“Shelley died in childbirth three weeks ago.”
Gillian gasped, her heart jumping into her throat. “Oh my, God. How?”
“Preeclampsia.”
She reached for his hand. “Nick, I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you.” His eyes misted for a moment. “It’s been tough. Losing my best friend. Feeling responsible. Her parents blaming me…”
“What about the baby?” she asked, a catch in her voice as she tried to fight back the emotions threatening to consume her. She thought of the panda sitting in her room, a gift for her baby that had never been born.
He turned to her, a smile brightening his face. “She’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”
“She’s okay, then?” Gillian asked.
“Yes. Premature, but she will be ready to come home at the end of the week. Would you like to see her?”
No!She wasn’t ready to see babies in a nursery. How could she be? Her whole world has fallen apart.“Yes.” The word slipped out before she could stop it.
He grinned, turned on the truck, and started driving. “I go to the hospital to see her every chance I get. Sometimes I just sit there and watch her sleep. She’s absolutely beautiful.”
His words surprised her, but more than that was the look on his face. He was completely in love. “What’s her name?”
“Bailey. Bailey Rose.”
“That’s beautiful.”
“It’s fitting. Pink roses were her mother’s favorite flower. I think she should have a name to remember her mother by.”
Gillian smiled, and suddenly his problems, his loss, seemed just as deep as hers. Her perspective shifted. “That’s sweet.”
“Thank you. See, I do have a soft side.” He grinned, and her heart fluttered, and for a brief second all those old feelings rushed back.
“Did I know her mother?” Gillian asked, trying to push them back down.
“Maybe. She was a couple of years behind us in school. Shelley Reaves. Her mother, Belinda Reaves, called Mandy while we were there. Apparently putting the kibosh on our deal.”
“NotTheReaves family?”
“Yes. That’s why I had to move back to Granite Falls and in with Dad. They kicked me out of the house Shelley and I were sharing in Asheville. They owned it.”
“They own this town,” she said abruptly. “I know people like them. They get whatever they want by any means necessary. They aren’t just rich; they crave power and refuse to lose.”
“They are planning to fight me for Bailey.” Worry was thick in his voice.
“So they’re trying to destroy your business?”
“I don’t care if they do, I’ll get a job. I’m not giving her up.”
By the way he was gripping the wheel and the tenacity in his jaw, she believed him. “Good for you.”
He pulled into the hospital parking lot and didn’t say another word as he pushed her up to the maternity floor and toward the nursery window. Her heartbeat quickened in her chest as they approached. She could do this, she told herself. He stopped and turned her to face the nursery. “Gillian, meet my daughter, Bailey.”
The nurse on duty smiled at him and moved one of the bassinets in front of the glass for them to see.
“She’s out of her incubator,” he said, smiling.
Gillian’s chest tightened as she looked at the tiny little baby swaddled in pink lying in the plastic bassinet. She looked so beautiful with her wild riot of dark curls slipping out from under the pink beanie covering her head. Gillian fell instantly and madly in love. “She’s beautiful.”