Anyway, we spent all of our time together, and started to become more insular. We got married and bought a beautiful house. We were going to spend the rest of our lives together. But I just wasn’t enough for him.”
Edie felt her eyes welling up with tears, her throat felt hot and tight. She wanted to finish her story now, for the sake of her and Finn’s future. Even if that future had no romantic hope.
Finn had turned to face her now, he picked up her hands in his and took them to his lips, kissing them softly. Edie peeled one of her hands back so she could wipe away her tears. They sat there for a moment, in silence, looking at each other.
“Finn?” Edie said, longingly. He nodded at her encouragingly. “Finn, I do want a family one day. But I thought my life was mapped out in front of me. Marriage, house, children. Then when I found out Robert was cheating on me with my best friends, my whole life was ripped out from under me. I had no plans anymore. That’s how I ended up here in the middle of nowhere. I put a pin in a map.” She laughed, remembering back to that fateful day. “It was almost as though it was meant to be.”
“Itwasmeant to be,” Finn said, squeezing her hand. “It could have been meant to be forbothof us. You, to help me come out of the lie I had been living since I got here to Norfolk Coastal General. Me, to help you realise your worth. You’re amazing, Edie, never let anyone tell you otherwise. But maybe the magic of Norfolk was temporary for both of us. Now we can go and live our lives with the confidence and love we need to make us happy?”
Edie felt her heart race.
“Is that really how you feel?” she asked, biting her lip.
“I want more than anything for us to be together. But I can’t give you what you deserve. Maybe we should take what we were given and leave happily. We can stay friends, can’t we?”
Edie scoffed kindly.
“Do you really think you could do that? I know I couldn’t. I don’t think I could bear to see you with another person.”
Finn leant forwards and kissed Edie; she felt his soft lips send shivers all the way down to her toes.
“No,” he said. “You’re right. That would be the worst.”
“But I don’t think we need to walk away from each other,” Edie continued. “There’s something I haven’t been honest about since I got here. I was afraid. Firstly, that I wouldn’t get the job, and Ireallyneeded the job. Then, the closer we got, I thought you’d hate me if you found out”
“What is it, Edie?” Finn asked.
He sounded nervous. She had to do it now. Finn had been brave enough to tell her his secret, now it was her turn. The worst he could do would be to walk away disgusted.
That would be truly terrible,she thought, and she knew that’s why she had kept it a secret for so long.Come on, Edie, do it.
She opened her mouth to speak.
“I’m pregnant.”
The silence that followed was deafening. Edie waited, her breath held, not wanting to move a muscle in case it prompted Finn to speak words she didn’t want to hear.
“You’re… what? I don’t understand.” Finn moved his body back in the sofa, so he was pressed up against the arm.
“I’m pregnant,” Edie said again, feeling her throat tighten even more.
Her hands automatically raised to her stomach, protecting it from the verbal onslaught she imagined would be coming.
“How?” Finn asked, his jaw slack.
Edie giggled despite herself.
“Well, Finn, when a man and a woman…”
He interrupted her, shaking his head and laughing incredulously.
“But I’m a doctor, how did I not guess?”
“It’s why I ran away from your house the night you told me your story. I could feel us getting close and I thought that if we got even closer that you would guess.”
“How many weeks are you?”
“Coming up to sixteen weeks. I’m overdue a scan, but I was afraid to book one in case the hospital told you about it and I would lose my job. Now I’m just afraid.”
