Chapter 74
Kevin turned on the hall light and tossed his oversized bag on the floor, tired of lugging it through the airport to the car and from the car into the house. He was exhausted and needed sleep in order to be prepared to face Lynne rationally the next day. She was stubborn and he knew that fatigue would only cause him to be on the defensive, something he couldn’t afford in this delicate of a situation.
Wearily, he went to his bedroom and sat down on the side of the bed. The same bed they had shared for several years. He opened the nightstand’s top drawer and reached his long thin fingers inside, searching for the blue box he had bought just days before Lynne left him. Finding it pushed up against the back wall of the drawer, he pulled it out and stared at it longingly. He was afraid to open it, all of the memories of his past with her flooding his thoughts. Finally he gathered enough courage to open the box, pulling out the diamond engagement ring he had bought, with the intention of proposing on Christmas Eve. It was a dream that had gone unfulfilled.
Tears filled his eyes with the thoughts of how much he had missed out on. The baby’s first movement, going to the doctor’s appointments and listening to the baby’s heartbeat, the ultrasound, but most of all he missed sharing this wonderful experience with the woman he loved more than anything. The same woman that he wanted to share his life with.
Clutching the box in his hand, he lay back on the bed and silently cried himself to sleep.
A few hours later, the sound of the phone ringing woke him from his tormented slumber. Groggily, he looked at the clock and reached for the cordless phone that sat next to his bed. It was three a.m. and the caller id showed the name and number to be unknown.
"Hello?" he asked, lying back on the bed, too tired to move. No one answered him. There was only a faint whimpering on the line.
"Hello?" he asked again, irritated that someone was calling him so early and not saying a word.
"Kevin?" she whispered, barely able to breathe. "It’s Lynne."
Kevin bolted upright, stunned that she was calling him. Fear began to run rampant. "Lynne, baby. Is everything okay?"
"No. Can you come over?" she cried.
"I’ll be right there, baby. Call me back on the cell phone if you need to" he said as he grabbed his keys and started for the front door.
"Kevin?"
"Yes, baby?"
"Please hurry" she pleaded. "It hurts so bad."
"I’ll be right there, Lynne. I promise! " he said hanging up and throwing the phone across the room.
The twenty-minute drive to her house seemed like an eternity. His mind was racing; his heart pounding and he felt as if he were never going to get there. Had it not been for Michelle, Kevin wouldn’t have known that Lynne was pregnant with his baby or even where she lived.
As he roared down the street she now lived on, he saw her navy blue BMW parked in the driveway, her license plate still reading ‘KEVSGRL’. She met him at the door, her right hand reaching for him, her left hand holding her stomach, her eyes wet with tears.
"I’m sorry," she said softly as a lone tear slid down her flushed cheeks.
Wrapping his arms around her and helping her down the stairs, he asked, "Do you have a bag packed?"
"By the front door" she managed to gasp as he helped her into the passenger seat of his car.
Shutting the car door, he ran up to the house and grabbed the bag. As he got back into his car and began to back out of the driveway, Lynne gripped the passenger side door handle and bit her bottom lip.
Without a word, Kevin reached over and took her hand in his, trying his best to hold back his own tears. The sight of her bulging tummy overwhelmed him with emotion, knowing that his child was nestled deep inside of the woman he not only loved with all of his heart but the woman that he lost and may never be able to hold onto. He squeezed her hand as he hurriedly yet carefully drove to the nearest hospital.