“No idea,” Connor said, looking at his watch again. It was a doctor’s office, so they usually ran behind, but never like this. They were running an hour and a half behind schedule and if Rory wasn’t already in an exam room and Andrew needed this appointment, he would have told his friend to reschedule. He had a lot of shit to do today.
“Connor, can you go see how long Rory is going to be?” Andrew asked, sounding tired, which was a side effect of the medication and something the doctors should have considered before making him wait this long.
“Yeah, no problem,” Connor said, trying to figure out how to convince his friend to wait a little while longer.
He walked through the door that led to the examination rooms, not bothering to ask where Rory was since he’d overheard the nurse tell her which room to go into. Plus, they’d just tell him to wait in the waiting room since they weren’t related and he wasn’t her husband. Next month couldn’t come fast enough as far as he was concerned.
“Rory?” he asked as he knocked on room ten’s door.
“Connor?” Rory asked, sounding happy, which of course, pleased him.
“Can I come in?” he asked, already opening the door and walking in just as Rory pulled on her shoe.
“Yes,” Rory said, smiling and looking happy, which was a bit unexpected, but he wasn’t going to complain since he liked seeing her happy.
“Andrew’s appointment is running behind. I just wanted to see how much longer you were going to be,” Connor said, leaning in and kissing her.
“Just a few more minutes. Can you sit with me?” she asked, taking him off guard.
“Is everything okay?” he asked, not that he had a problem with sitting with her, but it was just an unusual request coming from Rory.
“Yeah, it’s just boring in here by myself. Do you mind?” Rory asked, giving him a sweet smile that he was helpless against.
“Sure,” Connor said, returning her smile as he moved to stand next to her as she sat on the exam table.
They didn’t have to wait long before a doctor came into the room, looking surprised to see Connor. But when Rory quickly explained that he was her fiancé, the doctor nodded and sat down.
“Your test results all look great, Rory. I ran a pregnancy test,” the woman announced, making his heart skip a beat.
Oh, shit…
“The test came back negative. You’ve been under a lot of stress and have been working too hard. I think once you’re able to slow down and take a break that your cycle will go back to normal,” the doctor announced with a polite smile.
“Thank you, Dr. Hahn,” Rory said quietly.
Connor chuckled as he leaned down and kissed the top of Rory’s head. “I guess we got lucky, huh? Maybe you should see if you can get a prescription so that we don’t have to worry about this for a while.”
“I can write you a prescription for birth control if that’s what you want,” Dr. Hahn said, smiling. “But I’d like to talk to you about your other request first.”
Connor was just about to ask what the other request was when a nurse popped her head in the door. “We found a match for your friend,” she said, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as relief surged through him, that is, until she added, “We also need you to help pick Andrew up off the floor. He may have passed out when we told him the news.”
“Aw, shit,” Connor said, giving Rory a quick kiss on the cheek before he followed the nurse out the door, thanking his lucky stars that he’d managed to avoid becoming a daddy and been given a chance to keep his friend for a little while longer.
Definitely a great day.
“Do you think that you could swing by and visit Andrew in a couple of hours?” Connor asked, sounding excited when all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and mourn the child that wasn’t meant to be.
It had been foolish to let herself get her hopes up. She should have gone to the doctor sooner or, at the very least, bought a home pregnancy test, but she’d been so damn positive that she’d been pregnant. She’d never been late a day in her life before. It had only been natural to assume that she was pregnant. She’d been stupid, so damn stupid and now her heart ached and all she wanted to do was cry, but she couldn’t.
Connor was happy and she didn’t want to wreck that for him. He didn’t want a child yet and as much as that hurt, it would have hurt a hell of a lot more having a child with a man that didn’t want it.
“Rory?” Connor asked as he pulled into Strawberry Manor’s parking lot.
“Yes?” she asked, feeling like she was in a daze.
“Can you check up on him for me later?” Connor asked, reminding her that at least she had something else to focus on for a while.
“I’ll try, but I might not be able to,” Rory said, avoiding his eyes as she lied to him.
