at school from some little girls in Mia’s tap dance class.”

  Drew laughed. “Word on the street is that you were quite the hero at her studio the other night. One of the kids broke her ankle and Dr. McCormick was hiding in the wings and sprung into action.”

  “I wasn’t hiding in the wings.”

  “Then what were you doing at a dance class for six-year-olds?” Cooper asked.

  “I was using the restroom. So how long has Mia been a dance teacher?”

  “Really? The Snowflake Dance Academy was the only business in town where you could find a place to go?” Nope, Cooper wasn’t going to make things easy for him.

  And here, Garrett thought he’d be the one getting answers tonight. Man, he should’ve known better than to become friends with a former MP who’d been trained to interrogate terrorists.

  “Okay, so I had gone with Mia to the baby’s first doctor’s appointment in Boise on Monday and I used the bathroom when we got back from the long drive.”

  “How was it?” Luke asked.

  “Her bathroom? It was fine.”

  “Not the bathroom, Doc. The first appointment. When Samantha was pregnant with the twins, I was on deployment and couldn’t go to ours. But she’d recorded the whole thing and I must’ve watched that ultrasound video five hundred times.”

  “I’ll never forget ours, either,” Drew said, even though his was probably just several months ago. “The only thing keeping me from passing out when the doctor told us Kylie was having two girls was hearing my father-in-law whooping and hollering on the other side of the door. Kane, your old man has the loudest voice on the planet.”

  “At least he was happy. You should hear him when one of his pitchers gives up a walk.” Kane finished his beer, then looked at Garrett. “Anyway, I just wanted to say congrats. I came to play cards, not to listen to the Daddy Train toot its own horn all night.”

  It was true. Garrett was entering an exclusive club for fathers, and the ones sitting here with him were as proud as could be. And he was now among their ranks. He remembered the thrill that had shot thr
ough him earlier this week when he’d heard his baby’s heartbeat. He’d also remembered Mia’s mad dash across the parking lot later that night when she was trying to get away from him after he’d kissed her.

  “Well, Kane, we could talk about how the high school varsity team still needs a pitching coach this spring.” Alex looked at the quiet baseball player, who shook his head once before going back to the refrigerator for another round of beers. “What about you, Doc?”

  “What about me?” Garrett asked. “I’m not a pitching coach.”

  “No, but the high school also needs an athletic trainer. They have a couple of students volunteering now, but if you wanted to take on the team doctor role, you could oversee things. It’s only on Friday nights for the football games right now, but eventually they’ll need someone to help out with the other sports.”

  He thought about his office, which was practically unpacked and ready to go as soon as he got some new patients. Mia certainly wasn’t blowing up his phone wanting to spend time with him, and this poker night constituted the extent of his social life. It wasn’t as if Garrett had much else going on right now. Besides, the more time he spent with people who knew Mia, the more information he could find out about her.

  “Sure. Why not?”

  Chapter Eight

  Mia didn’t go to all the local football games, but she helped the varsity cheerleaders choreograph their bigger performances and had come with Maxine and Kylie to watch the halftime show tonight.

  This was her last weekend of freedom before her mom showed up on Monday for a weeklong visit. She didn’t know how she was going to get through Thanksgiving if her mom found out about the pregnancy before then. And knowing Rhonda Palinski’s nose for drama, the woman would surely find out. Especially if she spent at least five minutes in town, where everyone else seemed to have already clued in.

  As Mia walked with her friends toward the stands, the small marching band blasted out a loud rendition of the Sugar Falls High School fight song. She turned toward the field and saw a man dressed in track pants and an SFHS Huskies hooded sweatshirt bent in front of one of the players, unwrapping tape from the teenager’s wrist. A bubbling blast of energy shot through her veins and Mia recognized the feeling—the sensation she got only when Garrett McCormick was close by.

  That couldn’t be...

  “Watch where you’re stepping, little mama,” Kylie said when Mia stumbled over the first row of bleachers. She forced her head straight and concentrated on watching what she was doing, rather than looking behind her to see what her body already knew.

  He might not be dressed in one of his fancy button-down shirts with his perfectly creased slacks, but there was no doubt of exactly who it was.

  What was he doing there? It was bad enough that several of her students’ parents had congratulated her this week on her pregnancy, and even worse, that most of them asked her directly if the father of her child was also the handsome new doctor in town. But did he have to flaunt it to everyone by showing up at the same events she did? No wonder the flames of gossip had been fanned into a citywide forest fire. They’d barely been seen together, but all it had taken were a few slips and a handful of sightings for suspicions to become facts.

  “Nachos?” Maxine lifted a yellow goop-filled paper boat up under Mia’s nose, causing her to gag.

  “No, thanks. That processed cheese smells horrible.” So did the popcorn Hunter was eating, as well as the hot dog Kylie was stuffing in her mouth.

  “I was like that several weeks ago,” her pregnant friend said around bites. “Couldn’t stand the smell of anything. I think I lost ten pounds my first trimester. Then I hit twenty weeks and lately it seems like I can’t stop eating.”

  But Mia couldn’t blame the sudden queasiness in her tummy on pregnancy-related nausea alone. She’d eaten anything she’d wanted to just fine since she saw Garrett on Monday evening. Well, almost anything. There had been that unfortunate beef jerky incident at the Gas N’ Mart earlier this week. Otherwise, it was only when he was around that her stomach did backflips.

  She narrowed her eyes. “What’s Garrett doing down there on the sidelines?”

  Kylie licked the mustard off her fingers. “Drew told me he agreed to help out as the team doctor and athletic trainer of sorts.”

  “Why? Is he trying to drum up business or something?”

  “Wow. That doesn’t sound like our sweet, even-tempered Mia,” Maxine said, a tortilla chip paused on its way to her mouth. “What’s got you in such a snit over Dr. Dreamboat?”

  “Really?” Mia lifted her brows. “Is that the nickname we’re going with?”

  “Well, Dr. Handsome got taken when Kylie married Drew, so we wouldn’t want to get the two men confused. Anyway, spill it. Why are you so on edge around him?”

  “Besides the fact that I barely know the man but now have to ‘co-parent’ with him since I got knocked up after a one-night stand?”

  “Hey, Mom.” Maxine’s eleven-year-old son leaned in to be heard over the loud trombones below. “What’s a one-night stand?”

  The blonde cookie baker pulled some cash out of her purse and shoved it at Hunter. “Here, sweetie, go to the snack bar and buy Aunt Mia a Sprite. And a king-size package of peanut butter cups.”

  “We shouldn’t give her those until she tells us what’s going on between her and Dr. Love Muffin,” Kylie suggested.

  Mia shuddered under her down-filled coat. “Suddenly, Dr. Dreamboat doesn’t sound so bad. Okay, you two, I’ll tell you but you have to swear not to say a word to your husbands.” Her two friends held up their forefingers in a number one and touched the tips together. It was a gesture from their cheerleading days they always used to secure a solemn promise.

  Mia told them about Garrett’s reaction to hearing the heartbeat and how his excitement only intensified her already overwrought emotions. Then she filled them in on how she’d gone to his office that same night to check in on Madison Rosellino, which resulted in them sharing that passionate kiss.

  “Boy, when we dared you to live a little, you sure took the ball and ran with it,” Maxine smiled.

  “Don’t remind me of that text,” Mia said. “If I wasn’t a more responsible adult, I’d totally blame you both for this situation.”

  “So what did you do when he kissed you?” Kylie wanted to know.

  “I kissed him back.”

  Kylie rolled her eyes. “Duh. Obviously. Then what?”

  “Then we stopped kissing and I ran off.”

  Maxine dropped her shoulders and actually looked crestfallen. “Oh, Mia, you can’t keep running forever.”

  A loud whistle signaled the end of the first quarter and Mia knew she would need to make her way down to the field soon to help get the cheerleaders ready for their halftime routine.

  “I know that. Especially now that I’ll have a little one who needs more stability than what my own mother gave me. But it would be so much easier if I didn’t have to deal with its father.”

  “Would it?” Maxine asked. “I raised Hunter pretty much by myself until Cooper came along. Believe me, single motherhood is just as unglamorous as it sounds.”

  Her friend was right. She’d seen Max struggle financially and emotionally when she’d been raising her son on her own. And Lord knew Rhonda Palinski hadn’t provided an award-winning example of single parenting. But Mia was used to being alone. She’d learned early on from her absentee father that men didn’t stick around long. Therefore, she’d always been resolute in her determination to never rely on one for anything.

  At least she had been until Garrett had taken her hand, first on Snowflake Boulevard and then on Monday in the obstetrician’s office. When she was with him, it was so easy to get lost in the belief that everything was going to be okay, that he was strong enough and capable enough for both of them.<
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  Which was why she was now trying to avoid the guy like her mother avoided carbs. He might make her body crave more, but nothing good could come of overindulging in too much bread—or too much Dr. Dreamboat.

  Halfway through the second quarter, Mia made her way down to the field and was standing on the dirt track talking to the young cheerleading coach when Garrett spotted her. They hadn’t talked all week and she was still embarrassed about the way she’d let herself come unglued in his arms.

  She’d heard of doctors, specifically surgeons, having a God complex, thinking they could do no wrong. She didn’t necessarily get that vibe from Garrett, but he’d admitted he liked control and order. Not to mention, there was definitely something about the way he carried himself that led her to believe that he was used to getting what he wanted. And clearly, his actions thus far demonstrated that he did not want her as anything more than a vessel to carry his child.

  On Monday night, she’d expected him to run after her, or show up either at her studio or her apartment to try to win her over. That’s what persistent men did when they learned she was unobtainable. Especially spoiled rich guys like Nick who weren’t used to anyone telling them no. The jury was still out on whether Garrett was spoiled, but she could tell by the way he dressed and the new four-wheel-drive platinum-edition truck he drove that her baby’s father was definitely living off more than what most naval officers brought home in their paychecks.

  Judging by the fact that Garrett hadn’t pushed her further that night or sought her out since, she had to assume that he was equally embarrassed by what had happened in the doorway of his office and no longer had any romantic interest in her at all.

  But as he turned and walked toward her, seemingly heedless of the empty paper cups and the gravel crunching under his top-of-the-line cross-trainers, Mia realized that he was looking at her as if she was the very thing he wanted. Just like the tiny dirt pebbles lining the track, Mia’s heart threatened to crumble with his every step. If she let him get too close, she might not be able to put those fragments back in pace.