Teresa Carpenter - Her Baby, His Proposal

She focused on Stan. “I’m sorry for the trouble. I’m okay now. There’s no need for the hospital.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, black dots began to dance in front of her eyes. The same dots she’d seen before she fainted. Light-headed, she leaned forward in the chair letting her hair fall around her face to hide her condition from the men.

The black receded a bit, enough for her to feel the clamminess of her skin, the sweat breaking out on her brow.

No, not again. She fought off the dizziness, taking deep breaths. She needed to get back to work. She couldn’t faint again.

A gentle yet insistent hand on her hair pushed her head down between her knees. Immediately she felt the blood flow back into her head. But the ache in her side intensified, and she clutched herself.

“Okay, that’s it,” Sullivan said. “I’m taking her to the emergency room.”

“No,” Jesse protested. She tried to sit up, but his hand in her hair kept her from raising her head. Her gaze fixed on the dirty tile floor, she argued against any need for medical attention. “It’s just a headache.” She tried to convince him as she had herself. “Some aspirin and a burger, I’ll be fine.”

She pushed against the weight of his hand and this time he let her up. Biting her lip at the discomfort in her side, she glared into his blue eyes.

“You have no right to manhandle me. I’m not going to the hospital, and you can’t make me.”

Her irritation bounced off him like bubbles off stone.

“Okay.” He crossed his arms over his impressive chest. “Show me you can walk to the bar unassisted, and I’ll leave you alone.”

Jesse gauged the fifteen feet between her and the bar. Not so far. So she was a little light-headed. She’d still make it. She had no choice. She needed this job, which meant she had to make it to that bar.

Standing, more of a chore than usual, she caught her balance. Beginning by placing one foot in front of the other, she took one step, then the next. Sullivan kept pace with her. She’d blast him with a killer look, but she couldn’t spare the energy.

As Martina McBride proclaimed this one was for the girls, Jesse ran the gauntlet of eyes. The Green Garter catered to the Navy crowd. From ensigns to master chiefs, she had the attention of them all. This must have been what it felt like to walk the plank.

Except these men and women weren’t her enemies. She felt their concern, their sympathy. Somehow that made it worse.

Swaying, she caught herself on a table, holding her side with the other hand. A young man jumped up to help her, grabbing her elbow to steady her. Frantically she shook her head, trying to pull away. She had to do it on her own.

Too late.

Sullivan moved in. He wrapped an arm around her waist and led her toward the door. “Lean on me.”

His strength was too seductive to refuse. Knowing she’d fought as long and as hard as she dared, she accepted his support. Forcing down a burger wouldn’t cure her problem.

“Wait,” she pleaded when he led her outside to his black SUV, “I need my purse and coat.”

Stan appeared a moment later with both items. “Is she going to be all right?”

“I’ll let you know what the doctor says.” Sullivan lifted her into the front seat.

Stan handed through her purse and coat. “You need me to call anybody for you?”

Thinking of Tad’s goodbye note, she shook her head. He’d made it clear where he stood and it wasn’t beside her.

She stole a glance at Sullivan’s set profile. So strong, so sure, so confident he probably hadn’t made a mistake in his entire life. How could he understand her life had been one mistake after another? That every day she struggled to hold everything together.

Yes, going to the hospital made sense. If she had the money to pay for medical treatment, which she didn’t. Time for her to confess that truth to her companion.

She cleared her throat. “Listen, Chief…? Um, sir?” Exactly what did she call the man?

He glanced at her from the corners of his eyes. Looking back at the road, he held his right hand out toward her. “I’m Brock Sullivan. You can call me Brock.”

BROCK. Right, okay, proper introductions were good.

“I’m Jesse.” She placed her shaking hand in his. Immediate warmth and a gentle, steady grip enveloped her fingers.

“Nice to meet you, Jesse.” He released her to return his hand to the wheel. “But if you’re thinking of trying to talk me out of taking you to the hospital, save your breath.”

“You could take me home. I’ll be fine, I promise.”

He shook his head. “Jesse, you passed out. People don’t pass out for no reason. And you’ve been holding on to your side with a death grip. Something’s wrong. I’m not leaving you alone until you’ve seen a doctor.”

“I don’t have the money, okay?” she blurted, shame curling in her belly. “I can’t afford to pay the emergency room fees.”

The matter-of-fact look he turned on her spoke volumes, questioning her worry of money over her health. “I’ll cover the fees. You can pay me back.”

He made it sound so easy, so reasonable. Which somehow made her feel worse. “I can’t let you pay for me.”

“Why not?”

Wonderful. Now he wanted her to explain her irrational feelings. Not easy to do when she didn’t understand them herself.

All she knew, all that made it through the throbbing in her head, the rolling in her stomach, the pain that seemed to be everywhere, was it should be Tad with her.

And that truly was irrational. She’d received more compassion from this stranger in the past hour than she ever had from Tad.

Old habits died hard.

She’d only been in San Diego for a year, so she was by no means an authority on Navy etiquette, but she had learned one thing. A seaman’s reputation mattered. The Navy supported family values and frowned heavily on sailors having their fun but not living up to their responsibilities.

Brock deserved to know what he was letting himself in for. Only fair she give him that consideration.

“I can’t let you pay, because I think the doctor is going to tell me I’m pregnant.”

The words hung heavy in the air between Brock and Jesse.

Even in profile she saw his brows rise, then settle into place. Otherwise he showed no reaction to her announcement except to say, “Then you can’t afford not to see the doctor, can you?”

“I guess not.” Jesse cringed down in her seat, hugging her middle. Fear and denial had been her constant companions since the first niggling suspicion of pregnancy had occurred to her.

Sure she wanted kids. Someday in the future. When she had a career, a husband, a home.

Now was not good.

Now was a no-future, no-benefits job, a deadbeat, former boyfriend and a cramped apartment with an unreliable roommate.

“I heard you tell Stan there was no one to call. Does that mean the father isn’t in the picture?”

“Not anymore,” she confirmed, no longer worried about her dignity. “He left me a goodbye letter this morning.”

“Maybe if he knew—”

She raised a hand to stop him. “He taped the note to the home pregnancy test I bought last night. He found the test in my purse when he took my tip money.”

“Scum.”

She pursed her lips. “You’re flattering him.”

“So why were you with the guy?”

“Once upon a time, long, long ago, I loved him.” She laughed wearily. “What’s funny is I made the break. Moved all the way to San Diego to get rid of him.”

He sent her a pointed look. “You must have gotten together at some point.”

She closed her eyes and leaned her throbbing head against the soothing coolness of the glass window. Her left hand braced her on the seat. “He showed up a few months ago. Swore he’d changed. I held him off, but he really seemed different. He talked me into going to a party on Halloween. We were having a good time, drinking. It seemed like a good time to try again.”