The Pregnancy Plan / Hope's Child: The Pregnancy Plan / Hope's Child. Brenda Harlen

type that parents warned their daughters about.

      “I was fifteen,” she said again. “I don’t think they would have approved of anyone I brought home at that age. And he was so … sexy. He worked in construction in the summer to earn money for college and he had all these rippling muscles and—”

      “Please.” Cam held up a hand, urging her to spare him the details.

      “If I hadn’t been attracted to your father, you wouldn’t be here,” she pointed out.

      “Still, there are some things a kid doesn’t need to know.”

      “Well, my point,” she said, “is that parents always want what they think is best for their kids, even when it conflicts with what their kids want. That’s why your dad encouraged you to go away to school, to put some distance between you and Ashley before you got too deeply involved.”

      “He knew how I felt about her.”

      She nodded. “And he was afraid that you’d give up your dreams to stay in Pinehurst with her.”

      “Why did he think that?” he asked curiously. “Was there something he felt he’d missed out on by getting married so young?”

      His mother was silent for a long minute before she said, “He wasn’t thinking about his own dreams, but mine.”

      It had never occurred to him that his mom might have sacrificed her own plans to be a wife and a mother, because she’d always seemed so settled and content in those roles. “What was your dream?” he asked her now.

      “After I met your dad, I only wanted to be with him.”

      But he recognized the evasion, and his curiosity was piqued. “Before you met Dad?” he prompted.

      “I was going to be a doctor,” she finally admitted.

      He shouldn’t have been surprised, but he was. He couldn’t believe that he’d never known his mother had once envisioned having the same career that he’d chosen for himself.

      “A doctor,” he echoed.

      She nodded. “In fact, I’d just been accepted to medical school when I found out I was pregnant.”

      He set his now empty bottle down. “You gave up your dream because of me?”

      But she shook her head vehemently. “No. By the time I got pregnant, my dream had changed. Finding out that I was going to have a baby was the most incredible moment of my life. I had no qualms about giving up medical school for motherhood.

      “But when you first expressed an interest in becoming a doctor, your father was adamant that nothing would cause you to make the sacrifice he believed I’d made. But what he didn’t think about—what neither of us really considered—was what would make you happy.”

      “You shouldn’t worry about that anymore,” he assured her. “I am happy.”

      “A parent always worries. Especially when her kids grow up and move away.”

      He knew she wasn’t just thinking of him, but of his younger sister, Sherry, who was now married and living in Florida.

      “Well, I have no doubt that you would have been a great doctor,” he said. “But you made the right career choice, because you are definitely the world’s greatest mom.”

      She smiled through the sheen of tears in her eyes. “And when a mother’s grown son says something like that, she knows she’s done her job well.”

      When Ashley returned to the doctor’s office for her follow-up appointment, she was prepared to see Cam. Not just to see him, but to prove that she was completely unaffected by him, that the scorching kiss they’d shared in her kitchen meant nothing to her. Less than nothing, in fact.

      When the door opened, however, it wasn’t Cam who came in—it was Eli. She felt a slight pang but assured herself it wasn’t disappointment. After all, it wasn’t that she wanted to see Cam except to prove that he didn’t mean anything to her. Not anymore.

      But Eli meant the world to her, and her smile came easily for him.

      “How’s Ruby?” she asked, having learned about his wife’s heart attack from Megan, who worked with one of the doctor’s neighbors.

      “She’s doing well. Thanks for the beautiful flowers. She was so tickled that you remembered gerberas are her favorite.”

      “I was hoping they would brighten up her room and her spirits.”

      “The did both,” Eli confirmed. “And remarkably well, I’d say, since she’s scheduled to come home tomorrow.”

      “You must be so relieved.”

      He nodded. “We’ve been married forty-two years. After that much time, you start to take certain things for granted. But I’m not taking anything for granted anymore.”

      Ashley wondered if she would ever know that kind of deep and abiding love, and realized that she still hoped she would. She hadn’t completely given up on the idea of finding someone to share her life, she’d just decided not to worry about doing so. And, in the meantime, she would happily lavish all of her love and attention on the baby she was going to have.

      “But I know you didn’t really come here to talk abut me,” the doctor continued. “So tell me how you’re doing.”

      “I’m anxious to get these stitches out,” she admitted.

      He scanned the notes in her file, closed the folder and reached for her hand. “Let’s take a look then.”

      While he was bent over her hand, she stared at the calendar on the wall on the opposite side of the room, breathing slowly and carefully as she silently calculated the days and then the hours and minutes until it was time to go back to school. She felt a few little tugs, but no pain, and as long as she didn’t think about the fact that he was pulling threads out of her hand, she didn’t feel dizzy.

      She hadn’t felt anything when Cam put the stitches in, either. Of course, she’d been given an injection to freeze the site, but even without the artificial numbing, she knew her awareness of Cam would have eclipsed everything else.

      “How does it feel?”

      She glanced down, saw that he’d finished removing the stitches. She carefully curled her fingers into a fist, nodded. “It feels good.”

      “Cam did a nice job,” Eli said. “In a few more weeks, the scar will barely be visible.”

      Ashley uncurled her fist and was pleased to note that there was no residual pain in her hand.

      If only the same could be said about the scars Cam had left on her heart twelve years earlier.

       Chapter Five

      As a child, Ashley had always looked forward to the first day of school. As a teacher, she still did.

      Maybe it would be different if she taught high school, where the students were more sullen and jaded. But for a group of five-and six-year-olds, entering first grade was as thrilling an event as Columbus’s discovery of a whole new world. They were all so young and eager to learn, and Ashley found their excitement and enthusiasm never failed to recharge her own.

      She didn’t usually have supervision duty on Wednesday mornings, but like most other teachers on staff at Parkdale Elementary School, it was a tradition to meet on the playground behind the school so the students could catch a glimpse of their teachers before they entered the classroom, and vice versa. She knew most of the kids who would be in her class, of course, because the majority had attended kindergarten at the same school the previous year. But there were always a few new faces, children who had moved into the neighborhood over the summer and who were even more anxious about the first day because everything was strange and unfamiliar.

      It was easy to spot the new ones,