“Four months. Why?”
He dropped his gaze, looking briefly at his feet. Then he lifted his eyes to Mel’s. “I know her. I know her pretty well, but I haven’t seen her in about…four months.”
“I’m a little confused.”
“Four months,” he repeated.
“You’d better clarify yourself.”
Cameron had had an indoctrination with Mel, training in this clinic so to speak, and knowing that she kept everything about patients strictly confidential, he said, “I think I might be the father.”
Mel’s eyes grew round and her mouth hung open. It took her a moment to recover.
“Where’s she staying?” Cameron asked.
“Vanni and Paul’s.”
“Oh fuck,” he said. “That baby’s mine,” he said, shaking his head.
“Babies,” she corrected. “It’s twins.”
He straightened abruptly, shocked. “Double fuck.” He took his coat off the rack inside the front door, picked up his medical bag, which would be like an extension of his arm from now on, and said, “I have to step out for a while. I don’t know how long I’ll be. I’m not expecting patients.”
“Um, wait,” Mel said. “Just one second.” She dashed behind the desk and got into the supply cupboard. She pulled out a couple of large plastic bottles of prenatal vitamins. “Here,” she said, tossing them to him one at a time. “If you find yourself in a delicate spot, you can always pretend you’re delivering these.”
“Thanks, Mel. Hey, I’m sorry…”
She smiled. “Can I assume you two don’t have a…relationship?”
He returned the smile, but his was hurt. Melancholic. “Don’t assume anything right now. Except—we’ve got a…situation.” And then he was gone.
The knock on the Haggertys’ front door came not ten minutes after Abby returned from her visit with the midwife. She ignored it and kept folding her things to put into a suitcase. She had come home to find the house deserted. The doorbell rang, then there was more knocking, but Abby didn’t respond.
Rather than being worried about another confrontation with Cameron, the thing that occupied her most was what excuse she’d give Vanni for leaving so abruptly. She wasn’t prepared to say, “The man who knocked me up lives here!” Next, she worried—where would she go now? Nikki and Joe in Grants Pass was out of the question—too close to the scene of the crime. Cameron knew Nikki was Abby’s friend. Maybe some anonymous little town down the coast where she didn’t know anyone.
The knocking had stopped. Seconds later she heard, “You don’t have to run.”
She jumped in surprise and whirled around, her face ashen. “How did you get in?”
“The key under the flowerpot,” he said. “Same place I always kept mine. Pretty unimaginative. And pretty rare, this door locking in Virgin River. Abby, it’s too late for you to run.”
She lifted her chin, but her eyes were moist. She put a protective hand over her tummy.
He stepped into the bedroom doorway. “What are you so afraid of, Abby? You think I’d do something to hurt you? You know better than that. If I meant to hurt you, I had a perfect opportunity in Oregon.”
“Cameron, look, this is real complicated, and I can’t let it get more complicated. Please.”
He shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. He leaned against the door frame. “Catch me up a little—tell me why you’d be so damn afraid of me making your life more complicated. And stop packing, for God’s sake. I’m not the enemy.”
She crumbled to the bed and, putting her face in her hands, began to weep. Cautiously, not making any fast moves, Cameron sat next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “I’m not going to say or do anything to make you nervous or afraid,” he murmured. “If you don’t want anyone to know about us, about that night, I’ll never breathe a word,” he said softly.
“I never meant that night to happen,” she said, lifting her head to turn teary eyes to him. “I wasn’t waiting for you in front of the elevators. I was going to my room. I wasn’t about to spend the night with a stranger.”
“How did that night happen? How does a good friend of Vanessa’s end up in my town?”
“We were all there—it was our best friend Nikki’s wedding. Joe is Paul’s best friend. Even Jack and Mel were at the wedding.”