Colleen didn’t answer, but Mari left a message with her number saying she’d love to meet while she was in town if she had a chance. If she didn’t call back, at least Mari would have her answer.
Eric had made her appointment at Harbor Town Memorial with a friendly, middle-aged, female physician named Estelle Hardy. She kept up such a pleasant, steady stream of conversation while she examined Mari that it hardly felt like a typical doctor’s visit. She sent her to the lab and asked her to sit down in the waiting room until the results could be obtained. While she was waiting, Mari saw with a leap of excitement that Colleen had returned her call. Colleen had left a warm message, saying that she very much wanted to meet and could stop by Mari’s house after work that afternoon, if it was convenient.
Mari immediately redialed Colleen’s number. She got her voice mail at the same time that Dr. Hardy’s nurse beckoned to her. Mari left another message saying she’d be happy to have Colleen over at the house at five, as the nurse led her to a consulting room.
She was just ending the call when Dr. Hardy walked in, carrying a chart.
“Well, I think we’ve figured out the reason for your malaise and bouts of nausea,” Dr. Hardy said after they’d both sat down.
“Really? What?” Mari asked, still happily preoccupied with the prospect of Colleen Kavanaugh agreeing to see her again.
“You’re pregnant, Mari.”
Chapter Eight
Through the roar in her ears, Mari distantly became aware of a familiar voice. She blinked open her eyes with effort. Eric Reyes sounded nervous.
“Mari? Mari…open your eyes, please.”
She saw him standing in the consulting room. He looked very doctorlike in an unbuttoned lab coat and with a stethoscope around his neck. He also looked very, very worried, Mari realized. She abruptly sat up on the exam table.
“What’s wrong, Eric?” she demanded.
A bewildered, alarmed expression came over his handsome features. He reached out, stilling her from sitting up farther.
“What’s wrong with me?” he asked dubiously.
She just stared at him, amazed. Disoriented.
“You passed out. Estelle Hardy called me down here. She knows we’re friends. Mari, what the hell is wrong? Estelle refused to tell me—patient confidentiality and all.”
For a few seconds, she just stared at him, her mouth hanging open, the news Dr. Hardy had given her minutes ago striking her consciousness like a hammering blow.
“I’m pregnant,” she blurted before she could stop herself. She wasn’t telling him as much as repeating the shocking news to herself.
“You…you are?” She blinked and looked up into Eric’s face. “It’s…that’s…wow,” Eric finished feebly. He inhaled slowly, collecting himself. “I was beginning to
wonder, given your symptoms.”
“You were?” Mari asked. “Why didn’t you say something?”
He shrugged helplessly. “I thought it seemed a little farfetched after you’d told me about breaking up with James five months ago,” he said, referring to Mari’s old boyfriend.
“James?” Mari repeated dully as if she’d never heard the name in her life. “Yeah. James Henry. The guy you saw for four years?” Eric’s grip tightened on her arm. “Mari, I think you need to lie down again. You’re white as a sheet.”
“No, no, I’m fine,” she mumbled. She realized that she was just blankly staring at Eric’s face again. It occurred to her he must be wondering who the father was—
Bewildering flashes of images, memories and feelings flooded her awareness, making it difficult for her to concentrate. She saw Marc standing there just inside the revolving doors of the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, the sight of him striking her as thrilling and sad at once—thrilling, because he’d grown into such a beautiful man, just as she’d known he would; sad, because all evidence of the boy she’d once known was gone forever.
She recalled Marc’s fierce, focused lovemaking last night, heard his husky voice.
Not just for tonight, Mari.
Another thought kept buzzing around her consciousness like a persistent fly.
This child was the grandchild of her parents—and of the man who had killed them.
She winced when another thought struck her as she slowly, carefully started to get off the examining table.