Broken Wings (32 page)

Pamela pulled away slightly from his embrace. “This isn’t going to be an easy pregnancy. I’m already considered a high-risk patient because of my lupus, and my kidney function has the obstetrician Bob found for me a little concerned.”

“Maybe I should find you a better doctor,” he said, frowning.

“Dr. Holdford is considered one of the top high-risk OBs in the area. I like him and I want to stay with him.”

“I’m going to go with you to every appointment from now on.” He pulled her close to him again.

She let her forehead rest against his chest. “I wasn’t sure what you would think. I mean, we didn’t have enough time together and a baby is a big responsibility. I didn’t know if you would even want this baby,” she murmured against him.

“So that’s why you were going to marry Bob, for the baby?”

She nodded. “If something happens to me, I need to know this child will have a father. You were gone and I didn’t know where else to turn.”

“I’m such an idiot. I should never have left. But I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”

“You don’t owe me anything, Daniel,” she declared, stepping back from him. “Maybe you should take some time and think about this.”

“Pamela, there is nothing to think about. You’re going to have my baby and I couldn’t be happier.”

“But we never really got an opportunity to be together. Perhaps this will be cramping your style.”

Daniel laughed, a deep, resounding laugh that lifted Pamela’s heart. “Not a chance. I told you before, I want some roots. With you, and the baby, I’m finally going to be able to settle down and have a real home.”

All the years of pain and conflict instantly melted away inside of Pamela, leaving a strange sense of completeness in its wake. It was as if she had needed to live through the heartache to appreciate the joy she now felt.

She stroked her hand up and down the front of his white shirt. “I have to admit there is something awfully compelling about you.”

“Just think of me as a large, fuzzy squirrel,” he told her as he leaned forward. He kissed her tenderly on the lips.

Pamela pulled away from him as her thoughts became inundated with doubt. “Maybe I should call a cab and give you some time to mull all of this over.”

“Oh, no.” He laughed. “You’re not leaving, not now. We have plans to make. We have to decide on our living arrangements and how we’re going to manage traveling between your facility in Folsom and my new business in the city. Then there are plans we need to make for the baby.” He pulled her back into his arms. He kissed her cheek and then he let his mouth hover over hers. “So first things first,” he whispered. “What side of the bed do you prefer?”

*  *  *  *

Pamela was naked beneath the sheets curled up against Daniel’s chest. He lay next to her in the bed, his arm behind her head, stroking her body up and down with his hand. She listened to his steady heartbeat echoing beneath his broad chest as her mind reflected on their frenzied lovemaking.

“I don’t think I’ve been that flexible since college,” she mumbled.

Daniel laughed and she listened as the deep sound thundered through his chest. “I thought you were such an uptight prude when we first met. And here we lay, naked and pregnant.” He laughed once more.

She sat up in the bed. “We do have a lot ahead of us.” She looked down at her flat belly. “Sometimes I still can’t believe it.”

“Did you ever want children?” he asked.

She pondered his question for a moment. “It’s not that I didn’t want them, but I never really thought about it much.” She shrugged. “When I met Bob I assuumed we would have children and then
—
”

“You got sick,” he said, finishing her words for her.

“No,” she replied as she shook her head. “I got scared. The Bob I married was not the Bob I ended up married to. In the beginning, he was kind and caring and I thought, yeah, this is a good guy. But then he started turning into the man he is today: ambitious, cold, and heartless. We could have adopted or even tried surrogacy after I got sick, but the truth was, I really didn’t want a child with him. A woman wants a child with a man she respects, admires, and loves. Bob, never made me feel any of those things for him, so I backed away and made excuses to myself. I blamed it on the lupus, but Bob was the real reason I didn’t want a child.”

He sat up next to her and ran his finger along the outline of her jaw. “And how do you feel now?” He paused as a shadow of regret passed over his face. “I could never stop thinking about you after I left. I wanted to call you a thousand times, but instead…”

“Instead you sent repairmen, and plumbers, and electricians. I understand, Daniel. I think this is a big step for both of us. Planning a future is a lot harder than walking away from one. But I think as long as we are willing to work at this, we might just have a chance.”

He wrapped his arms around her. “Do you think you could ever love a thug?”

She smiled into his face. “As long as that thug is you.”

The next few weeks were a blur for Pamela. Daniel was with her every minute he could get away from setting up his new office in the Central Business District of the city. During the day she would tend to her wildlife facility and train new volunteers to take over a large portion of the responsibilities she had overseen in the past. At night, Daniel would drive up to her place and they would spend the evenings on the back porch, enjoying the warm nights of summer.

“When the baby comes, we’re going to need to make a decision about where we’re going to live,” Daniel said as he sat beside her on the porch steps one eveni
ng, admiring her growing belly.

Pamela sighed as she thought of leaving her beloved sanctuary. “I know. We will have to get a place in the city, so you can be close to your business, and I can be close to the hospital.” She glimpsed the dogs lying next to her on the porch and a sudden stab of guilt tore across her heart. She did not want to leave them, but she knew they would never be happy living in a small yard in the city.

He noted the sorrow in her face and put a consoling arm around her shoulders. “We could stay here,” he suggested. “Dr. Holdford says you’re doing well now that you are in the middle of your second trimester.”

She nodded her head as she patted her slight bulge. “For now. But as the baby grows things will get harder for me, and being close to a hospital is probably a good idea. And you will need to be in the city more once they finish renovating your office building.”

“How about some place in between, like Mandeville,” he offered. “It’s on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, has a few good hospitals, is not a bad commute for me, and it’s away from the city. I don’t think moving back to the city would be good for you.”

Pamela gave him a wary glance. “What makes you say that?”

He removed his arm from about her shoulders and nonchalantly shrugged, as if trying to allay her concern. “I don’t want you exposed to anything that reminds you of your former life with Bob. You weren’t happy then and I want you to be happy now. Being someplace where we can make our own memories would be best, for both of us.”

She contemplated his face for several seconds. “Nice speech,” she finally said. “Why don’t you want to move back to the city, Daniel?”

He sighed as he observed the sun setting on her facility. “What are you, psychic?”

“Not psychic. You’re trying too hard to keep us out of the city. Why?” She frowned at him. “And don’t sugarcoat it. I’m pregnant, not stupid.”

He sat for a moment and collected his thoughts. When he turned to her, his eyes were filled with trepidation. “Bob found out that we got back together and has been spreading some nasty rumors around about me, you, and the baby,” he told her in a calm voice.

She appeared surprised. “What kind of rumors?”

“That the baby isn’t mine. He’s telling everyone the child is his and that you left him because you saw dollar signs with me. He’s trying to turn people against you.” He hesitated for an instant. “And by people I mean patrons,” he added.

“That son of a bitch!” She yelled. The dogs all jumped to their feet and stared anxiously at Pamela. “And how did you find this out?” she angrily questioned.

“Val called me after Bob had a chat with her at some political function. She said he basically ranted against the both of us and blamed my wealth for your final betrayal. She knows Bob is full of shit, but the Robillards don’t. She saw him talking to the couple at the same party.”

Pamela cursed under her breath. “That would explain why their accountant called me last week and said they would have to withdraw their funding for personal reasons.” She shook her head. “Well, we don’t need them. With your trust fund and some good business decisions, we’ll be fine.”

Daniel patted his hand on her knee. “I have a sneaking suspicion that Bob’s antics have not been limited to just your wildlife facility, Pamela.”

An uneasy knot nudged its way forward in her stomach. “What do you mean?” she anxiously asked.

Daniel rubbed his hands together and looked down at the porch steps. “I think he may be trying to put up a couple of roadblocks for my business. City inspectors have been out to my office building numerous times, claiming I didn’t have the proper inspection stickers for the water heaters or the fire hydrants. They even said my business sign was not up to code. I’ve had problems with the landlord wanting to change the lease. He says a friend told him that I’m not good for the rent and is now demanding three months’ advanced payment. My office staff keeps quitting for personal reasons, but the problems aren’t limited to just my business. My landlady has even been threatened.”

Pamela’s jaw dropped. “T.J.? Why would anyone threaten her?”

“She got an unidentifiable phone call telling her to get rid of me as her tenant or else her safety, and the safety of her other tenants, would be in jeopardy. She came by and told me about it last week.”

Pamela stood up on the porch step. “We have to do something. Confront him, or at the very least, have a lawyer contact him.”

Daniel stood up next to her. “I don’t think that would be a very good idea,” he conceded. “Bob is angry and anything we do to address the situation might provoke him further.”

She stared into Daniel’s calm face. “I would have thought you would be the one who would suggest fighting Bob at this point. But you seem so relaxed and not bothered by the whole thing.”

“He can’t really hurt me, only aggravate me a little. My import business is very much removed from his sphere of influence and he may try to pull some antics in the beginning, but he will soon grow bored. And why should I let him bother me?” He pulled her into his arms. “I won. I got you and the baby.”

“But what about the lies he is spreading about us. Doesn’t that make you angry?” she asked.

He leaned back from her and nodded. “Before I met you, yes, that would have sent me on a tirade and I would have gone over there and confronted him. Probably gotten in another fight and gone back to jail.” He paused and smiled at her. “But I’m not angry anymore. All the hate, hostility, and tension I always carried around have left me. I have a future to care about now. And that has changed my entire outlook.”

She made a fist and lightly tapped it against his chest. “I wish I could be so calm. I want to go over there and kill the bastard.”

Daniel chuckled. “Darling, you’re pregnant. You’re not thinking very clearly right now.”

“Yes, I am thinking clearly,” she argued.

“Pamela, last week you wanted to eat a steak for dinner and you’re a vegetarian.”

“Very funny.” She stepped out of his embrace and walked over to the edge of the porch. “So what do you suggest we do?” she inquired as she took in the last vestiges of daylight.

“Let’s just wait this one out. If it gets too out of hand, I will go over to his office and have a chat with him.”

Pamela shook her head as she thought of her ex-husband. “It won’t end peacefully, I can guarantee that,” she insisted. “Bob has been fighting with the world as long as I can remember. When we were married he used to be known up and down St. Charles Avenue as the rampaging Robert Patrick.”

He came up beside her. “And what’s his excuse for being that way?”

“A past he’s ashamed of, a drunken father who beat the hell out of him as a child, there are a number of reasons. He was good at keeping it under control when we were first together, but about six months after we were married, the real Bob suddenly appeared. We were out at a restaurant having dinner and he started a fight with the waiter. The kid was eighteen and was just being polite, but Bob went after him because he thought the poor guy was hitting on me.”

Daniel took in her profile in the fading light. “Why didn’t you leave him then?”

“I had watched my father go through four marriages and I swore I wasn’t going to end up like him. So I stayed until Bob didn’t want me anymore.”

Daniel nudged her with his shoulder. “And when we are married, are you just going to take my crap, as well?” he asked softly. “Or are you going to remind me that I’m turning into Bob and threaten to leave me if I don’t change.”

She turned to him. “When we are married?” She tempered her excitement. “Are we getting married?” she calmly inquired.