later. Trust me.”
Deflated, Simon’s body relaxed, allowing Sam to loosen his grip. “Fuck. I already did.” He flinched as he heard the door to condo slam closed, his heart sinking to his feet at the realization that Kara had left their home. Left him .
Sam stepped back and grabbed Simon by the shoulders, asking quietly, “You good now?” His older brother was really asking if Simon had a grip on himself.
“Yeah. Yeah, I think so.” Shrugging off Sam’s light hold, Simon dragged himself back to his desk, slumping into his computer chair. Burying his face in his hands, he groaned. “I really need to talk to Kara. Work things out. Something’s wrong.”
Sauntering over to the circle of computers, Sam grabbed up a chair, swinging it around and seating his large body in the chair backwards. Resting his forearms on the back of the chair, Sam locked his fingers together and shook his head, causing the curly blond locks of his hair to ruffle lightly as he told Simon in a grave voice, “Bro, you really need to work on your communication skills. If that was working things out, I’d really hate to see what happens when you two are having an argument.”
Chapter 2
“You’re not sick. You’re pregnant.”
Kara cringed, her head shooting up to give the vivacious redheaded physician walking through the door of the exam room an alarmed stare. Her jaw dropped and she shook her head. “How is that possible?”
Dr. Madeline Reynolds came to a stop in front of the exam table Kara was seated on and folded her arms in front of her. “You’re a nurse. Do we really need a refresher on anatomy and physiology?” Maddie lifted her arms and made a circle with the middle finger and thumb of her left hand while inserting her index finger of her right into the circle. “Part A is inserted into part B, which may result in pregnancy.” She shrugged, smiling at Kara as she dropped her hands to her side. “You know the other details.”
“I’m on the pill, Maddie. It’s not possible.”
“You know it can still happen. And I think it’s entirely possible that you conceived soon after you had that stomach virus between Christmas and New Years,” Maddie answered, her voice contemplative. “You missed your period recently, didn’t you?”
Kara nodded reluctantly. “But I still took my pill every day when I was sick. I didn’t forget. And I didn’t take any antibiotics that would interfere with the effectiveness of my pill,” Kara answered, her voice panicked.
Maddie gave her a wry look. “But you were vomiting every day for a week. I suspect most of your pill came right back up and was never dissolved in your bloodstream.”
“Shit, shit, shit.” Maddie was probably right and Kara was experiencing some serious denial. All of the symptoms had been there. She just hadn’t wanted to acknowledge them. Cursing herself for not thinking about the possibility that Maddie had just mentioned and using an alternative method of birth control, Kara’s eyes dropped to the floor.
“You were sick. Don’t blame yourself because your brain was scrambled.” Maddie handed Kara the paper in her hand. “Here’s the result of your HCG. It’s positive. You know the test is pretty damn accurate, but we can repea t it in a week if you want to.”
Kara took the test results from Maddie, staring down at the positive result in shock, her eyes flooding with tears. Again. “I can’t believe it. Oh God, how am I going to tell Simon?”
Maddie plopped her ass on a rolling stool, wheeling herself between Kara’s feet, which were dangling from the exam table. Snatching the test results from Kara’s trembling fingers; Maddie dropped the sheet of paper on the table and grasped both of Kara’s hands, staring up at her with a concerned expression. “You think Simon will be upset? Kara…I don’t think he will. You’re getting married in a month. It’s a little soon, but I think he’ll be delighted. And I know you want
Peter Dickinson, Robin McKinley