“Yes, antibiotics can cause the birth control pill to not work properly. You should have been advised to use backup protection,” the doctor added.
“Yeah, well—that would have been nice to know at the time,” she mumbled. “Now, it’s too late, and here we are.”
Drew pulled her into his chest, hugging her closer. “I’m good with where we are, baby. I’m thrilled about it. I just wish I had known sooner so that I could have taken care of you.”
She must have turned red—she could feel her cheeks and ears getting hotter. Drew whispered to her, “It’s okay, we’ll talk about this later,” and she felt relieved that there would even be a later. She needed to tell him that she didn’t plan on getting pregnant. She didn’t want him to think that she was trying to trap him.
The doctor cleared his throat, getting both of their attention. “If you have any other questions, I am sure the nurse will be able to help you. In the meantime, I want you to finish that bag of fluids and see if you can remain stable for the next few hours. I’d feel better keeping you overnight, just to make sure that you keep fluids down.”
“But I wanted to go home and shower. I’d like to sleep in my bed,” she tried to argue.
“She’ll stay the night,” Drew amended. “We both will, thank you, doctor.”
“Wonderful, I will have the nurses move you to a private room.” He turned to leave, the curtains rustling behind him.
“Drew, I want to go home. I can’t afford any of this; I don’t have insurance. I was going to a clinic for everything, and I am pretty sure a hospital costs a lot more than a clinic,” she said.
“You don’t have to worry about the cost, Karlie. I have already given the hospital my information for billing. As soon as we are married, you and the baby can be added to my insurance plan and—"
“Married,” she whispered, “when did we agree that I would be marrying you?”
He leaned in a little closer, “The minute you told me you loved me, three months ago, and I told you that you were mine. Imeant it then, and I mean it now, Karlie. You are mine, and this baby is mine. I want us to be a family. I want to marry you as soon as we get back to Alabama.” He kissed her lips when she tried to pull back from him. He was good at distracting her.
“I’m not going back to Alabama, and I’m not sure I liked the way you just told me that we are getting married. A girl likes to be asked these things, not told, Drew,” she chided. She could see him getting mad, but there was no way she was going to let him walk into her life and start making demands. She didn’t have just herself to think about now; she had to make decisions for her baby too.
“You wanna tell me why you won’t go back to Alabama with me?” He froze behind her, and she could feel his body go stiff. “Wait, have you met someone else? I know it’s been three months, but I couldn’t move on from loving you, Karlie. Have you—moved on?” She had to smile at his tone, so growly and angry. She laughed out loud, touching her barely-there bump.
“See, baby girl, I told you that your daddy was growly,” she teased.
“I am not growly, and I don’t know how you can take this whole thing so lightly. We are going to have a baby. Now is not the time for you to be hitting the dating circuit,” he cringed when he said that, making her giggle even harder. “Well, at least you seem to be feeling better, you know—being able to laugh so much at my expense.” She couldn’t let him stew any longer. She turned in his arms so that they were face to face.
“I haven’t been dating. There is no one else but you and our baby. There will never be anyone besides you. I am still in love with you, and I don’t think that I could change that, even if I wanted to,” she admitted. He breathed a sigh of relief andwrapped his arms around her waist.
“You told the baby about me?” his voice was husky with emotion.
“Of course I did, you’re her daddy. I never intended to keep you out of her life. I just needed time to get used to you being with Lisa.”
He just about jumped out of bed. “I told you that I’m not with Lisa,” he growled.
“I know, and I believe you,” she leaned into him, kissing his mouth, softening his anger. “I felt God-awful for the past two months and wasn’t sure what to do. Honestly, I was so afraid that the morning sickness would cause me to lose our baby,” she shook her head, trying to clear the awful thought.
He framed her face with his big hands, “Even more reason that I should have been with you, baby. We do things together from now on. If you’re scared, I want to know. If you are sick, I want to take care of you. You and I are a team from here on out—got it?” He was looking at her so seriously, waiting for her response.
She nodded, “A team—got it.” She reached past him to the table by her bed, retrieving her cell phone. “Since we’re a team, you should know why I can’t go back to Alabama—it’s because of Jake,” she handed him her phone after pulling up Jake’s threatening messages. “He’s part of the reason that I had to move, and well,” she looked away from him, “the other part was so you couldn’t find me.” Drew didn’t respond, already reading through Jake’s messages. She could feel his anger radiating from his body. He even removed his arm from around her waist, like he was trying to protect her from his anger. “Those texts are the reason that I contacted my dad. I sent him all Jake’s messages because I was worried about Jenna.”
“What about you, Karlie? Why weren’t you worried about you? Because, from what I see here, Jake threatened to come after you. Jenna is fine, and Jake has stayed in line because your father has made his life pretty comfortable. But all this time, has Jake been threatening you? I’m gonna fucking kill that asshole.” He got up carefully from behind Karlie and started pacing the small room. He ran his fingers through his hair, making it stand on end, and growled again. He seemed to be doing a lot of that since he found her. She guessed he had good cause. He didn’t just find her; he found her pregnant with his baby and a whole slew of problems caused once again by her ex.
“I’m so sorry, Drew. This is why you should just walk away—go home. The baby and I will be fine. My dad is working with the police officer who tried to get me to press charges when Jake attacked me. Officer Peterson, he’s the one who showed up at the church that day, he knows Jake’s and my whole history. He wants me to come back to Alabama to testify. I have sixty days to press charges. But if I do that, Jenna’s life is ruined. I just can’t do that to her.” She was wringing the bed sheets in her hands.
Drew took her hands into his, effectively stopping her fidgeting. “Baby, I can’t just walk away from you. Even if you weren’t pregnant with my baby, these three months apart have shown me that I can’t live without you. I wish your dad had told me about Jake. I would have—”
Karlie’s eyes widened, “No—that’s why he couldn’t tell you. Officer Peterson wants to let Jake fall into his old ways. He said that sooner or later, he would mess up, and when he does—well, I just hope Jenna and the baby are nowhere around.” That was her biggest fear in all this mess, Jenna or the baby being hurt by Jake. She needed to stay away, and maybe Jake would just forget about her and be happy with Jenna. How could Jake not becomea better person after seeing his son for the first time? Karlie hoped that being a father would put a few things in perspective for Jake, but she was smart enough to know better.
“So, you figured that if you stayed away, Jake would just move on?” Drew asked as if he was reading her thoughts.
“Yes,” she nodded. But Drew didn’t look as if he believed the idea any more than she had.
“Keeping you and our baby safe is now my top priority. So, for now, we’ll stay away from home. We’ll give your dad and Officer Peterson time to work on Jake. But I want to be kept in the loop. I want to be a part of this,” he ordered.
