CHAPTER 4

	For the next three days, Hannah saw no sign of Cole McKinley.  On Friday she
had the day off to go to her doctor’s appointment, and took advantage of it by sleeping
in.  Sometime in the mid morning, as she shuffled around her kitchenette in night-gown
and slippers, she heard a knock at her door.  Thinking it must be her landlady, she went
to open the door, and stood wide-eyed in shock at the sight of Cole standing on the
landing outside.
	“Cole!” she gasped, then blushed as she remembered what she was wearing. 
	He stood there staring at her with a straight face.  “You lied to me,” he said flatly.
	“About what?” Hannah demanded.
	“About where you live.”	
	“I did not!” she insisted.
	“You let me believe you lived in this house — ” He looked past her into the small
space she called home.  “ — not a hole in the attic!”
	“You jumped to conclusions. You never asked,” she said, point blank, lifting her
chin defensively.
	His jaw clenched.  “The lady downstairs told me you lived up here,” he said,
avoiding her accusation. 
	“What are you doing here anyway?” she asked, changing the subject.
	“You weren’t at work. I wanted to make sure you were OK.”
	“I have the day off today, I have a doctor’s appointment,” she said, then winced,
wishing she hadn’t given him that information.
	“When?” he asked, his interest piqued.
	Hannah sighed. She wished it were later in the day so she could pretend she had
already gone. “This afternoon,” she said, vaguely.
	“What time this afternoon?” he persisted.
	“None of your business!” she snapped at him.
	Cole looked at her for a few moments without saying a word, then shoved his
hands deep in his pockets.  “Hannah, please,” he said, his voice less abrasive now. 
“Can we talk about this like civilised adults, instead of arguing about it every time?”
	Hannah sighed, remembering Ty’s words.  Backing away from the door, she
motioned for Cole to come inside, and closed the door behind him.  “The kettle just
boiled, I was making tea. Do you want some?”
	“Sure,” Cole said, smiling nervously.  She poured two cups of tea and handed
one to him and pointed towards the couch.  He took a seat and looked around the room
thoughtfully. 
	“It’s very small,” he said, although it sounded more like an observation than a
complaint.
	“It’s comfortable enough,” she said.
	There was a strained silence between them for several minutes, while he
continued to scrutinise her living room, as if it would magically give him some knowledge
about her, then his eyes fell on her once again. 
	“Hannah, this has all come as rather a shock to me.  I’m trying to come to terms
with it, trying to understand.  I’m sorry if you think I’ve been acting like an idiot about it. I
just — “ he paused, and heaved a heavy sigh and shook his head. “What happened?
how did this — “ he pointed towards her belly, “ — happen?”
	Hannah leaned back in her chair, as if the comfort of it would protect her from the
hurt of the truth.  “I don’t exactly know.” 
	He lifted wide eyes to her face. “You don’t know? But you said — you said for
certain the baby is mine.”  His eyes held an expression of confusion mixed with
suspicion, and Hannah shifted slightly under his gaze.
	She nodded and frowned.  “I remember being at the Christmas party, and my
friend Jennifer taking off and leaving me alone. I don’t drink, Cole. I was sticking with the
punch, but apparently someone had spiked it.”
	Cole nodded, and she continued. “I vaguely remember some guy hitting on me,
and you chasing him off.  I really don’t remember anything more than that, at least not
very clearly, until — until I woke up the next morning in bed with you.”  She looked at him
cautiously, and he raised a hand to his forehead and groaned under his breath. 
	“Ty says Winchester was being a complete ass, and you weren’t doing too good. 
I offered to take you home.  I’m sure I had no ill intentions towards you, Hannah.  If only I
could remember!”  He swore under his breath, and looked at her. “You’re certain we —
you and I — we — “  he pointed from himself to her, back and forth, and she nodded.
	“We were both naked when I woke up.  We were in your penthouse apartment at
the office building.  You were still asleep when I left.”
	“And there’s no way this could be anyone else’s baby?” he asked, one more time
just to make sure.
	“There’s never been anyone else,” she said, her voice barely a whisper, almost
embarrassed to admit that at her age she had never had another lover.  He swore and
stared off towards the ceiling on the far side of the room. 
	“Hannah, I’m sorry!  I’m so sorry!”
	For the first time since her secret had come out in the open, Hannah felt sorry for
him.  She’d had all these months to come to terms with what had happened, but it was
all new to him.  “It’s OK, Cole,” she said softly.
	He shot a distraught look her direction.  “It is not OK, damnit!  I was supposed to
take you home, I was supposed to be protecting you from the wolves! Instead, I — “ he
looked at her, as if he could not bring himself to say what he had done.  He stood up and
went to look out the window, his back to her.  “I had been drinking much too much that
night.  I’d just found out that Veronica — my fiancée — had been playing me for a fool.  I
thought I meant something to her.  Instead, she was nothing more than a gold digger,
happy to take my money and my gifts, and my cars, while leading me on to think I meant
more to her than I did.  Apparently every man in town knew it but me, including some of
my own workers.  She shared her bed with most of them.”
	Hannah winced.  “How did you find out?”
	He sighed. “Ty,” he said, stepping away from the window.  “My brother may be a
playboy, but he’s a loyal brother.  She didn’t count on that.”
	Hannah’s eyes widened.  “She went after Ty?”
	Cole nodded, and the hurt showed in his eyes when he turned to look at her.
“She did.  He played along for a while, got her to admit to him that she played just about
every guy in town, then he told her what he thought of her.  He gave her the ultimatum. 
Either she tell me the truth, or he would.”
	“And?”
	He shrugged. “She didn’t have the guts.  She took her stuff and left, with nothing
more than an message on my answering machine saying that we were through.  Ty had
to fill in the details.”  He laughed rather sarcastically.  “At first I didn’t believe him, but
he’d done his homework.  After he’d had it out with her, he’d gone talking to the guys.
He had names.  Names of guys she’d been with, and some who had refused her when
she’d tried.  They all confirmed what he’d told me.” He smirked at her.  “I think they were
afraid I’d fire them if they didn’t confess.”
	“You didn’t, did you?”
	He shook his head. “No. I didn’t blame them, there were too many of them.  It
became painfully obvious that she was the one to blame.”
	“I’m sorry, Cole,” she said, for lack of anything better.
	He shrugged, and slumped back onto the couch. “It happened about a week
before the party.  I’m not a big drinker, but that night I went way overboard trying to
erase her from my mind. It would appear I erased my good judgement as well.”
	Hannah chuckled. “Well, at least we were both in the same state that night,” she
said, and Cole actually smiled back at her. 
	“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”  He looked at her thoughtfully. “Hannah, can’t you let
me help you out somehow?”
	She sighed. It was back to that again, and much as she wanted to insist that she
didn’t need his help, she began to wonder if her stubbornness was worth the effort.  
Afterall, what would it hurt to let him drive her around once in a while?  It was getting a bit
of a tight fit on the bus these days anyway.  She looked at him and sighed again.
	“My appointment is at one o’clock if you want to drop me off on your way to,
wherever you’ll be going?”
	He smiled like a kid in a candy store, and Hannah laughed at him, surprised that
this little gesture seemed to mean so much to him.  He looked at his watch.  It was
eleven already.
	“I don’t have anywhere to go, actually. I could just wait here til it was time to take
you?” he suggested.
	Hannah opened her mouth to object, then thought better of it.  If she were going
to try not to argue about things, she might as well start now. 
	“I’ll just go get dressed, then I’ll make some lunch,” she said, pushing her hands
on the arms of the chair to get up. Immediately Cole jumped up to help her, and as he
pulled her out of the chair with one hand his other hand came to rest on her belly. For a
moment they stood there motionless as he looked at his hand, resting on the belly that
held his baby.
	His baby!	
	Cole swallowed hard, and moved his hand away. “I’m sorry,” he sputtered, and
moved back to the window. Without a word, Hannah left the room to get dressed,
returning a few minutes later and going directly to the kitchenette to start some lunch for
the two of them.
	After that, the time they spent together actually passed quite smoothly.  Hannah
made them some soup and a salad, and while they ate, they carried on a friendly
conversation about their families, their interests, their general likes and dislikes. The
same get-to-know-you chat that any two people might have when they first met, and
Hannah was able to forget about the circumstances behind their meeting.  It was as if
they were just a couple of friends spending an hour together.  
	At one point they found themselves laughing at something one of them had said. 
Hannah leaned forward on her elbows and looked across the table at him with the
remnants of her laugh still lingering in a smile on her face.  He was still smiling too, a
wide teasing grin that went right to his eyes, and for a moment as she looked into those
laughing eyes, Hannah felt a strange sensation deep inside her.  No wonder, she
thought, that I ended up in bed with this man! He was one of the most handsome men
she had ever seen, and when he laughed like that, the whole effect was accentuated. 
His dark brown eyes positively sparkled with laughter and his smile was enough to melt
any woman, she was certain.
	My baby will have dark eyes like that, she thought, and the thought brought her
back to earth.  She cleared her throat and looked down at her empty soup bowl.
	“Well, I suppose I should take care of these dishes before we head over to the
doctor’s,” she said, reaching for his bowl and placing it inside her own as she stood up
from the table, not daring to look at him. 
	“I’ll give you a hand,” he said.  It might have been the fact that she was uncertain
how reliable her voice would be, or simply that she felt comfortable with him working
alongside her, but whatever the reason, Hannah didn’t even object.  She filled the sink
with soapy water and washed the dishes while he dried, and the job was done in no
time.
	“There, all done!” she said triumphantly, as she draped the dishcloth over the
tap.  “I guess we should get going soon.”
	He nodded. “Where is your doctor?”
	“Over on Rosewood,” she said, reaching for her purse.
	“Right.  Then we should get going.  We don’t want to make you late.”  He smiled
again, and Hannah found it necessary to search for something important in her purse to
avoid looking into those eyes of his.  
	The drive to the doctor’s office was uneventful.  When Cole pulled his car into the
parking lot, Hannah was surprised to realize she was disappointed the ride was over.
She had enjoyed spending the time with him.  She sighed, and looked out the window
towards the building.
	“Well, here we are. Thank you for the ride, Cole.  I really do appreciate it,” she
said, not moving to get out of the car.
	“Think nothing of it,” he said. “It was my pleasure.”
	She nodded. There was really nothing more to say. Almost reluctantly she
reached for the door handle, and just as she was about to open the door he spoke
again.
	“How are you going to get home after?” he asked her, glancing towards her.
	“I’ll have to take the bus. I don’t mind,” she assured him. 
	“I — “ he paused, as if not sure he should go on.  “I could wait for you?”  This
time it was more a question than an statement, and Hannah frowned. 
	“I have no idea how long it will be, Cole.  Sometimes there’s a long wait,
especially  if the doctor has been called away to deliver a baby.”
	He nodded.  “I guess that could be a problem,” he said thoughtfully.
	She glanced at her watch. “Well, I guess I should get going. It’s almost time.”
	Again, he nodded.  She opened the door and stepped out of the car.  Just as
she was about to close the door he called out to her again. “Hannah?”
	“What, Cole?” she asked, bending to look into the car at him.
	“I could — come in with you?”
	“I don’t know, Cole.  It might not be such a good idea. It’s a room full of pregnant
women in there, and — and their husbands.” She blushed slightly as she thought of him
in the waiting room with all the expectant dads.  “You — you might feel out of place.”
	He nodded again. “You might be right,” he said, settling back into his seat and
looking forward.  She hesitated, then closed the door and turned to walk across the
parking lot.  Who are you kidding? she thought to herself. Who are you really worried
about feeling uncomfortable? Him or yourself? 
	“Hannah!”  She had gone about ten paces when  she heard her name.  Turning
around, she saw him standing beside the car looking at her over the roof.  “I wouldn’t
mind, really I wouldn’t.”
	No! she said to herself. There is no reason for him to be there with you!
	“Alright,” she said out loud, shrugging. “If you really want to?”
	She hadn’t even finished speaking and he had closed the car door and covered
half the distance between her and the car. 
	
	It was like no experience Cole had ever had in his life before!  He sat in the chair
next to Hannah and looked around the room.  Everywhere he looked there were women.
Pregnant women.  Some, not as large as Hannah yet, others, sticking out in front so far
they looked uncomfortable.  Beside many of them were men, who looked quite at home
in their surroundings.  Other women were alone, and Cole frowned to think that Hannah
had been one of them on all her previous visits. He cast a tentative glance in her
direction and found her engrossed in a magazine.  Something about babies, he
gathered, from the picture on the page she was looking at.  With another look around,
he spotted more magazines on the table beside him, and reached for one, and settled
back in his chair. 
	Babies.  The magazine talked about colic and ear aches and bathing and
vitamins.  All about babies.  Anything anyone could ever want to know about babies, he
thought to himself, then glanced at the table again. There were several other issues of
the same magazine there as well. Maybe this one magazine didn’t have exactly
everything there was to know.  Perhaps there was more to know about babies than he
thought?  He turned the page.  More babies. With a cautious glance to the side he tried
to make out what it was that Hannah was reading. Maybe then he would have an idea
what was important and what was not?”
	Hannah glanced at him with a wry smile. He was looking at a parenting magazine
as if it truly interested him, but he did look a little uncomfortable.  She leaned towards
him slightly and whispered. “They have car magazines somewhere. For the dads.”
	“I’m fine,” he assured her, and turned the page. When she went back to her
reading he peered her direction again. “What are you reading about?” he asked, finally
giving up on pretending not to look at her magazine and setting his own down on his lap.
	“Breast feeding,” she told him, as if it were the most normal topic for
conversation.
	“Oh!” he said, then realised that in an obstetrical office, it was a normal topic of
conversation.  “Are you going to do that?” he asked, realizing there was so much about
this baby and its future that he hadn’t even considered.
	“Mhmm,” she nodded, without taking her eyes off the article. “It’s cheaper than
formula, and it’s good for the baby.”
	“Well, that’s good then, right?”  He raised his brow questioningly.
	She lifted her eyes to smile at him over her magazine. “Yes, that’s good.”
	He nodded, and looked around the room again.  A name had been called, and
one of the very large women stood up and headed toward the door where a nurse stood
smiling, while the husband followed behind.  A few chairs away two women were
discussing heartbeats, one quoting a number that had been her baby’s heartbeat on her
previous visit, and insisting that meant her baby was a boy.  Cole didn’t know anything
about babies, but he had worked out, and learned about heart rates and pulses, and the
number seemed awfully high to him.
	“Is that normal?” he said quietly, leaning close to Hannah, a worried look on his
face.
	“Is what normal?” 
	“A heartbeat way up in the hundreds like that?  Isn’t that a little fast?”
	Hannah smiled. “No. Babys have high heart rates before they are born. That’s
quite normal. “
	“Oh.”  Cole nodded, and turned his attention back to the magazine in his hand.
He studied it for a long time without reading a word, before he saw a door open again. 
	“Hannah, it’s your turn,” a smiling nurse said, and Hannah tossed her magazine
back onto the table.  Cole looked up, fighting away a wave of panic at the thought of
being left alone in a room full of pregnant women, and the nurse beamed at him. “Baby’s
father is with you today?” the nurse asked.	
	“Ahhh — ummm — “ Hannah looked at Cole, flustered and unsure what to say.
After a short pause, she took a deep breath, and nodded. “Yes, yes, that’s right,” she
said, as she smiled down at Cole. “This won’t take too long, I’ll be back before you know
it.”
	Cole smiled, and nodded, and watched as Hannah disappeared behind the door
with the nurse. He shifted in the chair, and lifted his magazine again. There was
something very official sounding about being called baby’s father in an obstetrician’s
office, he thought.  Something neither he, nor Hannah could ignore any longer!