Page 43 of Texas-Sized Scandal

“Thanks, Dad,” Slade said. He and his father still had a ways to go before they would have a real relationship, but they were working on it. Slade hugged his father and then he left, going down the hallway away from the waiting room.

Slade stepped into the waiting room where Angela had joined Nonna. They both looked over at him expectantly.

“She’s having some tests done, but the doctor thinks the baby’s okay. We’ll know more when she gets back. He said it could be gas. I’m praying that it is.”

“We all are,” Angela said. “Can we wait in her room? I want to see her when she gets back.”

“The nurse said she’d come and get us,” Slade said, sitting down in the chair and putting his head in his hands. He had never felt so powerless before. He didn’t often pray; it wasn’t something that made much sense to him since he was a man who made things happen by taking action. But in this moment, he reached out to God or the universe...anyone who was listening.

“Please protect my family,” he said. Knowing in his heart that he needed them more than anything else.

As soon as Melinda was back in her cubicle in the emergency room, Angela rushed in to see her. Her twin hugged her and sat on the bed next to her. “Are you okay?”

“I think so. The doctor thinks it might be just regular stomach pain and nothing to do with the baby. We should know something soon. How embarrassing if it turns out to just be gas,” Melinda said.

“Not embarrassing at all. It was probably stress. I hope that it is just that, so we don’t have to worry anymore. Slade is beside himself. He wanted to come in, but then wasn’t sure if you wanted to see him. I’ve never seen Slade Bartelli acting the way he is right now,” Angela said.

“I know. I think he’s worried about the baby.” And her, Melinda wanted to add. But she needed to be cautious. She had promised herself to stop seeing Slade as she wanted him to be and to only see the man he really was.

His grandmother was out there, and she had to wonder if he was playing the concerned boyfriend for her. But the way he’d held her hand, the things he’d said to her before... Maybe it had been the pain making her see it in a different way, but she thought that Slade was being genuine. He’d never been one to pretend to feel something he didn’t. It had only been her perception that she didn’t trust.

“I think he’s worried about you,” Angela said. “I heard him talking to his grandmother and she was comforting him. Telling him that he’d have time to fix this.”

“This?”

“Well, obviously I don’t know what they were talking about, but I’m pretty sure she meant things with you. I had my doubts about him. He seemed like a bit of fun and you definitely were overdue for some fun, but now I think he might be the real deal, Mels.”

She hoped her sister was right.

Angela stayed until the doctor came in and gave her the test results and the all clear. Her sister left to allow Melinda to get changed into her street clothes and to go fill the prescription the doctor gave her, but only after promising to send Slade in.

Melinda wanted to talk to him privately before she went out to see Philomena. She hoped that none of the society bloggers had been alerted to her being at the hospital. She wasn’t ready for all of Houston society to know that she was pregnant until she knew what was happening between her and Slade.

Someone knocked on the door and she called out for them to come in. It was Slade. He looked haggard, as if he’d been running his hands through his hair, but he smiled when he saw her.

“You’re okay?” he asked.

“Yes. Just some stomach problems and the doctor has given me some medicine to take. He also wants me to try a bland diet for a few days to make sure that it’s not serious. I’m supposed to go and see my doctor tomorrow.”

“Thank God,” he said. “I was so worried about you.”

“I was worried too,” she admitted. “So why are you here?”

“I guess that’s a fair question,” he said. “I want you to know that the last three days have been the longest of my life. I thought I was protecting you by leaving and for the first night while I drank a bottle of Jack in my den, I almost believed it. But the next morning I realized that you had been right when you said I wasn’t eighteen anymore. I’d been afraid to reach out to my father because I knew that I had wanted that relationship to be something it couldn’t be.”

“Fair enough,” she said. “Hopefully now you can resolve that.”

She still wasn’t sure why he was here. He’d been pretty adamant that he didn’t want to be a family man.

“I already did. Once I realized that I needed you back in my life, I realized I had to talk to Dad and let him know that I wanted no part of his life,” Slade said.

“Good. What did he say?” she asked. Slade was always going to have a big gaping hole inside of him until he resolved his issues with his dad.

“He got it. We aren’t totally there yet, but we’re working toward it. He drove me here today.”

“He did?” she asked, surprised.

“Yes. He said when the woman I loved was in danger, I shouldn’t be driving,” Slade said.