Love in the Fast Lane Read online

  “Oops, sorry,” she muttered. “Hey!”

  There in front of her was Emma, mirroring her very own actions, tiptoeing out with shoes in hand. The difference was, hers were stilettos.

  “Walk of shame?”

  “Yeah. You?”

  “Yeah.”

  They laughed at each other as they bent to put on their shoes, saving at least some small fraction of their remaining dignity as they walked out of the very swanky hotel.

  “So, was it the driver?” Emma asked.

  “Yeah. You?”

  “Guilty as charged.”

  “I think we need coffee and breakfast.”

  “Amen to that sister.”

  “So, we have two more days of vacation left, what do you want to do?”

  “I could do with a little breather from Luca to be honest. It’s a little intense and I don’t think I can handle that right now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, he’s obviously a player and that’s what I liked about him. No strings, just some fun. But the way he looks at me, you know. I don’t want to get attached. I’m just young and free and don’t want anything serious. Especially something that starts in Brazil. Besides, he’s a big deal racecar driver. What kind of life does that give me? Fighting off the horny vaginas chasing him?”

  “Whoa, that’s some heavy thinking over a guy you met like four minutes ago.”

  “I know! So let’s have some us time today. I could use some relaxing sun time.”

  “Good idea. Breakfast first though.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Nate put on his shorts and decided to go for a walk along the beach. He wanted to see Brielle again. The sneaky girl had crept out of his hotel suite while he had gone for his morning run. He and the team were scheduled to leave tomorrow midday and he was hoping to get her out of his system one more time. That’s what he kept telling himself.

  He grabbed his cell phone and room key and shoved them into his pocket.

  The day was warm and he cursed himself for not taking his sunglasses. He was in too much of a hurry though and didn’t want to bother with running back into the hotel to retrieve them. The beach was packed but the cool sea breeze was welcome against his scorched skin.

  In the distance he could see a flash of silver sparkling in the sun. As he squinted he could see that it was, in fact, Brielle lounging on the beach in the skimpiest bikini he had ever seen. Damn, it was so unlike her usual style and yet, she was sexy without even trying. In another lifetime he could actually see himself settling down with a woman like her, in the very distant future. He was just too young to settle down now. He was at the peak of his career, a career he had worked hard for and he wouldn’t blow it over tail. So many people and places to explore that he couldn’t imagine himself cramped into that lifestyle. Marrying for love or lust and then having her nag you to death because you’re never home, and then making both yourself and a potential wife miserable. No, he was smarter than that. Plus he knew that ‘in sickness and in health’ didn’t apply in real life. When the going got tough, the idiot got going and left their adolescent child to pick up the pieces.

  Nate’s cell phone vibrated in his pocket and he absently picked it up without checking the screen. “Hello?”

  “May I speak with Nathan Wolfe please?”

  “This is him speaking.”

  “This is Dr. Sams speaking from County General Hospital.”

  “Yes, what is this about?”

  Nate looked in the distance and noticed that Brielle was looking right at him and waved. He gave her a half smile in acknowledgement but didn’t return her wave.

  “I’m sorry to tell you this over the phone, son, but your father has passed on.”

  “My father?”

  “Yes, Leon Wolfe, had a collapsed liver and we failed to revive him.”

  Nate staggered. Why should he care? This abusive man was finally gone, away from people that he could potentially hurt and poison. “What do you want from me?”

  “I imagine this must be such a shock and again, I’m sorry that this news has to be delivered over the phone. Mr. Wolfe spoke of you very fondly.”

  What the fuck?

  “But, you will have to come and claim the body as the hospital can’t keep it here for more than three days without a warrant of investigation and as your father died of complicated natural causes, there is no autopsy to be conducted.”

  “What city are you in?” he managed to ask.

  “Chicago.”

  Chicago? When had his father gone there? Last he’d heard, the old man was living in Connecticut.

  “I will be there as soon as I can.”

  Nate hung up and stared in the distance. The noise of the beach crowds faded and was replaced with a dull buzzing in his head. His father was dead? Nate didn’t know how to feel about that. For years he had wished it on the SOB but now that the moment had come, he felt… numb.

  He saw Brielle again and she started to get up, possibly to come to find him. He caught her gaze then turned and walked away. The panic was rising. Renal failure? Liver damage? He started to jog and then he ended in an all-out sprint, pounding the sand hard and fast till there were no other people on the beach and he was gasping for breath.

  His father was dead. Now, he was truly all on his own.

  Brielle felt stung. She watched as Nate took off in the opposite direction at a high sprint. Was he really that desperate to get away from her? Who was he talking to anyway? He smirked like it was a woman on the line. Well, hmpf. Typical man! Although she knew it was casual, she at least expected that they were exclusive while they were getting busy.

  She shrugged and plopped back onto the sand. Shifting her big sun hat to cover her face from the blazing sun she decided to just let it go. It wasn’t worth the hassle to be honest. But still, her heart broke just a little. She had thought that things were a little special between them. Surely she was different enough to at least not be interchangeable with another woman.

  Brielle pushed the negative feelings aside and tried to focus on the present. Tomorrow they would be leaving this dreamland and getting back to reality. And the reality waiting for her was a medical internship that would allow her to earn at least some of her final year of tuition. She had dreams and goals to achieve, so she had to get her mind straightened out.

  When they got back to the hotel, Brielle couldn’t hold back the temptation and called Nate’s hotel. She was like a drunk dialer.

  “Hi, can you connect me to Mr. Wolfe’s room please. Number 208.”

  Brielle heard some clicking of the keyboard and then, “I’m sorry, Mr. Wolfe has already checked out.”

  “What? Are you sure? Can you check again?”

  “Yes ma’am, I am sure. I have checked twice.”

  “Thanks.” Snotty old prude.

  “What’s wrong?” Emma asked, lounging on the sofa.

  “Nate checked out. He’s left the city. He didn’t even say goodbye.”

  “Asshole.”

  “I feel so cheap. I thought we were at least doing this out of mutual respect or something.”

  “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry.” She stood up and walked around the couch to embrace her friend. “It’s a tough thing to learn. But you’d rather know than not, right?”

  Brielle nodded numbly.

  “I’m going to sound like a cliché but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

  Brielle barely heard Emma. She felt used.

  She didn’t expect him to actually care about her but at least have some shred of common decency.

  Well, at least now she knew. It was back to reality tomorrow anyway.

  “You still avoiding Luca?”

  “Yes, I am.” Emma stated proudly.

  “Then let’s have a fancy dinner tonig
ht. Just you and me. Seems we only have each other to rely on anyway.”

  “I’m there like a bear, babe.”

  At the end of any day, she knew she could always count on Emma.

  CHAPTER 5

  TWO MONTHS LATER

  Brielle was nearly seven weeks into her chiropractic internship and today marked her last day on the job before she returned to classes that started in two weeks. She couldn’t wait. Two weeks before she would start the beginning of her career, well almost. Still, this would prove to be the toughest year, but by far the most rewarding. Because after this year she could write her board exams to finalize becoming a doctor. In some ways it was bittersweet because she had no family to share the accolades with. Well, her father could be alive but seeing as she had never met him, that wouldn’t matter anyway. He was her father by birth only, not by any kinship they shared. Emma was more family to her than any person that had ever walked in or out of her life.

  Her mother had gone off and married some aristocrat when Brielle had turned sixteen and by the time she started college, she had died of a brain aneurysm. That wouldn’t have mattered much either because her mother wasn’t much in that sense of the word. She had never wanted to be a parent and always treated Brielle like some kind of a burden. So, when she died, her rich husband paid Brielle’s first semester of college tuition and then let her fend for herself. Alone. With no family. Emma had been her college roommate and all the family Brielle ever needed.

  Her past didn’t hold her back anymore. She wasn’t going to sit and feel sorry for herself. She was an independent woman and had survived seven years on her own now. Being a doctor would give her the financial freedom to make it.

  Her phone vibrated in the pocket of her lab coat, startling her out of her reverie.

  She looked at the caller ID and answered, “Hey Em.”

  “Guess what?”

  “Um, you found a new flavor of ice cream?”

  “No, guess again?”

  “You’re getting me that pair of Loubouton’s I wanted?”

  “Ha ha, you have jokes. No, I sold my first house!”

  “What? That’s fantastic! Congratulations!”

  “I know, I can’t believe it. I expect the commission is going to be ginormous. So, of course, you will get said pair of Lou Lou’s for your birthday.”

  “That’s great news, Em. All around. I have one more client for the day and then you can pick me up and we can go celebrate, ok?”

  “Gotcha.”

  She hung up and Brielle found herself smiling at her friend’s success. Seven weeks and she made her first big sale. That was a great achievement for Emma, considering she had no prior real estate experience. Brielle couldn’t wait until she was raking in serious cash, too. But all in good time.

  Ten minutes later her next patient arrived. “Hello Mrs. Morgan. How are you today?”

  “If I was fine then I wouldn’t be here, now would I,” the old lady grumbled.

  “Well let’s get you in tip-top shape again.”

  The older woman removed her shirt and lay face down on the massage table. Brielle caught a whiff of her perfume and the urge to throw-up overwhelmed her. How strange. The older woman’s perfume was in no way rancid and she had never had this reaction to her fragrance before. She placed her hand to her mouth to quell the urge. She rubbed some oil in her hands to massage out the kinks in the other woman’s muscles but before she could even touch her, the wave of nausea hit again and she barely made it to the wastepaper bin before her light lunch came spewing out.

  “Oh, yuck,” the other woman tuttered. “You must be coming down with something. I will have Dr. Finley finish me today.”

  Brielle started to argue that she was fine but when she saw the hard expression on Mrs. Morgan’s face she knew it was not a request. She excused herself to go to the ladies’ room where she washed her face and splashed herself with cold water. It was probably food poisoning. The lettuce in her sandwich had looked a little on the brown side. Only the thought of food alone made her want to throw-up again.

  By the time she pulled herself together and felt halfway normal, it was time to go home so she said her goodbyes to the nurses and walked out to meet Emma.

  Emma was just driving in as Brielle walked out and she waved to her friend. As she lifted her arm, spots appeared before her eyes and her head spun. What was going on? As if in slow motion, she saw the pavement coming up to kiss her and then everything went blank.

  When Brielle regained consciousness, she was in a hospital bed. Her head was pounding like someone was riding a wrecking ball… Over and over into a concrete wall. She lifted her hand to the source of the pain and felt a large goose egg at the back of her skull.

  “Hey,” Emma said beside her.

  “Hey, what happened?” Oh, speaking did not work well with the mean wrecking ball.

  “You tell me. One minute you’re giving me the queen’s wave and the next you’re worshiping the ground in slow motion.”

  “Really? Slow motion?”

  “That’s how I saw it, ok? I was panicked.”

  Brielle tried to smile to reassure Emma but it came across weakly. “What did the doctor say?”

  “The nurse should be in any minute now. They wouldn’t tell me anything because I’m not family.”

  As if on cue, the nurse walked in and checked Brielle’s chart.

  “Well, how are you feeling?” the nurse was a preppy-looking middle aged woman in every sense. Her uniform was too crisp, her hair too perfect. Brielle imagined she was that way in everything she did.

  “Like I took a fall to the concrete and used my head as a cushion.”

  The nurse smiled kindly, disproving Brielle’s theory and contrasting completely with her stiff exterior. “That’s an accurate description. From your blood tests it looks like you just had a dizzy spell, it’s quite common in the early stages of pregnancy. The good news is that the baby is fine.”

  Brielle must have taken a real knock to the head.

  “Baby?”

  “Yes. You’re pregnant.”

  Panic started to squeeze her throat and the look on Emma’s face mirrored her own feelings.

  The nurse frowned. “Didn’t you know?”

  “No,” she whispered.

  The room was starting to spin.

  “How is that possible?”

  The nurse smiled as though she was smiling at an insolent child; now that was more in line with how Brielle saw her. “I would assume from unprotected penetrative sex. That’s how it normally happens. Should I call your husband?”

  “She’s not married,” Emma answered for her, dazedly, also looking in shock.

  “Your boyfriend then?”

  They both shook their heads.

  The nurse, having a modicum of tact, nodded discreetly and shifted toward the door. “I will give you a moment to digest this information.”

  “Wait,” Brielle called. “I meant how is it possible if I have an Intrauterine device?”

  “When did you have it fitted?” the nurse asked.

  “A year ago.”

  She regarded Brielle thoughtfully but with a look of pity in her eyes. Oh, the contrasts again. “The IUD is usually very effective but two in every one thousand women have a possibility of becoming pregnant within the first year of its insertion. The likelihood is that you had rough sex and it moved.”

  Brielle looked away. Despite the throbbing in her skull, she had the sense to be embarrassed. She was such a priss about these things, she couldn’t imagine sitting and casually discussing her past sexual encounters with this stranger. Her mind was reeling.

  “Look,” the nurse said with a gentle hand on her arm. “This is obviously very unexpected for you so take a moment to let it sink in. I will make an appointment for the doctor to have your IUD removed due to
the pregnancy. But, think about what you want to do. You do have options.” With a sad, gentle smile, she turned and left them alone.

  “You ok?” Emma asked her friend.

  “No.” Brielle couldn’t even think straight. What was she going to do? She had classes in two weeks. She did a quick calculation in her head and realized that the baby would be born before she was even due to write her final exams. And then what? How was she going to take care of this child and start up a practice? She had to tell Nate.

  Nate. Her stomach squeezed in anxiety.

  How would he react? He hadn’t said goodbye when he left. Hell, he hadn’t even tried to contact her in two months so why should he suddenly care. But still, he had a right to know. She groaned. What was she going to do?

  When Brielle awoke the next morning, her vision blurred and her head continued to pound. The news from last night crept in and she instinctively put her hand over her belly. She was pregnant. She was carrying another human being. Well, it probably wasn’t a human just yet. For now it was probably just an ‘It’. But still, she was carrying a living creature.

  In the ensuing few hours the doctors and nurses came in and out, taking out her IUD, helping her into the shower, making sure she ate, which she proceeded to vomit.

  By the afternoon she was weak and drained. Emma came to see her and brought a Tigger stuffed toy and a balloon.

  “What, no flowers or chocolates?” She asked drolly, clearly letting her ill health get the better of her mood.

  “I know that you puke at the whiff of air so flowers won’t do and from what the nurse just told me, you haven’t kept anything down all day.”