Blue Lines (Five for Fighting #2)

by Amber Lynn

  “You sure? Because I don’t want to have to tell my father-in-law that I could have done something to keep the cabin from de-pressurizing before you threw him out the window.”

  “Chances are he’s going to end up sitting in that seat just like you, trying to figure out if I’m hearing a word being said.”

  Dylan narrowed his eyes, trying to gauge what Nelson hoped came across as a blank face. Nelson crossed his eyes and looked down at his nose, to at least give Dylan something interesting to look at.

  “I’m going to stay here just in case. I know how your temper gets sometimes.”

  Dylan stood up and as soon as Doug moved to the side, he sat in a seat across the aisle from Nelson. He was blowing the situation out of context, which was Nelson’s fault for not giving him enough information.

  “I don’t think this is going to take more than a few seconds. I can wait until we get settled in the hotel and meet you somewhere if you want things to be private. I just want to make sure the air is cleared before the game.”

  Doug didn’t make a move to sit, which left Nelson staring up at him. Not wanting to get a stiff neck, Nelson waved his arm to the side, indicating the other man should have a seat.

  “I’m guessing she called you.”

  Doug nodded before he said anything. “She thought I needed a heads up. She said you were mad, but she tried to explain everything was her idea.”

  “I don’t want to go into the details with you anymore than I want to go over things with anyone other than Annie.”

  “I understand. It’s just that chances are we’ll both be in the game tomorrow and I don’t think it’s a good idea for there to be tension.”

  “There’s not, so don’t worry about it. I understand what happened. That even though I warned you to stay away from Annie, you met her because she asked you to, and then you proceeded to teach her the fine art of dating.” Doug looked like he was going to interject, so Nelson lifted his hand to keep him quiet. “The lessons didn’t go far enough to make me want to throw you out the window.”

  “I swear they didn’t, but you might as well know that I think she’s great and I told her that you don’t deserve her.”

  “Well, at least we can agree on both of those points.”

  It was nice to hear from a second source that they hadn’t been practicing the finer arts of being in a relationship. It’d be hypocritical if Nelson threw a fit about Annie really dating someone else, after he’d done it for years right in front of her. He kept coming back to that part, and how much pain he must have caused her.

  “I don’t know how much she’s shared with you, but she told me she loved you, and has for a while. I’ve seen the way you look at her when you think no one else is looking. I’ve picked up from your general demeanor on this flight that you aren’t happy, but don’t let her attempt to protect you get in the way of what you two have. Take it from a guy who’s never had anyone like an Annie in his life. Women like that don’t come around very often, so you need to catch her as fast as you can.”

  Nelson knew that was true. It’d taken him forever to see what was right in front of him, and he didn’t have any plans of letting her go. He just had to work on the issues of trust that had come between them.

  “So, yesterday, in the locker room. You were trying to tell me what was going on without coming right out and saying. Why?”

  Doug’s actions were still a point of confusion. Nelson had threatened him bodily harm if he ever looked at Annie sideways, and yet the guy did everything he could aside from waving a pair of Annie’s underwear in his face. Not that Nelson would immediately know they were hers.

  “Because she wasn’t ready to tell you, and I thought you needed to know. With the baby on the way, you two don’t have time to play games.”

  Nelson couldn’t argue with the latter part, and he was thankful for the first, even though it went against Annie’s wishes. He was curious just how long Annie had planned on keeping some sort of charade going on. Only one person had those answers, and she wasn’t on the plane. When he got back on Thursday, they were going to have a long talk. Until then, Nelson was going to have to take his frustrations out on the ice.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Sitting in a waiting room, waiting for the father of your baby to show up was a bit more nerve-racking than just sitting in the doctor’s waiting room by yourself. Even during that very first visit, Annie hadn’t felt like she wanted to run home and hide.

  She always got a sterile feeling when she sat on one of the wooden chairs with pale blue cushions, which matched the carpet lining the way up to the front desk. It was something in the air, even in the offices that tried to make things homey. There had to be a cleaning chemical or something that caused the general odor.

  Things would’ve been easier if Nelson had bothered to at least text while he was in Canada, or on his way there or back, but she hadn’t heard one thing from him. On the other hand, Casey had attempted to blow up her phone based on the thirty texts and twelve missed calls. Annie thought the lack of answering should have made it obvious that she didn’t want to talk to anyone.

  “Annabelle Lake,” a nurse announced as she walked out of one of the doors that headed to the back. Annie had met the nurse on previous visits and knew her name was Jessica.

  Annie looked around, almost like it was someone else’s name who was called and she was watching for them to get up and leave. There were only two other women waiting to be seen, and both of their eyes were on her.

  Annie stood up, and looked at the door that led out to the parking lot. She’d told Nelson a time thirty minutes before the appointment, just to make sure he got there in time. He didn’t usually have an issue with punctuality, but it was better to be safe than sorry. He’d promised to be there, but she’d messed everything up, and apparently he wasn’t ready to move forward.

  “Are you coming back, Annie?” the nurse called out again. She’d known Annie’s preferred name, but always choose to be formal when she announced it was her turn.

  “I thought someone was going to join me today, but I guess he got held up.”

  Annie stood and grabbed the purple purse she’d brought along. She hated carrying bags, but she needed to get used to it. Once the baby came, there would be diaper bags and whatever else the baby needed. In the meantime, her purse was huge for its few contents, her wallet and phone.

  “Really? Kim, you hear that? Annie’s expecting someone, so if you see a guy looking lost, send him on back.”

  Jessica’s brown eyes shone with a little merriment as she made her announcement. The woman clearly wasn’t great about picking up the moods of patients. Annie didn’t hold it against her, though. Most of the women who came in were probably part of a happy couple, and she assumed Annie’s other half just hadn’t been able to make it to the other appointments. In a way, Jessica reminded her a little bit of Lani from work. They could probably have an epic gossip showdown, or something silly like that.

  “He’s almost an hour late, so I doubt he’ll show up. I just hoped he would.”

  Annie followed the brunette nurse back as they made it to the area to check her basic vital information. Miraculously, Annie had gained two pounds since her last visit. It was the most she’d gained in a short amount of time since she was a kid.

  It was cause for at least a little celebration, and since Nelson hadn’t shown up, there was a carton of ice cream out there somewhere with her name on it. As long as it wasn’t mint chocolate chip, she had plans to try to eat a little bit of her pain away.

  After the nurse asked the usual questions, which Annie was a little more succinct in answering, she was told that the doctor would be in soon. Being alone in the exam room was worse than out in the waiting room, at least she could try to predict how far along the others were or stare vacantly at one of the televisions.

  The nurse hadn’t said she needed to change her clothes, so Annie sat waiting on the exam table for what she knew wouldn’t be just a
few minutes. The nurses always said that’s all it would take, but Annie had figured out they really meant the doctor would probably be there before she starved to death.

  That was probably the reason there wasn’t a clock in the room, but there was a calendar full of cute babies hanging on the wall. If the doctor didn’t show up by the time the calendar needed turned, you were in trouble. It made scheduling appointments during lunch a little difficult, but she made up any time over her normal hour.

  Annie waited a few minutes while swinging her legs on the exam table before she got up to see if there were any new magazine selections. Her eyes kept darting over to the machine that would hopefully tell her what she was having. Some people liked it to be a surprise, but Annie had wanted to know from the moment she knew she was pregnant.

  Most of the time she wanted to have a boy, but then she thought about it and was worried there would be pressure on the little guy to follow in his father’s footsteps. She never thought Nelson would push him in that direction, but the world had a way of putting expectations on offspring.

  Annie had just started perusing the magazines when there was a knock on the door. She held her breath for a second while she waited to find out who was behind the door. A man in a long white jacket and black hair, not Nelson, but Dr. Underhill.

  “How you doing today, Annie?”

  As she hopped back up on the table, he looked at the file he carried and pulled a chair with wheels over so he could sit near Annie.

  “It appears the bump I’ve been noticing isn’t my imagination. It’s either that, or you had the nurse adjust the scale to make it look like I gained weight.”

  Dr. Underhill tilted his wire-framed glasses down so he could stare at Annie for a second. His eyes remained focused on her face, so even if she didn’t wear something that covered her stomach, he wouldn’t have noticed.

  “I don’t think two pounds really qualifies as weight gain, but it’s still early. When you’re up a dozen or so pounds, you can claim you’re able to actually see them.” The doctor’s voice was a little gruff, which was atypical. Most of the time he was soft-spoken.

  “Don’t worry. I was so excited to see the scale move that I promised myself I was eating nothing but sugar and fat for the next month.”

  “Is that because of the scale or because the guy you were expecting to show up didn’t?”

  The question caught Annie off guard. She thought Jessica was a gossip, but didn’t expect her to run right to the doctor.

  “The scale. I’m sure the guy was just held up. I’ll catch him up on what we find out as soon as I track him down.”

  Dr. Underhill set the file down on the cart next to him before standing up. “What does this guy do for a living?” he asked as he directed Annie with his hands to lie down.

  With as short as she was, it felt like her feet barely hung off the end of the table, which was a little awkward. She thought about not putting her head on the provided pillow, but that would have made it even weirder.

  “The tone of your voice makes me think you don’t approve of him, and yet you’ve never met him and don’t even know his name.”

  As soon as she was in her spot, he turned to the machine next to the table and did whatever he needed to do to bring it to life. The sonogram wasn’t new to Annie, so she didn’t have the same million questions she’d asked when he’d first used it.

  “I wasn’t exactly sure of your situation, since you’ve kept it private, but when Jessica mentioned you were waiting for a guy, and he was a no-show, I can’t say that was music to my ears.”

  “Does that usually matter? I’m sure I’m not the only woman to come in here without a significant other by their side.” Annie wondered if he was going to have the same conversation with the two women out in the waiting room. Neither of them seemed to have husbands by their sides.

  “No, you aren’t. But there’s something about you that I think kicks off a protective instinct in people. At least it does in me, and I really don’t want to see you hurt.” He turned around, but didn’t meet her eyes.

  Annie stopped him by holding out her right arm before he could say anything else. She hadn’t picked up that vibe from him before, but she had to let him know she didn’t need another person trying to protect her.

  “I guess it’s a good thing she has me to make sure no one takes advantage of her.”

  From her spot on the table, Annie couldn’t see the door, nor Nelson, who had apparently let himself in. The doctor looked over his shoulder briefly and turned back. Something caused him to look back at Nels a second time. Nelson made his way into the room and came to stand on the side of the table the doctor wasn’t on.

  “Sorry I’m late. I ran into a lightning storm on way back, which meant I had to hang out on the ground for a few minutes waiting on the rain.” He leaned down to kiss Annie’s forehead as he grabbed her hand. “The nurse who led me back here, tried to knock before letting me in, but I could hear your conversation and, well, you know how I can be.”

  Annie didn’t know if the kiss and hand-holding were male posturing or if he actually wanted the touch. Either way, it sure beat him pulling his hand back when she’d tried to hold it. Getting a good look at him, only his partially unbuttoned dress shirt showed he’d run into problems. Without his long hair, it was hard for him to look as carelessly disheveled as he used to.

  “Thanks for making it. I was starting to get a little worried.”

  Annie meant more in her words than she could say with an audience. The look in Nelson’s eyes let her knew he understood.

  “I wouldn’t miss this for anything. You promised me we’d know what we’re having.” There was a small smile on his face for her before he turned his focus to the doctor.

  “You’re Nelson Palmer.” There wasn’t a question in the doctor’s words, but there was a little awe.

  “That’s one of the nicer things people call me. I believe you were just thinking a few of the more popular things people come up with.”

  Annie concurred, but wasn’t going to get involved in the conversation, which she hoped wouldn’t go on too long. She still had to get back to work before the day was over.

  “People seem to think that because I’m a doctor it means I’m smart. I tend to agree and will refrain from commenting on that statement.”

  Nelson’s smile widened a little as he shook his head. “Look, Annie told me she likes you as a doctor, so I’m not looking to pick any fights. Let’s just get on with the ultrasound so we can figure out what colors we’re going to need to paint a room.”

  Annie raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment. Neither of them had a room, so painting was going to be a little difficult.

  “Not a problem. Why don’t you go ahead and lift up your shirt?”

  Annie almost expected Nelson to do as asked, because she didn’t feel it was really directed at her. He didn’t move, so she went ahead and exposed her belly with her free hand.

  It instantly felt like all eyes were on her, which they were. It just felt like the stares penetrated a little more.

  “Now I’m surprised about the two pounds. You really have started to show.” It was never good when the doctor not only said he was surprised, but it was also clear in his voice.

  “It’s probably all the throwing up at night that’s keeping the scale from moving.” Nelson suggested, even though he hadn’t been there to know whether the two pounds were lost or gained. The way Dr. Underhill had worded it, it should’ve been clear there was a gain.

  Annie wanted to point out that the last two days hadn’t been great in that matter, but she remained silent. The little that she’d forced herself to eat had all made a reappearance when the knots in her stomach got to be too much.

  The doctor didn’t immediately respond as he started searching for the baby by passing a wand over her belly. She was trying to forget the chill of whatever jelly he’d already put on her.

  “That can be a big cause, but I’m not surprised you h
aven’t been gaining weight. The baby still has a lot of growing to do.”

  The room filled with the sound of a heartbeat, so the conversation died out while everyone stared at the monitor. Annie had seen quite a few sonograms on the Internet, but she’d always had trouble trying to figure out what was what.

  “Are you sure you guys want to know? The baby seems to have known we’d be looking and is in a great position.”

  The doctor reached up and hit a button, while Annie tried in vain to figure things out before he could tell her. In the black and white image, the head seemed to be definable, and there may have been a leg, but it was hard to tell.

  “That’s up to Annie,” Nelson said when she didn’t immediately provide a response.

  She looked away from the monitor to see what kind of emotions were playing out on his face. Wonderment was about all she could make out as he didn’t look away from the machine.

  “I think I’d like to know. There’s that whole painting thing we need to see to.”

  Nelson shrugged, knowing Annie was looking at him. He ended up squeezing her hand in the process.

  The doctor started pointing out different features before getting on with it. Annie was happy to get an idea of what she was looking at, but they were supposed to be taking care of the big reveal.

  “And this here tells me that you guys are having a little boy.” He pointed at the screen as he spoke, but all Annie saw was a finger or toe in a weird spot.

  Nelson leaned across the table to get a better look. Annie was afraid he was going to ask for a comparison in size between their baby and other ones the doctor had seen. It seemed like a guy thing to do.

  “We’re having a boy.” It was a simple statement, made as Nelson moved back and looked down at Annie.

  She was a little overwhelmed, sadly a phenomena that had been happening a lot. She’d been emotional waiting to see if Nelson would show up, and had been able to keep the tears in until she heard the joy in Nelson’s words.

  “Those better be happy tears. I know we haven’t discussed what we were hoping for, but I know you well enough that you’ll be happy as long as the baby is healthy.”