Billion dollar baby bargain.txt

by Неизвестный

  marriage.”

  “A wedding ring?” he asked, his intense stare seeming to bore all the way to her soul.

  “Y-yes,” she said as a wave of dizziness washed over her.

  “You told me the day we got married that it didn’t matter that I hadn’t bought you a ring,” he argued,

  taking a step toward her.

  As she fought the swirling sensation making her head pound, perspiration broke out on her forehead and

  she had a hard time focusing on what he’d said. “I tried to tell myself…that I didn’t care…but God help

  me…I do.”

  “Why, Haley?” He took another step forward. “Why do you care so much? Why do you want me to tell

  people you’re my wife? And why do you want to take my last name?”

  The thundering roar in her ears made his voice sound as if it came from a very long distance. “Bbecause…

  I—”

  “Haley!”

  She heard him shout her name, but she couldn’t speak and her limbs suddenly felt leaden. Swaying, she

  tried to focus on Luke rushing toward her, his arms outstretched.

  But as the relentless spinning in her head pulled her further into the deep vortex, suddenly and without

  warning an excruciating pain shot through her temple and a split second later, everything went dark.

  As he raced his Escalade through the dark streets of Nashville, Luke’s heart pounded against his ribs

  with the force of a sledgehammer and his gaze never wavered from the back of the ambulance with its

  siren screaming and lights flashing just ahead of him. When he’d watched Haley turn ghostly pale and

  crumpled like a marionette with severed strings, he’d tried his damnedest to get to her, tried to keep her

  from going down. But she’d backed too far away from him and he hadn’t had a chance of catching her

  before she fell and struck her head on the corner of the coffee table in the sitting area.

  He took a deep shuddering breath. He would never, as long as he lived, forget the nightmarish sight of

  her limp, unconscious body on his bedroom floor, blood trickling down her pale cheek from the cut at

  her temple. And she hadn’t yet regained consciousness.

  When the ambulance finally turned into the emergency entrance of the hospital, Luke brought the SUV

  to a sliding halt not far behind and threw open the driver’s door. He briefly noticed that he’d parked in a

  restricted zone, but he didn’t give it a second thought as he ran toward the gurney being unloaded from

  the red and white vehicle. Let the police tow his car. He didn’t care. All that mattered was getting to

  Haley and making sure that she received the best medical care that was humanly possible.

  “Has she woken up?” he asked when the paramedics lifted the stretcher from the back of the ambulance

  and then rolled it through the automatic double doors into the hospital’s emergency room.

  “Not yet,” one of the two men responded as they rushed past the nurse’s station and wheeled the

  stretcher into a treatment room. The man’s voice sounded grimmer than Luke cared to hear and fear

  twisted his gut into a tight knot.

  “Sir, if you’ll please come with me, I need to get some information from you,” a woman instructed from

  somewhere behind him.

  Turning to the nurse walking toward him, he shook his head. “Can’t it wait until later? I don’t want to

  leave her.”

  “I’m afraid not, sir.” The woman gave him a sympathetic smile. “I know how worried you must be, but I

  need to get the patient’s medical background from you. Now, if you’ll please follow me, we can get this

  taken care in just a few minutes.”

  Luke looked at Haley through the window of the treatment room where a bevy of medical personnel had

  surrounded the narrow bed. There was a flurry of activity as tubes were unrolled, IVs were hung on

  metal poles and an oxygen mask was placed over her nose and mouth.

  He shook his head again resolutely. “She needs me and I’m not leaving her.”

  “But sir, I have to get—”

  Luke turned to glare at the woman. “Let’s get this straight. You can ask me whatever you need to know

  right here and I’ll do my best to give you the answers you need. But I’m not leaving her side.

  Understand?”

  Realizing that she wasn’t going to win, the nurse disappeared for a moment, then returned with several

  papers on a clipboard. Luke answered what little he knew about Haley’s medical history, but when the

  woman wanted to know who to list as the next of kin, he had no problem giving her his name.

  “And what is your relationship to the patient?” the woman asked.

  Luke kept his gaze trained on the activity taking place in the treatment room. “I’m her husband.”

  Nodding, the nurse added it to the chart and started through the treatment room door to give the medical

  team the information. “The doctor will be out to talk with you as soon as he knows something, Mr.

  Garnier.”

  Luke continued to watch through the window as he thought about what he’d said to the nurse. In any

  other set of circumstances, he might have been surprised at how quickly the pronouncement had rolled

  off his tongue. But telling the nurse that he was Haley’s husband had come as naturally as taking his

  next breath.

  And that’s when it hit him. He’d tried not to think about it, denied it was happening and fought hard not

  to do it, but he’d fallen in love with her.

  But before his realization could sink in, his heart stalled at the sight of a man in hospital scrubs walking

  out of the treatment room and heading straight for him.

  “Mr. Garnier?”

  “Is my wife going to be all right?” he demanded, tightness in his throat.

  “I wish I could say she is, but at this point, we just aren’t sure. We’re going to have to do some tests

  before I can give you a prognosis.” He reached out to shake Luke’s hand. “My name is Dr. Milford and

  I’m the resident neurologist on call this evening. I’ll be in charge of your wife’s care and I’ll do

  everything I can for her. But before we take her to Imaging, I need to know, is she pregnant or is there

  the possibility that she might be pregnant?”

  “I’m not sure,” Luke advised, feeling as if he was an unwilling participant in a horrific nightmare.

  “We’ve been trying to get pregnant, but I don’t know if we’ve been successful.”

  The doctor nodded. “In that case, we won’t risk doing a CT scan of the head because of radiation and the

  possible harm it could do to the fetus.”

  “I want you to do whatever you have to do to bring Haley out of this. Even if there is a baby and it

  comes down to a choice of tests to find out what’s wrong, you do what’s best for my wife,” Luke

  directed without hesitation.

  “We’ll do an MRI and that will be safe for both of them, in case she is pregnant,” Milford concluded, his

  voice filled with understanding.

  As Luke watched, two nurses maneuvered Haley’s bed through the door and out into the hall. “Where

  will you take her after the test?” he asked, wanting to be as close to her as possible.

  “I’m having them ready a bed on the third floor. That’s where we take care of our head trauma patients,”

  Dr. Milford answered as he turned to follow the gurney. “She’ll be taken there straight from Imaging

  and I’ll meet you in the waiting room with the test results.”

  Getting directions from the nurse’s station, Luke praye
d like never before on the elevator ride to the

  third floor. When he found the waiting area closest to the room Haley would be taken to, he lowered

  himself into one of the chairs and ran a shaky hand over his face in an effort to keep his choking

  emotions in check. God, he couldn’t lose her now, not when there was so much he needed to say to her,

  so much that he needed to make right between them.

  What had made him so damned relentless with his questions? Why had it been so important that he force

  her to tell him what he’d known for weeks?

  Haley was in love with him and had been for years. Hell, after getting to know her intimately this past

  month, he knew for a certainty that she would have never married him if she hadn’t loved him.

  And the ultimate irony of all of it was that he’d probably loved her just as long. He’d just been too blind

  to see it.

  But even after he’d figured it out, he’d been an arrogant jerk about it. He’d known the hell he was

  putting her through, but he’d wanted her to be the one to admit her feelings, had been determined to get

  her to say the words first.

  He reached into his pants pocket and withdrew the small black velvet box. Flipping it open, he stared at

  the white gold wedding band, with an array of sparkling white diamonds, that was nestled inside. He’d

  bought the ring just that morning and intended to surprise Haley with it right after they returned home

  from dinner with his brothers.

  Why hadn’t he bought it for her earlier? Why had he waited until Chet Parker goaded him into even

  thinking of it?

  Luke snapped the box shut and stuffed it back into his pants pocket. He knew exactly why he’d finally

  purchased the ring. He’d wanted to send a message to dirtbags like Parker to keep their hands off of

  Haley.

  He took a deep steadying breath. But now the ring meant so much more. Now the wedding band

  symbolized his love for Haley and his steadfast determination to make their arrangement—their marriage

  —permanent.

  He just prayed to God that he had the chance to give it to her.

  Ten

  A n hour after seeing the medical staff roll Haley’s bed out of the treatment room for her MRI, Luke

  sat in the waiting room wondering what the hell was going on. The test seemed to be taking forever and

  the longer it took, the more worried he became.

  “Mr. Garnier, if you’ll follow me, we’ll step into the consultation room to discuss your wife’s test results

  and her prognosis,” Dr. Milford said, motioning for Luke to follow him.

  Lost in his own misery, Luke hadn’t even noticed the man’s approach. Jumping to his feet, he followed

  the man into the room and when the doctor closed the door behind them, sank into one of the chairs

  lining the consultation room wall.

  “Is Haley going to be all right?” Luke asked without waiting for the doctor to speak.

  “The MRI showed that your wife has a concussion, which we knew,” Dr. Milford reported, sitting in a

  chair across from Luke. “And I’m relieved by the fact that we found no signs of bleeding in the brain

  and only a slight swelling.”

  “Has she regained consciousness?” Luke inquired, praying that she had.

  Dr. Milford nodded. “She came to as we were taking her for the MRI.”

  “Thank God.” Weak with relief, Luke drew some much needed air into his lungs. “How is she feeling

  now?”

  “She’s complaining of a headache, but that’s common with a concussion and nothing to be overly

  alarmed about.” He glanced at the chart in his hand. “We did have to close the wound at her temple with

  a couple of sutures and I want to keep her overnight for observation, but I see no reason she can’t go

  home tomorrow—as long as she takes it easy for a few days, gets plenty of rest and has someone with

  her to watch for signs of complications.”

  “When can I see her?” Luke requested, rising to his feet. He needed to see for himself that Haley was

  really going to be all right.

  “There’s something else, Mr. Garnier,” Dr. Milford added, his expression unreadable.

  Unsure of what the doctor was going to say, Luke sank back down in the chair. “Is it something serious?”

  Dr. Milford shook his head. “It’s routine when someone is brought to the hospital to do a complete

  blood workup on the patient. Your wife’s blood tests show that she is indeed pregnant, which could very

  well account for the fainting that caused her fall.”

  “Is that unusual?” Luke interjected, trying to remember what he’d read on the Internet about the first few

  weeks of a woman’s pregnancy.

  “It’s not uncommon for some women in their first trimester to have bouts of light-headedness,” the

  doctor reassured, finally smiling.

  Luke should have been ecstatic at the news that he and Haley had been successful, but at the moment, he

  was too relieved to give it a lot of thought. Just knowing that she was going to recover was all he could

  ask for.

  “Anything else?” he asked.

  Dr. Milford shook his head as he rose to leave. “Everything else checks out fine. She’s in excellent

  health and I don’t anticipate any further problems.”

  Thanking him, Luke shook the doctor’s hand, then hurried down the hall toward Haley’s room. There

  was so much he needed to say to her, so many things he wanted to explain. But it would have to wait

  until after he took her home. Besides the fact that she needed her rest, he needed time to make a few

  plans that he hoped would convince her of his sincerity when he told her how much he loved her and

  asked that she give him—and their marriage—a second chance.

  As Haley waited for Luke to open the front door, then stepped back for her to enter the foyer of his

  mansion, hopelessness filled her all the way to her soul. He hadn’t said more than a handful of words to

  her since arriving at the hospital to bring her home and the unfamiliar tension between them was about

  to kill her.

  One of the nurses had told her that Luke spent the entire night in the chair beside her bed and

  commented about how devoted he was and how much he loved her. But he hadn’t been there when she’d

  wakened that morning and he’d only arrived at the hospital a few minutes before the final release papers

  were signed. And if that wasn’t enough evidence that the problems between them were insurmountable,

  the fact that he hadn’t once mentioned her pregnancy was.

  “Do you feel like being up and about or do you need to lie down for a while?” he asked solicitously.

  “No, I’d rather stay up for a while, if you don’t mind.”

  “Whatever you feel like doing is fine.” He led the way into the den, then standing there looking at her as

  if he was unsure of what to say next, he inquired, “How’s your headache?”

  “It’s almost gone.”

  “That’s good.” Falling silent, he looked like he’d prefer to be anywhere else but in her presence.

  “Luke, we have to stop this,” she began, unable to bear another second of the strained tension between

  them.

  Their overly polite conversation was driving her nuts. They were two strangers exchanging pleasantries,

  not a man and woman who had lived and loved together for the past month. And who now needed to

  discuss the fact that their marriage was at an end.

  “I couldn’t agree more. It’s time we got everything
out in the open and things settled between us.” He

  pointed toward the chairs in front of the fireplace. “You’re supposed to be taking it easy.”

  Lowering into one of the plush armchairs, she waited for him to sit down. When he remained standing,

  she gazed up at the man she still loved with all of her heart. She’d told herself that loving him the way

  she did would be enough for her, that it didn’t matter if he couldn’t care as deeply for her as she did him.

  But she had only been fooling herself. She wanted—needed—his love in return.

  Unfortunately, Luke wasn’t willing to open himself up to that type of relationship. And she’d come to

  the realization that she couldn’t settle for less.

  She took a deep breath. “We both know that there were a lot of things left unsaid last night.”

  He nodded as he leaned his shoulder against the fireplace and crossed his arms over his wide chest.

  “Where do you think we should start?”

  “I should probably begin by telling you that I’m sorry, Luke. None of this is your fault. I accept full

  responsibility for making such a mess of things.” She stared at her hands clenched into a tight knot in

  her lap. “You were right last night when you said you’d held up your end of the bargain. You’ve done

  everything I asked.”

  “So have you,” he indicated, his voice strangely emotionless. “You’re going to have my baby.”

  Thinking of the life she carried, Haley smiled and placed her hand over her flat stomach. “And I

  couldn’t be happier about that. I’ve dreamed of the day when I would have a child of my own.” Of

  having your child, she added silently.

  “But?”

  “I can’t honor our agreement to stay married until after the baby is born,” she disclosed, wondering how

  her heart could keep on beating even as it was breaking in two.

  “But if I remember correctly, that was your main requirement for having my heir,” he remarked, walking

  over to stand directly in front of her.

  “And I’m sorry I got us both into this fiasco,” she confessed, tears filling her eyes. “But if I don’t get out

  of this now, I don’t think I’d be able to survive our breaking up later on.”

  His expression turned thoughtful. “Is that the only reason you want me to give you a divorce?”