by Janey, C. S.
I stopped a bit further back and when he realized I wasn’t going to enter with him, he went through and out of my sight.
Taking a few deep breaths, I walked toward it, the feeling of dread spreading throughout my body. It only took a second once I entered the room for the gasp to escape as I took in the child and her mother.
And Stefan standing next to his sleeping daughter, holding her hand. His eyes locked on mine and in them, the reflection of my pain.
Suddenly, every detail of the last few weeks made themselves devastatingly clear.
My heart - the part of me I’d been so close to sharing with Stefan once more - shattered as the room began to spin all around me. I must have looked funny because I saw Stefan say my name, even though I couldn’t hear him through the buzzing in my head.
Then, for the first time in my life, I fainted.
~*~
I didn’t want to open my eyes.
Stefan held me in his arms, which meant he must have caught me before I hit the floor. I sat on his lap, his arms wrapped lightly around my waist, my face in the crook of his shoulder. Glad he couldn’t see my face, I pretended not to hear him saying my name, whispered with quiet desperation.
Good. I hope he felt absolutely wretched. I’ve never been very violent, but in that moment I wanted to rear back and hit him. Not only had he shared this news in the clumsiest way possible, they’d embarrassed me with their antics.
The fact it was a one night stand didn’t matter.
Hell, him having a kid shouldn’t upset me. Yet it had. What right did I have to be mad? I’d been gone for five years and had expected him to move on.
I knew why though. Anybody but Grace, I think I’d have been okay. But this…this whole situation pissed me off.
Not to mention the last couple weeks with Stefan were now cheapened, the moments we’d shared colored by the blatant lie he’d kept hidden from me. And Grace, couldn’t forget about her part in this deception.
Steeling myself so I wouldn’t cry, I opened my eyes and brought my arms up, pushing against his chest. I didn’t want him touching me anymore. I just wanted to get away.
“Don’t touch me!” I hissed. “Let me up, now!”
Stefan lifted his hands up and away from me in a sign of surrender. He kept his eyes on me as I scrambled up and off his lap, backing toward the doorway so I could make my escape. As, I reached it, I looked away from him and over at the bed.
Grace stared at the floor next to where Lyndsey lay sleeping. I doubt if I said her name that she’d even look at me, which I suppose was smart, since I wouldn’t dare look at me either at this point if I were in her position. I’d likely say something I’d regret later.
“Are you okay?”
I whirled around at the question. Taking in his white coat, blue button up shirt and beige slacks first, I kept my eyes moving up toward his face. He was tall - if I had to take a guess, at least six-two or three, which made him taller than Stefan. Finally reaching his face, serious green eyes stared at me, concern in them. He looked at me as if he knew me, and knew what had just happened, yet I knew that couldn’t possibly be true. He hadn’t been living here the last time I had, so he must have moved here while I’d been gone.
He ran a hand through his short blond hair as I just stood there studying him. He cocked his head to the side, frowning as he waited for my answer.
“I-I um…yeah, I’m fine,” I finally managed to stutter, feeling like an idiot.
He grinned and stepped forward. I couldn’t help but notice his even, white teeth and suddenly felt very self-conscious about my appearance. If I felt icky, I could only imagine what I looked like at that moment.
“I’m Doctor Worthington. Did you hit your head?”
“Uh…” My inability to answer him made me feel even more foolish. “I don’t think so.”
“No, Elizabeth didn’t hit her head. I caught her,” Stefan chimed in, standing up.
“Good. But, if you’re going to faint, a hospital is a good place to do so.” He winked at me and I smiled a little, even as I felt my face heat up in embarrassment.
Was he flirting with me? I couldn’t tell. I looked down and stared at his I.D.
Simon Worthington, M.D., it read. And as he continued to gaze at me, I wondered who this man with the kind eyes was and where he’d come from.
Before I could speak, Grace stepped forward. “Are you here about my daughter?”
Simon cleared his throat.
“Oh, yes,” he responded as he turned toward her and away from me. “Lyndsey will be fine. We stitched her up…”
I stepped out of the room as he talked to them, unable to spend one more second there. After asking a nurse for directions to the lounge, I found some vending machines and bought some water. Being in the hospital, I maintained my calm on the outside. On the inside, however, I fumed.
He told me in the car that I would feel betrayed and he’d been right.
I really didn’t want to believe he had slept with Grace.
That they had a daughter.
That Grace had hid this from me for five fucking years.
If the woman had been anybody else, I might not have blinked at Stefan having a kid. But with Grace? I wanted to howl with the anguish I felt at knowing they had slept together.
“Uh, Elizabeth?”
I glanced up from my seat to find the doctor smiling at me.
Yep, he definitely had been flirting. He seemed kind of unsure now, which I found charming.
I didn’t know what to say so I played it safe. “Doctor.”
He chuckled, the sound so utterly pleasant I wanted to kiss him right there. That was a new feeling for me as I’d never been one to want to kiss complete strangers. Or men I’d just met, at least.
“Please, call me Simon,” he said as he held out his hand. “I wanted to give you my card, in case…well, if you need anything.”
I looked down to see the mentioned card in his hand and went to grab it with my left hand. “Oh, thanks. I…uh, I’ll call you if I do.”
He let go of the card but quickly grabbed my hand in his.
“Well,” I saw him swallow, no doubt nervous at approaching a strange woman to ask for a date. In a hospital, at that. “I didn’t notice a ring so I was wondering…”
Pleased that he wanted to ask me out as I’d suspected, I decided to make him work for it. Just for my amusement. “Wondering what? My hand is okay, I assure you. It wasn’t injured in the fall.”
He looked charmed with my answer, squeezing my hand a tad tighter. “It’s a lovely hand.” He released it and cleared his throat. “Dinner some time?”
Stefan entered the lounge then, glowering as he caught sight of me talking to the doctor. Angry at him for what he and Grace had done, and the fact he’d not told me before now, I gave in to the temptation to get back at him.
Beaming at the doctor, I nodded. “I’d love to.”
“Great. Call me. I’ll talk to you later.” He walked past me to leave out the other door and I watched him go, deliberately avoiding Stefan’s gaze.
I knew the instant Stefan stood behind me, his scent assaulting my senses. “What the hell was that, Ellie?”
“None of your business.” I stood up, putting the card into my purse as I did so. “You’ve lost any right to question me.”
He grabbed my arm and turned me toward him gently. “I know you’re angry.” His voice was low, intimate. “But please talk to me.”
“No. I’ll call a taxi. I can’t be around you right now.”
“Let me drive you home.”
I wrenched my arm away, scowling at him. “You can stay here with your daughter and Grace. I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself.”
With that, I stalked out of the room and didn’t even bother to look back.
I’d deal with Grace later.
Right now I just wanted to get home so I could cry in private.
~*~
“Ellie, it’s me again. Please stop avoiding me a
nd talk to me. I know you’re angry but I was going to tell you. I’m angry too. I didn’t even know that you and Grace were still friends after all these years until you mentioned it in the car on the way here. Hell, she told me you guys weren’t. I had no idea, I swear. Please call me—”
I deleted the message from my voice-mail without listening to the rest. It was Stefan’s umpteenth call in the last week and I had erased every single one of them before the end. Not ready to really deal with the situation, I avoided going out unless it was to shop. Grace hadn’t called me which honestly I expected. She’d have to be dumb to think I’d want to talk to her any time soon and I gave her a little credit for knowing that approaching me before I was ready would be a bad idea.
Angry and hurt, that’s what I felt at that point. To be fair, I did recall the shock Stefan had tried to hide when I’d mentioned how much I looked forward to seeing Grace and Lyndsey. He wasn’t lying about not knowing about our friendship, but I wasn’t angry about that. My anger came from his hiding it until I’d come back to town. From not finding the time before then, in all the hours we’d spent together, to tell me before an accident had forced his hand.
And Grace. What a bitch.
All these years about how her daughter’s father was a loser, a deadbeat. I’d had no reason to believe otherwise, especially since it really wasn’t something you talked about more than once. I’d ask every now and then how she was doing, but Grace always said ‘great!’ and that had been the end of the discussion. The whole ‘people will believe what they are told’ had definitely been true in my case, which really didn’t make me feel any better.
As for Lyndsey being his daughter, I could see it now. I knew Stefan’s face like I knew my own and she was without a doubt his child. The strawberry blond hair, so similar to how Stefan’s hair had been before it had darkened in puberty, the freckles across her nose, her smile. The green eyes had come from her mother, along with her slender frame. I’d always been envious of how naturally skinny Grace was.
Lost in my thoughts, I jumped when my phone rang.
With a smile at the caller ID, I answered.
“Took you long enough,” I said with a chuckle, acting as if it had been days since he’d called me.
In reality, it had only been a couple hours since I’d left a message in response to his.
“What can I say? I’m a busy man,” Simon quipped. “How are you?”
“I’m all right, I suppose.”
“Are you serious? Just all right? You’re talking to me, you should be amazing.”
I laughed, which I knew was exactly what he wanted. We hadn’t gone out yet due to his schedule, but we had become friends and talked every day for roughly thirty minutes, sometimes more if he had the time. I hadn’t told him specifics about Stefan and me, but he knew the gist of it. We tried to avoid serious topics, instead he would tell me funny stories about work to make me laugh.
“You’re right. How dare I pout when I’ve got some handsome man on the phone with me?”
I heard him snicker before replying.
“So, in that case, we’re going on a date,” he announced. “No more excuses. You’ve barred yourself inside for a week now. It’s time to move on!”
“Simon…”
“No!” He cut me off with a laugh. “It’s my day off and we’re going out to dinner in the city, damn it. No need to worry about running into anybody there, right?”
“You know how I feel…”
“Yes, I know,” he assured me, sighing. “It’s just dinner, Elle. And until he puts a ring on it…”
He had me there. It’s not like I belonged to Stefan. At this point, I wasn’t even speaking to him, so why did I feel so guilty? He was the one who had messed up, not me. And a ring? If I hadn’t been sure we could have a second chance at a relationship before, the chances were even more against him now.
Determined to go out and have a nice evening, I shoved aside any misgivings with the intent of building my life here once more.
“Okay,” I agreed. “I’ll go to dinner. Where do you want to meet?”
“Oh no! I’m coming to pick you up, like a proper date would. Be ready at five-thirty.”
A glance at the clock had my eyes widening. “That’s only thirty minutes from now!”
“I know and we have reservations at six-thirty so hop to it.”
“Ha, ha, okay. What should I wear? Don’t you need my address?”
“Dressy. And it’s a small town Elle, I know where your house is.”
“Right. I’ve been gone so long I forget what it’s like to live here.”
“See you in twenty-five minutes!”
With that, he hung up and I ran up the steps to get ready.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The sound of the doorbell startled me.
Taking a look at my phone showed that Simon was right on time.
I always love a man who knows how to arrive on schedule. Then again, he was a doctor, his whole life no doubt revolved around them.
I ran down the steps as fast as possible in my heels, grabbing my purse and shoving my phone inside as I opened the door.
The appreciative look on his face as he took in my ensemble had me blushing.
“You look amazing Elle,” he said with a smile.
I locked the handle and stepped through the door, shutting it behind me. “Thanks. You look…so normal.”
He was dressed in a button up shirt and slacks, no tie. To be fair, I’d only seen him that one time at the hospital.
He laughed as he offered his arm. “This is actually pretty close to what I wear every day under the white coat, minus the tie. Shall we?”
“Oh,” I didn’t know what to say and felt silly. “Yes, please.”
Within a few moments, we were headed toward the city.
Never one to do well with silence, I decided after a few minutes to be nosy and get to know him. “So, when did you move here?”
“About four years ago. My mother moved here two years before that to take care of her father.”
“Ah. So you moved here to be closer to her then? Where did you live before?”
“Opposite coast. And I did, but don’t tell her that,” he said with a wink. “I just told her I wanted a slower lifestyle.”
“Right.” I laughed. “I’m sure she doesn’t believe that.”
“And you? Why did you decide to come back?”
“Why do you assume I used to live here?”
He smiled. “Everybody talks in this town. It’s rare not to know everyone’s stories.”
“So you knew who I was in the hospital then?”
“The moment Stefan said your name, yes. And your guys’ history as well.”
This was a time when I truly hated being from this town. It also made me even more curious. “Why did you ask me out then, if you knew who I was and what I am to him?”
His smile grew into a full on grin and I felt the same feeling I had at the hospital. I recognized it for what it was now - desire. He was an attractive man and he knew it. He was also charming and upbeat and had learned how to utilize it effectively. I wasn’t ready to acknowledge that desire out loud though.
“Because I think you’re beautiful - and truth be told, I saw the hurt on your face at the hospital. Believe it or not, there have been murmurs about how you’d react to finding out he had a child.”
I gasped, shocked even though I knew I shouldn’t be. It was a small town so of course word would get around. “Oh, I believe you. How long?”
He knew precisely what I meant. “I’ve known since I began working here. She had just been born and so that had started up the rumor mill. It had pretty much disappeared though, until you came back for the funeral, which is when everybody started talking about it once more.”
I felt as if I’d been punched in the stomach. Knowing that people knew your business was one thing, but being talked about just made it worse. The fact it was something Stefan had done, yet I had become
part of the speculation just ticked me off even more.
Simon’s hand covered my own. “I didn’t ask you out because I felt bad for you. I really would like to get to know you, even though I get the feeling you accepted me in the hospital just to spite Stefan,” he discerned, squeezing gently.
My face burned with embarrassment at his remark. “I did,” I admitted with a grimace. “But only at the hospital. Not tonight.”
He lifted my hand up to his face and kissed my knuckles. My stomach clenched as he threw what could only be described as a ‘hot look’ my way, releasing my hand and focusing on the road once more. “I know. So let’s have a nice evening out then.”
I nodded even though he wasn’t looking my way and tried to stay calm so I could enjoy the rest of the night with him.
~*~
We were seated quickly once we arrived. Simon ordered a bottle of the house red and I took a look at the menu.
“Never been here before, is it new?”
He’d put his elbows on the table, his chin resting on his clasped hands. “Relatively. It opened a year ago, so it’s new to you.”
Closing the menu, I set it down on the table. “I figured.”
“Know what you want?”
I nodded, resting my hands in my lap. “I’m in a filet kind of mood.”
“What? No salad and water to maintain your figure? I’m shocked!”
“No way!” I laughed as the wine arrived and poured. “I love food too much for that.”
Simon lifted his glass and I followed. “I’m going to be cliche and go with ‘to new beginnings’,” he said before taking a sip. “Yum.”
I laughed before taking a drink as he gave the waiter his order, then I gave mine and we were left alone. “So,” I said with a pointed look. “Do you have any children I should know about?”
He shook his head with a chuckle. “I do not, although I wish I did. At this rate, I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
Was he joking?
“Why not?” I couldn’t resist asking.
“Age, time.” He shrugged. “I’ve yet to find someone I want to be with who also wants a family and I’m thirty-seven. I know the risks as I get older.”