Chapter 10

The sun began to dip in the sky when I got home.

Ray was in the kitchen, sitting at the table with his hands wrapped tightly around an untouched cup of coffee in front of him. Something was wrong.

“Hello, Kara, sit down, please we need to talk,” he said. He sounded serious. I began to panic. My stomach tightened with unspeakable dread. I took a deep breath because the last thing I wanted was to throw up in my kitchen.

I sat down in front of him. My heart was hammering in my chest.

“I came back to town early today. I went to the grocery store because I wanted to cook dinner for you.”

I gulped and gave him a brief nod, inviting him to go on.

“Then, I overheard two women outside the store, gossiping. You know, I’m not the type to listen in on rumors. But when I heard your name I paid attention.”

“My name?” My eyes widened.

“Yep. One woman said to the other, shaking her head in dismay. ‘I still don’t know whether or not to believe it, though’.

“The first woman chuckled. ‘Well, we’ll know soon enough when her belly starts growing or not’.

“Then the second woman added, ‘I just want to know who supposedly knocked her up. I didn’t know she was seeing anyone’.”

I was pretty sure my face drained in color. I gulped and kept listening.

“The first woman went on. ‘What? You didn’t hear about what happened at the bar last week with Floyd Leland?’

“The second woman said, ‘I heard something about the two of them gone skinny dipping’.

“Then, both women grinned at each other with a knowing smile.”

“Shit,” was all I could say. The rumor mill was fast at work.

“Shit is right,” Ray said, “So, Kara, is the gossip around town true? Are you pregnant?”

“Oh my God, I can’t believe this,” I said. There were more pressing questions in my mind. “How could anyone know? I just found out myself today. There’s no way Dr. Carroll would start a rumor—”

Then, reality intruded, and I gasped. “Tania ... That bitch! I ought to get her fired for breaking doctor-patient privilege.”

“You’d have to prove it was she who spread the news,” Ray commented.

“I ... I was coming here to tell you. I definitely wasn’t going to tell anyone else until you knew. I just wasn’t sure how to break the news to you,” I said quietly, going back to Ray’s first questions.

“So, the baby is mine?”

“Of course it’s yours! What kind of girl do you think I am!”

Ray looked at me for a long while but said nothing.

I knew what he was thinking, “The kind who goes skinny dipping with a horny moron like Floyd Leland.” But he was too chivalrous to say something like that.

“I guess we’ll need to get married,” he announced. “We created a little human and you’re going to bring our child into the world. I’ll be there, by your side, through the whole thing. I promise you.”

“What?” I yelped. “Oh, no. We are not getting married. Not over this.”

“Why not?” Ray sighed. “Kara, there’s a child to consider.”

“So?” I retorted, “Single parents raise kids all the time. It’s not a big deal.”