The Doctor's Family Reunion. Mindy Obenhaus
Читать онлайн книгу.
to use it against her.
Trent lowered his head a notch. “You okay?”
Far from it. But she couldn’t let on in front of Austin. “Fine.”
“You’ve barely touched your other taco.”
“I think I ate the first one too fast.” She grazed a hand over her stomach. “I’ll take it home and have it later.”
“Excuse me, please.” Austin wiggled next to her.
“Too many sodas?” She stood to let him out.
“Yes, ma’am.”
In Austin’s absence, Trent tucked his paper napkin beside his empty plate. “There’s a lot we need to talk about.”
If it involved custody of Austin, she wanted no part of it.
Her shoulders slumped. “I suppose. But not while Austin’s around.”
“Agreed.”
She faced him, mustering enough courage to ask the question that had plagued her most. “Trent, are you going to try to take Austin away from me?”
“I don’t think I can answer that right now. I’m still trying to absorb the fact that he’s my son.”
His answer was fair enough. Still, that question would be her constant companion.
“Can I ask you a favor?”
“Anything.”
“Please don’t tell him who you are without me.”
“Blakely, I wouldn’t....” He raked a hand through his hair before clasping the other atop the table. “There’s so much I want to know about him.”
She jiggled the ice in her now-empty glass. “Like what?”
“Like...his middle name?”
“Blake.”
“After your father.” His voice was endearingly gentle.
She nodded.
“I like it. Is he always so easygoing?”
“For the most part.”
“When’s his birthday?”
“Who’s birthday?”
Trent’s uneasy expression mirrored her own. Was that all Austin had heard?
“Yours, of course.” Emotions collided as she scooted over to let him sit down. The day Austin was born was the happiest of Blakely’s life. It was also the saddest.
“June first,” Austin announced with pride.
“That’s coming up pretty quick, isn’t it?” Trent seemed to relax once again.
“Yeah. Hey, maybe you could come to my birthday.”
Blakely glanced from Trent to the Chapmans.
This day just kept getting better and better.
Chapter Six
The sun seemed brighter as Trent strode across the courtyard of the San Juan Inn that afternoon.
If he’d had any idea what treasures Ouray had in store for him, he would have found his way back years ago. His marriage had been over long before Lauren’s boyfriend wrapped his fancy sports car around that light pole. It seemed the closer Trent grew to the Lord, the greater the distance between him and his wife. In the end, the accident merely meant Trent would never have to sign the divorce papers he’d been avoiding for months.
Maybe you could come to my birthday.
The innocent words of a child—his child—soothed the tattered edges of his heart. The only thing sweeter would be to hear someone call him “Dad.”
He smiled and unlocked the door to his room. Soon.
A million questions plagued his brain. Everything and nothing all at once. The minutia. Not only of Austin, but Blakely. Did she still want to be an artist? Why did Ross Chapman make her so nervous? Was that spot behind her ear still ticklish?
Whoa. Wrong train of thought. Stuff like that was what got them to this point in the first place.
He tossed his keys on the nightstand and fished the vibrating cell phone out of his pocket. A stiff dose of reality hit him when he glanced at the screen.
“Hey, Scott.”
“Good news, buddy.” His friend sounded excited enough for the both of them. “The building passed inspection. We close June fifteenth.”
Trent dropped onto the bed. “That soon, huh? Tha—that’s great.”
“Can you believe it? Everything we’ve talked about since medical school is finally coming to fruition.”
Trent rubbed the back of his neck. Opening a small private practice was his dream. But he also dreamed of having a family. Or had, until Lauren dropped the bomb that she didn’t want children. So he tucked away those desires and concentrated on his career.
“Our own practice,” Scott continued. “Do you know what this means?”
That he’d be in Albuquerque while his son was in Ouray. “What?”
“No more thirty-six-hour E.R. shifts.”
“Yep.” That part he liked. Leaving Austin? Not so much.
But he’d made a commitment to Scott. They’d planned and scouted locations for months. Pooled their resources. If he backed out, the dream they worked so hard for would fall apart.
“Rebecca can’t wait to start decorating. She’s got me looking at paint swatches as we speak.”
He could hear Scott’s four-year-old daughter, Daisy, singing in the background. His friend had the whole package. A promising career, a wife, a beautiful little girl...
“What do you think, green or blue?”
He stared beyond the lace curtain, up the face of Twin Peaks. “I’m sure whatever Rebecca chooses will be great.”
Ending the call, he lay back on the queen-size bed and stared up at the ceiling.
God, please help me. I know I messed up. On multiple levels. But I don’t want my son to grow up without knowing his father. Been there, done that. I don’t want Austin to have those same questions and doubts.
He could spend summers with Austin. School breaks, perhaps long weekends. Albuquerque was only six hours away.
But it wouldn’t be the same.
Unfortunately, it would have to do. He’d given his word.
And he never went back on his word.
* * *
Blakely kicked off her pointy-toe flats and shut the bedroom door behind her before ditching the rest of her church clothes for workout pants and a T-shirt. Today was the first time she and Taryn would get a chance to test their new strategy for the fire hose fights. Hopefully, the technique would work as well in execution as it did in theory.
Cinching the drawstring on her sweats, Blakely groaned. Near as she could tell, Austin still didn’t suspect Trent was his father. Though he did think the man was the best thing since video games. And she had to admit, she enjoyed their time together, too. Watching Austin share what he considered her greatest assets.
She flopped back onto the full-size bed and stared at the silver faux-finished ceiling. For the shortest of moments today, they’d seemed like a real family.
Allowing her mind to linger on that life-changing summer, she pushed herself upright and went to her closet. She moved clothes out of the way, digging until she found a plain cardboard box. Her heart thudded as she set the box on the plum-colored