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His eyes widened. “Oh. For some reason this doesn’t
sound good.”
She smiled. “Mary Beth told me a little about your
marriage.”
His expression sobered. “She shouldn’t have. It’s not
that I have any dark secrets, but if anyone should be dis-
cussing that part of my life, it should be me.”
“I can’t argue that, but now I know, and it makes me
curious.”
CYNTHIA THOMASON
151
“Okay. What do you want to ask me?”
“About your wife’s miscarriages…”
He lowered his gaze to his lap. “Oh. That’s not easy to
talk about.”
“I understand, and you’re certainly not obligated to tell
me anything. But I am in the baby business, in a way. And
as you said the other night, we are connected. I’d like to
understand what happened.”
He remained silent for a long minute, until Abby began
to worry he was shutting her out. Finally, he exhaled deeply
and said, “She claimed it was stress. That she lost the babies
because she was going through the pregnancies alone.”
“Stress is often a major factor in pregnancy. An expec-
tant mother has to consider a lot of things.” Abby touched
his arm. “Not all pregnancies are happy ones.”
He shrugged. “Ours were,” he said. “At least, I believed
so. Back then I had a hard time accepting stress as the
reason we lost the babies. I’m a guy, Abby. Guys deal with
stress by swinging a bat harder or waxing their cars.”
“I’m glad that works. But women are different. We tend
to suffer more physical effects.”
A muscle worked in his jaw. He clenched his hands
together. “My mother used stress as an excuse once,” he
said. “She said my dad’s career was affecting her health.
My father did what he thought a good husband should do.
He gave in to her demands.” Reese stared over the yard. “I
think he’s regretted it ever since.
“Rachel didn’t want me to reenlist. I did anyway. I
wasn’t ready to leave the navy. Maybe I was selfish. Maybe
I was recalling what had happened to my dad.”
Reese shifted on the bench and looked at Abby. “I would
do it differently now. I would listen, try to understand. If I
152
CHRISTMAS IN KEY WEST
had known that both babies—” He stopped, blinked hard.
“I think about them a lot. What sort of kids they would have
become. If I thought I was responsible in any way…”
“Sometimes miscarriages just happen and we can’t de-
termine the cause,” Abby said. “There can be abnormalities
in the baby’s chromosomes, hormonal problems, any num-
ber of reasons.”
He didn’t speak, but she could tell he was listening.
“Where is Rachel now?” Abby asked.
“Remarried. Happily, I guess.”
“Children?”
“Not the last I heard. When she told me she would never
endure another pregnancy again, I suppose she meant it.”
He frowned. “It was the major reason we broke up. I don’t
believe that Rachel was ever cut out for motherhood.”
“And you wanted to be a father?” Abby asked.
His eyes softened. He smiled. “Still do.”
Abby’s heart squeezed. Her voice trembled when she
said, “You’ll make a great one.”
“Thanks.” He grasped her hand. “Need to find someone
who’d make a good mother first, though.”
“You will.”
He leaned over and kissed her gently. “You know, Abby,
I never talk about this. It’s a part of my past, like a few
others, that I always figure is best left hibernating some-
where in my brain. And I’m not a gut-spilling type of guy.
But somehow with you, it seems right.”
He brushed a strand of hair from her forehead. “Maybe
it’s the counselor in you.” He stared at her a moment and
then kissed her again, harder, needier. When he drew back,
he said, “But that’s not it. Something’s going on between
us. Do you feel it?”
CYNTHIA THOMASON
153
She touched his face and her fingertips tingled. There
was a bond; she couldn’t deny it. But most of all she felt the
connection in the familiar ache inside her, which had never
gone away and was only stronger now.At the same time her
heart was expanding every second, finding room for Reese [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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