“I want to come too.”
“No. Get dried off, then you can see her, because we’ll have checked her over by then.”
“Jake.”
“We got this, Newman, and we’ll take care of your girl and the baby.”
He didn’t leave, just sat in the waiting room in his wet shorts. Buster arrived with a change of clothes. He pulled them on in the waiting room, and took the coffee his friend handed him.
“She was so pale.”
“I know. I saw. Willow was the same that day we pulled her out of that car, remember?”
Newman did. His friend had been inconsolable. He now knew how he’d felt.
“You love her, bud?”
“I don’t know… maybe. How the hell do I know,” Newman growled. “I think about her all the time. She annoys the hell out of me on one hand, and on the other I can’t seem to get enough of being with her.”
“Love, then,” Buster said, stretching out his legs.
They sat silently as the clock in the waiting room ticked by the minutes.
“It’s been too long,” he said after an hour had gone past. “Something is not right.”
“Jake and his mom have this, Newman. Let them do their thing.”
“I can feel it. Something’s not right,” he said again. Just as the last word left his lips, the door opened, and there stood Jake, looking serious.
“Hope?” Newman could barely get the word out as he got to his feet. “Tell me she’s all right, Jake.” Beside him Buster rose and gripped his shoulder.
“Hope lost the baby, Newman.”
“What?” His eyes went from Jake to Buster. “I— How?”
“Actually, it’s unlikely it was due to the accident. Hope said she’d been experiencing cramping this morning. When we brought her in here, she miscarried. Chances are it was about to happen anyway.”
“Well fuck,” Buster snarled.
“I need to see her.” Newman brushed past his friend and ran down the hall, looking in rooms. He found her in a bed, with Annabelle sitting at her side.
“Belle?”
“Hey.” She got to her feet and came to hug him hard. “I’m so sorry, Newman.”
He managed to nod, then stumbled to the bed. Hope lay there looking pale, her eyes focused but not really seeing.
“Hey, sweetheart.” He took her hand in his. It felt limp. “I’m so sorry, Hope.”
She looked at him with eyes that were filled with nothing.
“It’s all right, you can go now. We’re done, the baby’s gone.”
“What?” He couldn’t wrap his head around her words.
“I know you only proposed for the baby. Let’s face it, you would never have otherwise. I’m not a Newman kind of girl.” Her voice sounded different, like she was reading from a book.
Newman shook his head, because he couldn’t seem to comprehend what she was saying.
