“Liv, so glad you could make it. You look amazing tonight.”
I withdraw from her embrace, keeping hold of her at arm’s length. “Thank you, Mrs. Johnson, I love how everything turned out, and it looks like a large showing of people, yeah?”
Mrs. Johnson is giddy with excitement as she lets me go to flip her arms around toward the venue. “Yes, we should do very well tonight, Liv. I am delighted with how things have worked themselves out and the money the hospital will need to offset some much-needed equipment for better patient care and services.” Well, I guess that answers my question about her helping with the event.
I go to drink my seltzer water when Dax’s mom takes in a sudden gasp of air. She immediately took my hand in hers, and I almost spilled my drink from the sudden movement.
“Oh. My. God.” She looks at Dax and then at me. “Is that an engagement ring?” I look at Dax and he smiles, answering his mom.
“Yeah, Mom, I asked Liv to marry me before we got here. She made me the happiest man on earth by agreeing to be my wife.”
He brings me over to his side and kisses my cheek. Dr. Johnson, Dax’s father, takes this moment to come over as his mom has my sparkling engagement ring in her hand, twirling my finger in the light to better look at my monster ring.
“Wow! That’s some ring you got there, Liv. Are congratulations in order?” He slaps Dax on the shoulder, and it appears we have a small audience attempting to invade our somewhat private moment.
I see more and more people looking over at us and talking to one another, pointing our way. I am sure that this will be all over the hospital this week. One thing is clear; I need to tell Brodie about this before he hears it from anyone else. A panic sets in, and I can’t seem but to feel a sense of foreboding. A feeling that something is very wrong.
ChapterThirty-Four
Liv
I have gone overin my head multiple times the way this will play out.
“Hey, Brodie, you will never believe what happened. I got knocked up, and now I am engaged. Surprise.”
No, there has to be a better way to come out and tell my ex-boyfriend, who has suffered a terrible trauma, the news of my engagement and the birth of our baby. I play the scenario over in my head and conclude that there is no easy way to say this. When I told him that Dax and I were reconnecting and our relationship was progressing, I thought he took it pretty well considering the timing, but this news might be too much for him to handle. I know that he cheated on me, but our friendship was always the baseline foundation. After his accident, I was always going to remain his faithful friend. All the betrayal became a wash after his accident, and I couldn’t be angry at him any longer. As he knew it, his life had ended, and I remained the only constant he had left. I just hope he can be there for me too.
I pull into the circular driveway again, one I know well from my weekly visits to Brodie. I slowed my steps to help with nausea that persisted throughout my first trimester. I grab a ginger chew from my bag and discard the wrapper in my messenger bag. Well, here goes nothing, I mutter as I ring the doorbell. Melissa comes to the door to greet me, and her smile turns to one of concern when she sees my face.
“Liv, are you okay? You look green.”
I nodded as I stepped through the door, swinging my bag around. “Yeah, just a little tired.”
She seems to accept this excuse. “You have been burning your candle at both ends, Liv.”
I laugh at this. “Yeah, I have recently heard that from a couple of people.”
She takes my bag from me as I slip out of my jacket that she retrieves from me to place on the coat rack. “You need to slow down. You are a hard worker but trying to do too much. Please try to take care of yourself. Do you want a latte?”
I shake my head. “No, I’ll take sparkling water if you have it.”
“Sure thing. I’ll bring it up to his suite.”
I make my way and hear familiar voices. I open the door and see Brodie watching a video on his flatscreen of our group of friends hanging out on spring break from years ago. That will have been our senior year of high school if I remember the video correctly. He doesn’t turn to look at me or acknowledge me. He just keeps watching the video. I’m laughing, and he is carrying me to the water, and we both are splashing around. Syd is filming it, and I hear her voice above all the others.
“Come on in, you lovebirds; we must get the bonfire started before it’s dark.” He puts me down and gives me a quick kiss as we run back to shore.
“Brodie?”
I go to place my hand on his shoulder, and he blinks a few times as if slowly waking from a trance. He looks over at me, and I see the pain and heartache in his eyes.
“Brodie,” I say in a softer voice. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
He shakes his head. “Everything is wrong, Liv. My life was not supposed to be this way. Especially me in this wheelchair. You, with another guy instead of me.”
I fight back the tears threatening to spill from my eyes. “I’m so sorry, Brodie. I couldn’t visit you last week. I had been feeling sick and run down.”
He immediately looked over at me with concern flashing in his eyes.
