Forgiveness Creek: The Creek Series

by Abbie St. Claire

  “You’re an idiot.”

  “I know.”

  I got the garage door opener out of my car and some of my school papers and quickly got on the road. At the earliest, I wouldn’t get back until two o’clock in the morning.

  At least Mom’s car had a decent radio. It wasn’t new when she’d bought it, but it had been owned by a little old lady in town. It’d barely had any miles on it, and Mom hadn’t put a whole lot more on it the seven years she’d owned it. It needed new tires, and I would do that as soon as I got out of class.

  When I opened the door to the kitchen from the garage, Karina stared at me with a baseball bat in position for a hard swing. “What in the fuck are you doing?”

  “I decided you and Justin were right. I needed to get back and finish class if they will let me. I’m not going back to work, though. That would be asking for trouble.” I scooted past her and unloaded my arms on the table.

  “You’ve got trouble all right. He’s been here, his private investigator has been here, and it’s been crazy. There’s no way you can hide from him. Just call him and tell him to fuck off.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “I threw my phone in the creek. I don’t know his number.”

  “You’re an idiot,” she said, returning the bat to its parking spot in the laundry room.

  “So I’ve been told. Look, I think I know a way to hide from him just until school is finished. Then I’m going back to Arkansas.”

  We went to bed, and within a few hours, I was back up getting ready for school. I laid down in the backseat of Karina’s car, and then she opened the garage door and pulled out. She made sure she wasn’t followed and drove us to class.

  “I still think this is stupid. You need to tell Darlie you’re back. She’s been calling me. She was pissed you left her a message and didn’t return her calls.”

  “I turned the phone off, so I didn’t have to speak with Dane.”

  “You know, all you had to do was hit ‘ignore’ to his calls and talk to the rest of us.”

  “Damn thing rang constantly. I couldn’t think, much less resist the urge.”

  “That’s because you care about him whether you want to admit it or not.”

  When class was over, I dropped Karina at work, and I went to get a new phone. I called Justin and let him know I was fine.

  He assured me everything at home would be okay for the next two months while I finished school. “Just focus on getting through one day at a time, Wrenn,” he said.

  “How’d you get to be so smart?”

  “By watching people.”

  I knew there was something to what he said. He didn’t talk much, but he didn’t miss anything either. Justin always seemed to have his finger on the pulse. A hard worker and a quiet man, he was always busy tinkering with something, keeping his hands busy, but I often wondered where his mind drifted to.

  Then I went to the cancer center to see Darlie. I parked at the front of the hospital and walked through the back way until I could sneak into her office.

  “Where the hell have you been?” she all but yelled at me.

  “Shhh. Only my instructors and Karina know I’m back. I’m pregnant, Darlie. I got knocked up by an idiot who’s a cheater and a liar.”

  “He’s been raising all kinds of hell around here, wanting to know where you’re hiding. In fact, he and his grandfather just left.”

  “Shit.”

  “Care to talk about what happened?”

  I sat down in the chair across from her desk and gave her the cliff note version. I explained that less than twenty-four hours before I was certain I was never coming back. But there I was, honoring my mother’s wishes and trying to finish the commitment of what I’d started.

  “All you have to do is tell him it’s over. Hiding is just stupid.”

  “Oh, yeah? And then he finds out I’m pregnant and starts throwing his money around for a custody battle or tries to take my baby away and remains a thorn in my side forever. He and his family will think I did this on purpose.”

  “I see your point. How far along are you?”

  “A few weeks.”

  “So, you won’t be showing until after school is out. If anything, it would be just a little like you’ve gained a few pounds.”

  “Right.”

  She opened her purse and removed a business card. “This is my brother’s card. Carson does family law. I’ll call him and fill him in. Why don’t you send Dane an email stating you have no desire to see or speak to him and cc Carson on the email? Put in there that it is to serve as written warning. That’s documentation. He will leave you alone after that, trust me.”

  “I don’t have his email.”

  “I do. He left it here along with his cell number in case I saw you.”

  “Okay. Oh, and here’s my new cell number.” I left her office in time to meet Karina after her shift was over, so we could go home.

  “You not hiding in the back?”

  “No. Darlie gave me great advice. I’m emailing Dane to leave me alone and copying her brother, a lawyer. I’m not going to hide, but I’m keeping the pregnancy a complete secret, not even telling the instructors.”

  “Good idea.”

  Dane,

  Sometimes things happen in life we don’t understand. God knows, I’ve had a good bit of that in my life the last few years. I’m sure you’re wondering what happened to me. My mother has recently passed away, and I have had a change of heart where you are concerned.

  I resigned from my position at the Cancer Center, and I am requesting you no longer contact them in search of me. I also request the same for my roommate, Karina Stillman.

  This letter is to serve as written warning that legal action will prevail should you contact or follow me or my friends and colleagues.

  Regards,

  Wrenn Cunningham

  cc: Carson Harris, Attorney at Law

  Amazingly, I sent the email without getting nervous. I wasn’t sure what to expect or couldn’t predict how he would react, but I knew I had to protect my unborn baby.

  Unborn baby.

  That was the moment my life changed. I started making a list. I needed an obstetrician, and I was grateful my health insurance covered pregnancy. I knew it was important I not drink or eat fish, and I needed to pick up some vitamins.

  I was certain I would move home as soon as school was out. I laid in bed and thought about the lease on the house and knew Karina would be moving on in her career as well. I thought about my home and how I could raise a baby there and work for Dr. Parson. But he was close to retiring. He was waiting on me to get my Nurse Practitioner license.

  Boy, I screwed that up.

  One thing I knew, I had time to plan. I wasn’t going to do anything until after the baby was born.

  As the weeks passed, I was surprised, but Dane honored my wishes. There wasn’t a peep from him, and I began to relax. I was looking forward to my first doctor’s appointment and was told they’d be doing an ultrasound.

  Graduation was two weeks away, and Karina and I planned to stay in the house and study until we took our nursing board exams. I figured I’d move home in July.

  “Hurry up, we’re gonna be late,” I yelled out.

  “I can’t wait to see the little peanut,” she said, getting into the car.

  “Me either. I won’t know the sex for at least another couple of months, but I’m thinking it’s a girl.”

  “I was thinking it’s a boy.”

  We laughed… And it felt good.

  Hearing the little peanut’s heart beating and then watching it on the screen was amazing. Precious. I became emotional as I viewed my baby moving around on the screen inside me, yet I couldn’t feel a thing.

  I thought about Mom and her saying, “Life is a circle.”

  After the appointment, Karina wanted to eat sushi.

  “Of course you do, when I can’t eat it.”

  “Oh, shit, I forgot
about that. Well, you can eat the cooked stuff, can’t you?”

  “Yes, some of it, but I’m fine with some tempura veggies.”

  Sushi it was. After dinner, I needed to run to the store to pick up some things, and I made the loop around the interstate. When I did, I caught sight of Dane’s sports car in front of the pizza place he owned.

  Guilt gripped me. It was as if the mysterious leather belt returned to slash open more wounds.

  I was just as guilty of secrets and lies.

  I turned a sharp corner and made the block, parking beside Dane’s fancy car.

  “What in the hell are you doing?” Karina snapped at me.

  “Going to do the right thing.” I opened the car door.

  Karina pulled on my arm to stop me. “And what exactly is the right thing?”

  “Tell Dane the truth.”

  “Now? You’re going to do this now? You’re nuts.” Her audible huff expelled the meaning of her words.

  Perhaps I was nuts. I was wishy-washy on my feelings for Dane; that was for sure, but regardless, he had a right to know, and I had a moral compass steering me to do the right thing for our baby. If he chose to walk away, that would be on him.

  I left Karina sitting in the running car, while I quickly approached the door. Nerves gripped me as if my body was about to be cut in half by a saw.

  Do the right thing, I repeated to myself.

  The door opened and a customer came out. Through the opening, I got a glimpse of Dane sitting at his usual table with his back to me as I entered the restaurant. He was not alone. Across from him sat a cute, perky blonde. She watched me intently as I approached the table, but his back was to me, so he didn’t see me coming.

  He was talking about something, moving his hands about in animation, but stopped when I stood at the side of their table. When he looked up at me, pain instantly filled his face, and he rubbed the days-old stubble on his chin with his hand.

  Instantly, I doubted my decision.

  Unable to shake my nerves, I cleared my throat, but that didn’t help my voice from coming out in a shy squeak. “Is it possible I speak with you a moment, maybe outside?”

  The look on his face changed instantly. His jaw tightened, and I saw the muscles in his neck flex. “I don’t know. What would your attorney think about that?” He slammed both hands down on the table. It rocked and the silverware bounced. The noise had everyone watching.

  “Never mind. Sorry to have bothered you. Coming here was a mistake.” I turned toward the unnamed girl. “Sorry, to interrupt your date.”

  I practically ran out of the restaurant. Nerves and the smell of pizza got me, and I barely made it outside the door before I threw up between two cars parked in front of the building. I felt someone touch me and could see Karina’s shoes as she stood beside me and held my hair back.

  After I finished emptying the contents of my stomach, I raised up and looked at her face. She was staring at something behind me.

  Make that someone standing behind me.

  “What’s going on?” the familiar voice was gruff.

  “I’m gonna leave you two to talk, but I’ll be in the car if you need me,” she said, before escaping the war zone.

  “I want to know why you came here, Wrenn. Why now?”

  I turned to face him. I lost my balance and had to hold onto one of the cars for stability. “I saw your car, and it hit me that I needed to do the right thing.”

  “Oh yeah, and what is that exactly?”

  “To tell you I’m pregnant, and I don’t want anything from you. At first, I planned to keep the baby a secret from you, but I thought about how you felt all those years without your father, and I’m not that kind of monster. I couldn’t do that to you or to our child.”

  He raised his ball cap and ran his fingers through his hair, then replaced it, backwards as usual.

  “Come in and sit down with me. I want you to meet someone.”

  “That’s okay. I’d rather not.”

  “We have to talk. You’re right. I want to be a father.”

  “As you can see, I’m not feeling well. Tomorrow perhaps. I’m no longer working, so I can meet you for coffee or something?”

  “I’d rather we discuss things without an audience. I’ll pick you up at ten tomorrow morning.”

  “Okay.” I started walking toward my car.

  Dane raced to me and pulled at my hand to stop. “And just so you know, sick or not, you’re still the most beautiful girl to me.”

  He quickly leaned in and kissed my cheek. The smile on his face should’ve lit up the world, but my world, dark from all the madness, needed an intervention.

  I sat in the driver’s seat, unable to process everything.

  “What on earth?”

  “We’re going to talk tomorrow. He’s picking me up at ten.”

  “Good. The sooner you get the shit settled, the healthier it will be for you and the baby. Don’t think I didn’t see your blood pressure today at Dr. Bledsoe’s office.”

  “Shit. Yeah, you’re right.”

  I tossed and turned and finally gave in to sleep about four in the morning. By then, I’d made a gazillion lists in my brain of what I should say to Dane. I hoped he didn’t get me flustered to the point I couldn’t remember all of it.

  When the alarm went off, I was sleeping soundly. I was grateful for the few hours of sleep and even more excited I’d slept without being woken up by morning sickness. The doctor had assured me it would soon go away.

  Dane arrived right on time, and I walked out to his car. He jumped out quickly. He was dressed nicely in a pair of shorts and a golf shirt. No baseball cap turned backwards. He opened the door for me.

  “Where do you want to go?” I asked, my hands twisting with nerves in my lap.

  “I thought we could ride out to my ranch. I’ve got stuff for a picnic in the back.”

  We drove in silence out on the east side of Interstate 35 and turned off onto a county road that was lined with black steel fencing. He pulled up to a gate and punched in a code.

  Wealth has such a presence.

  He pulled the car up to a large, sprawling ranch style home. There were cattle and horses out on the green pasture surrounding the house. It was perfectly manicured. He opened the car door for me and pointed to a gazebo at the end of a pier.

  “I thought we could go down there and be alone, if that’s okay with you.”

  “It’s fine.” I didn’t need all of the pomp and circumstance to say what I had to say. I wasn’t sure what his intentions were or what he was trying to accomplish.

  There was a table and chairs and a couple of padded benches in the gazebo. I took a seat on one of the benches, and a large goldfish caught my eye. “Wow, look at the size of that fish.”

  “Koi. They weren’t supposed to live in this spring water, but they do. There are some that probably weigh twenty pounds. The food is in that bucket over in the corner if you want to toss them some. They will give you a show, for sure.”

  I picked up the scoop and got a cup of what resembled small pieces of dried dog food and tossed it in the water. It was a great deal of action in a split second, just as Dane had promised. Orange and white fish were going everywhere, making a big splash like an applause.

  “Why are we here, Dane?”

  “I thought you wanted to talk.”

  “I didn’t need all this just to tell you I was pregnant and didn’t expect anything from you.”

  “Regardless of your expectations, you’ve gone to great lengths to make sure I stayed away. Now, you want to talk to me? I called for weeks. I tried every way in the world to track you down, and no one was talking. I’ve searched high and low, and so has my team, trying to find a place called Forgiveness Creek, and I came up empty. Do you want to start at the beginning and bring me up to date? Because I’m totally clueless about what happened.” He wasn’t angry. He was running his hands through his hair in frustration, but his eyes were warm.

  As I watch
ed, his gaze went down to my stomach and back up to my face several times. He was looking for a baby bump.

  “I’m only a couple of months. No bump yet.”

  “You said you were on the pill.”

  “I was. I didn’t do this on purpose. The meds I took when I had the flu knocked out the effectiveness of my pills.”

  “Don’t yell. I’m not blaming you. In fact, I’m thrilled.”

  I looked away and then back toward him in astonishment. “You’re thrilled?” He sure as hell didn’t look thrilled to me.

  “I’m thrilled about the baby. I’m not thrilled about what occurred between us, and I want to know how it happened and what I can do to fix it.”

  “How ’bout not being a cheater.”

  “I didn’t cheat. What are you talking about?”

  “You didn’t call the entire time you were in China. Your grandfather told me you were coming home, yet I didn’t hear from you, and we were supposed to be leaving to go back together, as in ‘couple’. Then I tried to call you and kept leaving messages. It’s not like I’m needy. I was just worried something was wrong. I used the information in your grandfather’s file to find other phone numbers. When I called and got that woman and heard you in the background, it was the end of the road for me. Magically, that is when you started dialing the hell out of my number, until I finally threw the damn phone in the creek.”

  “I’m so sorry about your mom. I wish I could’ve been there for you.” He got up from the chair and approached me, leaving a couple of feet between us. When he opened his arms, I walked in to them. I remembered what he’d said on our first date, “Sometimes hugs are better than words.”

  The tears started. Sad tears, angry tears, get the fuck out of my life tears. Confusion and hurt rippled through me. My heart was tugged to one side and then the other.

  “I’m glad I didn’t go to China. It meant I spent the last minute with my mom.”

  He moved us to the bench and continued to keep his arms around me after we sat down. “I’d been back in China for only a day when my backpack was stolen. My passport, phone, wallet, everything was in there. I had to work with the consulate to even get out of the country, but the worst part was that within a few hours, the identity thieves had struck. It was a disaster. I’m truly sorry I didn’t call. The corporate office let Grandfather know, and I assumed he was going to pass on the message that our trip would be delayed, but he got sick and missed his appointments. Apparently, when he did show, he didn’t tell you the story because I’m just realizing now why you were so pissed off. The woman you heard is an ex-fling, but she’s also a longtime employee. She comes here often and likes to think she owns the place. That’s why I had to punch in the code at the gate when we got here. She took my remote. Look, I know it sounds cheesy and you won’t believe me, but it’s the truth. I was in the shower, and she let herself in. I haven’t been with her in over a year. The girl you saw me with at the restaurant is the daughter of an old friend and like a little sister to me.”