“Put her here, sir.”
She blinked open her eyes. Harsh fluorescent ceiling lights made her squint. The hospital bed was hard and cold. She wanted Adrian’s arms back.
“Addison, my name is Doctor Harris. Can you hear me?”
She nodded and tried to focus on the face leaning over hers —short blond hair, brown eyes, and a scruffy blond goatee. Her gaze traveled down to his front breast pocket. His ID swung from a clip —Dr. Adam Harris, Glasgow Medical Center. How did I end up in Glasgow?
“Addison, can you hear me?”
The crisp sound of the doctor’s voice calling her name snapped her mind from its travels. She looked up at him and nodded. Where is Adrian? Panic set in. Had she imagined it all? Her mind was so jumbled, and every muscle in her body was sore. As though she’d been tossed into one of those spinning rides at the fair —one without a seatbelt.
“Adrian,” she whispered, finally able to shape a word.
“I’m here, sweetheart,” he answered and gave her hand a squeeze. She turned her head to make sure he was really there and then let her eyelids drift back down. I can sleep now.
***
Adrian stepped back from the hospital bed when the doctor asked him to move. He stood watch while they stripped her of her clothes and checked over every inch of her body. There were bruises from the wreck along her hips and shoulder where the seatbelt had caught her. A few small abrasions on her hands and face from the airbag deploying were also documented. Both of her wrists were raw from the rope used to hogtie her hands and feet. Her boots had protected her ankles.
“She is stable, barring the bruises, and doing better than I would have expected. We need to get her in for some x-rays and a couple of scans to make sure there’s no head trauma from the accident we might be missing.”
“Oh, okay,” Adrian started. “She’s going to be all right?”
“Yes, sir, as far as I can tell,” the doctor answered. “The nurses will take her for the tests, and we will get her some pain meds. She’s probably pretty sore from the accident. Just fill out the forms Betty has… you’re her husband, right?” He paused and waited.
Adrian swallowed. Wife? They’d barely known each other a month. “No, we are seeing each other. She doesn’t have any family.”
The doctor frowned.
“I’m a police officer for the Nashville PD if that makes you feel any better. I’ll sign for whatever she needs.”
The doctor turned to the small redheaded nurse holding a clipboard. “Help him figure those out.”
“Before she goes anywhere, sir,” the nurse started, “do you know if she is allergic to any medication, currently taking any medication, and if she could be pregnant?”
“I…” His mind scrambled for answers. “I don’t know about the allergies. I don’t think she’s taking anything…and she could be pregnant.”
“Whoa, okay. These tests will need to be delayed. Hang on a sec, hon.”
She left him in the bay with Addison. He leaned over the bed and brushed a strand of her blonde hair to the side, tucking it behind her ear. A quick kiss to her forehead was all he managed before the little redheaded spitfire of a nurse came back in dragging another older nurse with her and a large machine with several screens.
“We need to know if she can get these tests right away, sir. So Mary is going to do a quick ultrasound for me. If we can’t see anything, I’m going to take a blood sample just to be on the safe side.”
He nodded.
The women hurried around Addison. They covered her legs and pulled up the gown, showing the lower half of her abdomen, right between her hips. The older nurse put some clear gel on a wand and pressed it against her stomach.
The black and white screen on the machine flashed around a bit. It just looked like splotches to him. He didn’t know how they were going to be able to tell anything. Even if she was pregnant, it was so early.
“Yep. There’s the gestational sac. She’s not very far, maybe six weeks. Probably just barely missed her period.”
Missed her period? Wouldn’t she have mentioned that? Oh my God.
Where was a chair when you needed one? He glanced at the ultrasound and then to the nurses again. They both grinned.
“I’ll take it from the look of pure shock that you’re the father.” The redhead smiled. “Well,” she said with a sigh, “I’ll inform the doctor of her status, and he will probably just let you take her home when she wakes up. The tests are really a precaution more than a necessity. We don’t want to risk the baby.”
He nodded. The nurse who’d done the ultrasound handed him a slip of paper. It was a screen printout. She’d circled what she’d called the gestational sac —the baby. There was a baby! He really needed that chair right now.
“So she can see,” the nurse said, “when she wakes up. She’ll be upset she missed it.”
His cloudy mind searched for words. “Thank you,” he finally managed to say.
She smiled and gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder. “Just breathe. It will be fine.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He scooted Addison’s feet over a little and sat at the foot of the bed. This had always been a possible outcome. He shouldn’t be as shocked as he was, but here he sat, trying to wade through the tsunami of emotions washing over him. He would not disappoint her. He would be the man she deserved, if only she would have him.
Staying in Wolfe Point would be doable, right? He knew for sure there was an opening for deputy sheriff. The apartment in Nashville could be rented. His car…did not belong in Montana. Maybe Tom would buy it or at least find someone to take the ’66 Chevelle for a decent price. The weather up here would kill the poor girl. He’d have to go back at least for a week or so to resign from the force. His captain was going to be pissed.
“You’re thinking too much, Adrian.”
“Holy shi—” He snapped his mouth shut and took a breath. “You scared the bejesus out of me. And I’m the one who’s supposed to tell you that.”
A small chuckle rolled from her throat. “What are you looking at?”
“An ultrasound photo.” The answer fell out before he thought it through.
The corners of his mouth tugged into a broad grin when her eyes widened with realization.
“You didn’t know?” he asked quietly. He’d wondered if she was keeping it from him, worried that he would be upset.
“I wondered, but it hadn’t been long enough for me to be sure. My cycles aren’t always regular.”
She reached for the photo. He slipped it into her waiting fingers, and she turned it to look. Tears welled in her eyes. A few escaped, trailing down her pale cheeks.
“Are you upset?”
The tears confused him.
She laughed again. “No,” she answered, shaking her head. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”
“No, I’m fine.” he said with a grin.
“I think I should move—” They both started and stopped at the same time.
“You don’t want to leave the ranch, do you?” He was really confused now. Her wanting to move hadn’t even crossed his mind. “What about your vet practice? I can move to Wolfe Point and join the sheriff’s department.”
“But you are a detective. And your family is there, aren’t they? Missy and her family are there. I can hire Roger to take over. The vet practice can happen anywhere…You were really willing to move to Montana?”
More tears were running down her cheeks from those beautiful blue eyes.
“Please stop crying, sweetheart. I just want you to know that I want to be with you. No matter where we decide to hunker down.”
A cute little snort of a laugh exploded from her.
“Are you laughing at me?”
“Yes, you said hunker! I’ve never heard anyone but my gramps use that word.”
He grunted and took the picture back from her hand.
“So what are we naming the tiny gestational sac?”
“Oh my
God! Did you just call our baby a gestational sac?”
He jumped from the bed before she could smack him with the call button remote.
“The nurse said it first,” he answered with a laugh.
“Well, don’t call the baby that again!”
The hint of a smirk let him know she wasn’t really mad.
“I won’t,” he assured her. “And, her name is Hope, by the way.”
Her features softened. Damn, she looked like she was going to cry again.
“Hope?”
“I found my hope in you. I love you. ”
“I love you too,” she whispered.
He reached out and drew her to his chest, breathing her scent in deeply. She wrapped her arms around his waist.
“What if it’s a boy, Adrian?” she mumbled into his shirt.
“It’s not. She’s going to be just like you.”
“Telling me how it’s going to be as usual I see.”
“Always.”
Epilogue
“Did it work out, Ditee?”
Aphrodite looked up from her seat beside the pool and smiled at Ares.
“It did actually. Would you like to see?”
He nodded.
She waved her hand across the surface of the water, and a picture appeared.
Adrian’s and Addison’s souls had worried her from the start, but they were making up for lost time now. They had bonded completely, and their brand new soul mate diamond glowed brightly from the bottom of her pool.
“Beautiful baby,” he commented, his voice betraying his awe.
She was pleased he recognized the beauty and specialness of the child. There were only so many Hopes in the world at a time. Adrian and Addison had been given a precious gift.
“Mmmm, she was a gift from Elpis.”
“Hope came?”
“Yes.”
“You called her, didn’t you?”
Aphrodite closed the portal window with a flick of her wrist.
“Yes. Both of their souls were so scared. Five lifetimes without love is a long time. They needed a little of her attention.”
“She gave us a little too, didn’t she?”
She winked up at her handsome mate. “She might have.”
He stepped closer, his leg pressed against her shoulder.
“You know this fight with my parents isn’t over, Ditee.”
She nodded and scanned the garden. Three of Artemis’s warrior maidens patrolled the perimeter. They had been so faithful, keeping watch endlessly. For now, it seemed to be enough to keep Hera and the others away.
“I know.” She sighed, leaning her head against his hip. He stroked her hair just the way she liked it.
No matter what the other Olympians tried, she wasn’t alone anymore. Lines were forming, and sides were being drawn. He was right. The fight was far from over, but she had the god of war as her mate. Picking a fight with her meant picking a fight with him.
“Hope has blessed our bonding,” Ares murmured.
Aphrodite ran her hand across her stomach. “More than you know, my love. More than you know…”
THE END
About the Author – Krystal Shannan
Krystal Shannan lives in Texas with her husband and young daughter. She teaches in the public schools and writes as much as she can in her free time. If any more spare time can be squeezed from her day, she enjoys reading romance in all genres, but especially paranormal. In addition to a doting husband and a spunky daughter, a stubborn Welsh Corgi completes the household, adding hours of entertainment and fun to their lives.
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Finding Hope Page 16