14
Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.
Les Brown
Sean Crews settled into the chair at the gate’s terminal. What were the odds of him running into Claire Fowler at the airport? Especially with Lance’s brother. He’d seen the territorial look in the man’s gaze when he’d approached them. It looked like Lance wouldn’t be the only Montgomery interested in a Fowler. If that was the case, he was happy for them. He’d meant everything he’d told Claire. He was happy for Asia as well.
He’d accepted things would not have worked out between him and Asia, although he’d wished otherwise. David was still more of an ass than ever. There was no doubt in his mind that if he and Asia had married, David would have done anything and everything to destroy their marriage.
Asia had put up with enough of David’s foolishness and deserved better. And from what he’d heard from their mutual friends, Lance Montgomery had done a total 180 and was now a dedicated husband and father. That just went to show that miracles could happen.
Something else had happened, as well. He’d realized a number of things about himself. He’d accepted that the love he thought he’d felt for Asia had only been a deep desire to protect her from his asshole of a brother. He’d seen the way David had treated her, and believing she deserved better, had decided that he was the person who could make her happy.
At first, he’d been nothing but a friend. And although he’d wanted more--and had pushed for more--in the end, that’s all they were. The two of them had never even shared a bed. She kept putting him off by claiming she wasn’t ready and later, he’d discovered why. Her heart had never been his. It had belonged to another.
And then there was Liz.
Elizabeth Howard had been his friend since the day they began working at Boston Harbor Medical Center together, close to ten years ago. At the time, she’d been involved with someone else. When she broke up with her guy, he’d been seriously dating someone else and she’d begun dating again as well. Then Asia had come along and he’d put all his time and attention into building a serious relationship with her. Liz had become his best friend, his confidante, someone he felt close to, not only on a personal level but a professional one as well. She worked at the hospital as a heart specialist, whereas he was an orthopedic specialist. Their paths crossed daily.
He recalled when the two of them had been chosen to be a part of the President’s Goodwill team. The team had been created by President Kennedy more than fifty years ago. Its goal was to aid those countries that lacked sufficient heath care by assembling some of the most gifted doctors the United States had to offer--all specialists in their chosen field. Once accepted to the team, the doctors committed their medical expertise for five years.
He, Liz and another team of doctors had spent a lot of time together. At the time, he’d never considered Liz to be anything other than a good friend. She had known how much he’d cared for Asia…or how much he’d thought he’d cared for her.
Liz had been the one who had helped him pick out Asia’s engagement ring. And she’d been the first person he’d called after popping the question. She’d been his best friend. It was only after his breakup with Asia--and after a lot of soul searching—that he’d realized that the woman he should have been concentrating on had been right there, in front of him, all the time. That person had been Liz.
And he’d lost her.
It had been all his fault. One night, while trying to deal with his breakup with Asia, he had used Liz to try and ease his heartbreak and pain. After that, his friendship with Liz had never been the same. Not long after that night, she’d transferred to another hospital. She didn’t tell him where she was going, and no one else would tell him, either. It had taken her absence to make him realize just what she had meant to him, and to put what he’d assumed he felt for Asia in perspective. Funny how things turned out.
He stretched out his legs, ready to get home and hoped there weren’t any delays. He couldn’t wait to return to Boston. He’d been gone a week, so the first thing he had to do was go to the grocery store. He had left his refrigerator pretty bare.
He felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket and quickly pulled it out. Checking the caller ID, he saw it was the private investigator he had hired two months ago. He clicked on the phone. “This is Dr. Crews.”
“Dr. Crews, this is Al Bergman. I have some good news for you. I’ve located the whereabouts of Dr. Elizabeth Howard.”
Sean sat up straight in his chair and released a deep sigh. “Where is she?”
“She’s living in a small town in Minnesota called Belfort. She runs the clinic there. The town isn’t large enough for a hospital.”
A clinic? Sean shook his head. That didn’t make sense. Liz was a gifted heart surgeon. Why wasn’t she working at some major hospital? “Is she married?” He hated asking, but needed to know.
“No, she’s not married. But she is a single mother.”
Sean’s head snapped up. “A single mother?”
“Yes. She has twin girls.”
Sean felt a pain in his heart at the thought that Liz might have met someone and had the man’s children. He knew she’d always wanted a family. Sean wondered if she and her daughters’ father were still involved. “Any signs of a man in her life?”
“No. It doesn’t appear she’s even dating. But then, I didn’t monitor her activities for long. I just located her, as you asked me to do. I couldn’t help but notice the girls, since they seem to be the same age as my granddaughter.”
“Which is?”
“Around two. I saw them briefly as she was getting them in and out of the car at their daycare center.”
Sean suddenly went still. “How old did you say you thought her daughters were?”
“I’d say around two.”
His heart began pounding. Could the twins be his? Was it wishful thinking on his part? He and Liz had had unprotected sex on New Year’s Eve.
Sean stood and began pacing, ignoring the people watching him. Would Liz have told him if she’d become pregnant on their one night together? Not if she believed he had used her to get over another woman. Was that the reason she had left Boston Harbor MC without telling him where she’d gone?
“Dr. Crews?”
For a moment, he’d forgotten he still had the PI on the phone. “I’m at the airport, on my way back to Boston, Bergman. Email me your report. I need to know everything you have on both Ms. Howard and her daughters. And if you can, please get photos.”
The excitement he was beginning to feel had his heart rate increasing. Regardless of whether Liz’s daughters were his, he wanted to see her, to apologize and tell her his true feelings for her.
“I’ll get that information to you shortly, Dr. Crews.”
“Thanks.” Sean clicked off the phone and returned to his seat. He tuned out all the noise around him as his mind wandered back to that one night when his friendship with Liz had changed.
It had been New Year’s Eve when Asia had told him the truth, that there was no way she could marry him because she intended to marry Lance Montgomery. She’d told him she appreciated him but that she didn’t love him. To her, he would always be a dear friend. Her words had hurt--he’d wanted more.
Sean had left Asia’s place in Chicago and had caught a flight back to Boston. Not wanting to spend New Year’s Eve alone, he had called Liz to go out with him to celebrate. She had agreed and they first had dinner at a restaurant on the Harbor before going to a party. In fact, they had gone to several parties.
Before midnight, they had made it back to her apartment, where they would share a drink to bring in the New Year. He had been determined to enjoy the night and had refused to wallow in self-pity. He and Liz had made a toast for a better new year. Then they’d done something they had never done before—they’d kissed.
That kiss had let loose a secret, uncontrollable passion between them, and they’d ended up making hot, spontaneous, mind-blowing love. He had been the first to awaken and when he’d realized what they’d done--what he’d done--he had gotten dressed and left while she slept.
When she’d called him later, he had apologized for taking advantage of her and asked if she’d been on any type of birth control, since in his rush to get inside of her, he hadn’t thought of using any. She assured him she was and not to worry about an unwanted pregnancy.
Although Liz had tried maintaining their friendship, the guilt of what he’d done to her that night, using her body to get over Asia, had clawed at him every time he saw her. She hadn’t deserved what he’d done. His apology hadn’t been enough.
So, he began avoiding her, not taking her calls, refusing her invitations to spend time doing things they used to do--jogging together, going to the movies or out for dinner, like old times. In his mind, things couldn’t be the same. He’d destroyed the best friendship he’d ever had. Things had only become worse when a few days later, David had called to let him know that the announcement of Lance Montgomery’s and Asia’s engagement had appeared in that morning’s Chicago Tribune. His brother, of course, had taken the time to gloat with numerous, “I told you so’s.”
Sean rubbed his hand down his face. He hadn’t slept with another woman since spending that night with Liz. Being with her had erased his desire for any other woman from his mind. That’s when he finally had to admit the truth. He loved Liz. A part of him believed he’d loved her even when he’d fancied himself devoted to Asia.
If nothing else, Bergman was thorough. It wouldn’t be long now before Sean would get the information he had asked for.
Elizabeth Howard glanced down at the shopping list for her daughters’ birthday party, and then looked over at her dad and shook her head. “Honestly, Dad. Barbeque ribs for the twins’ birthday party?”
Dr. Phillip Howard shrugged, refusing to take his eyes off the football game highlights on ESPN. Liz knew what would grab his attention. “Oh, by the way, I got a call from Boston Harbor MC. They want me to come back.”
Just like she’d figured, her father’s head jerked around toward her and he click the television on mute. “Are you serious?”
She smiled. “Yes. Now that I have your attention, what about the ribs?”
“And what about you finally going back and doing the job you were trained to do? You’re wasting your medical skills working at that clinic. Please tell me you’re thinking of going back, Elizabeth.”
Liz didn’t say anything. The girls were down for their nap, so she’d decided to relax a little and go over the menu for this Saturday’s party while enjoying her father’s visit. He had come from Memphis for the girls’ birthday a few days early, and she was thrilled to have some extra time to spend with him—even if it meant adding his favorite food--spare ribs—to the menu.
“Elizabeth?”
She knew that tone. Her father always used it when he required her direct attention. She glanced over at him and decided to be honest. “I’m thinking about it.” She surprised herself in admitting it. When she’d left Boston three years ago, she had no plans to return, ever. At least, not as long as Dr. Sean Crews was working there.
The story went like this…
When she’d left, she just discovered she was two months pregnant. The children’s father was Sean, who was in love with someone else--a woman named Asia. What was even sadder was that Asia had been in love with someone else, too--a man named Lance Montgomery. In the end, Asia ended her engagement to Sean to marry Lance, leaving Sean hurt and heartbroken. He’d found comfort in Liz’s arms and unknowingly, in the process, had planted his seed inside her womb.
End of story.
No, not really. Sean had been her best friend, but the night they slept together had changed him. When she had awakened on New Year’s Day, her bed had been empty. He had left sometime before daybreak.
She hadn’t been the woman he’d wanted in his bed, and he had let her know it by his words and his actions after that night. When she finally managed to force a conversation with him, he told her that their night together had been a mistake. She’d been too hurt to disagree with him. And then she’d noticed that he’d begun putting distance between them. He’d been her best buddy and they would often do things together, but he’d stopped answering her calls. When she did manage to see him, he always had some flimsy excuse for not wanting to spend any time together. It had gotten so bad, their mutual friends had picked up on it.
When she’d discovered she was pregnant, she knew there was no way she could remain at Boston Harbor General. She’d learned of an opening for an administrator at a clinic in Belfort, and she’d applied for the position. All they’d been looking for was a general practitioner, and believed her to be overqualified. But somehow, she’d convinced them she was looking for a change.
She’d been upfront about the fact that she was pregnant and single. They hadn’t judged and she appreciated that. So now, she ran the town’s only hospital that had less than a hundred beds. It was so small, most people considered it an overnight clinic. The town had grown on her but she missed Boston.
“Yes, Dad, I’m thinking about it. I love Boston, you know that. But moving back means telling Sean about the twins.”
Liz and her father had a close relationship and he knew Sean was her babies’ father. He also knew she’d loved Sean from the first time she’d met him, and how her crush for him had transformed into something more. Sean hadn’t known how heartbroken she’d been when he’d fallen in love with another woman.
It was her father’s broad shoulders she’d cried on. It had been her father’s calming words that had comforted her and had helped her to accept her loss. He had convinced her there was a man out there worthy of her affection. If Sean wasn’t that man, then she needed to not give up on love.
“I think it’s time for you to tell him anyway. The girls are almost two. He has a right to know,” her father said. “Besides, the girls will start asking questions about him soon.”
She lifted a brow. “What makes you think that?”
“Because you began asking questions about your mother when you were only slightly older than they are.”
Liz didn’t say anything. It still amazed her how any woman could walk out of a hospital and leave her baby behind. Paula Wells had done just that. She wasn’t married to her baby’s father, and had no intention of staying with him because of an unwanted pregnancy. Nor did she intend to let that pregnancy stop her from being the party girl that she was.
With the help of Liz’s live-in widowed grandmother, who’d taken care of her while her father worked, Liz had grown up surrounded with love. The first time she’d seen her mother had been when Paula had shown up unexpectedly at Liz’s grandmother’s funeral when Liz was eighteen. When Paula saw that neither Liz nor Phillip had any plans to welcome her with open arms, she had left again for parts unknown. And she’d never been heard from since.
Liz had promised herself that she’d be a better mother to her girls than Paula had been to her. Any decision she made was done with Haylee and Kaylee in mind. They were her pride and joy, and their grandfather’s too. That was why it bothered him that she still hadn’t told Sean about his daughters.
She knew from her friends in Boston that Sean had tried to find her. But she’d sworn people to secrecy about her whereabouts. Still, there was a chance he already knew about the girls, since she’d run into his brother David last year in New York. She’d had the girls with her. She thought her daughters favored Sean a lot and she could tell from the expression on David Crews’ face that he’d put two and two together rather quickly.
But instead of acknowledging the girls as his nieces, David hadn’t wasted any time informing her that Sean had bounced back from his breakup with Asia and was now serious about some woman he’d met while visiting a friend in California. According to David, the relationship was so serious that their family was expecting a wedding announcement soon. That had been a year ago. Chances were, Sean was married by now. Still, married or not, her father was right. Sean deserved to know he was a father.
“I’ve decided to tell Sean. You’re right, Dad. He should know.”
“What made you decide to tell him?” he asked.
“I’ve always known he should know, but I was hurt, and his deliberate avoidance of me didn’t help. I honestly thought his brother would have told him. For all I know, he did. Maybe Sean decided he didn’t need to know his girls.”
“Do you honestly believe that, Elizabeth?”
No, she didn’t. At least she didn’t want to. “He might be married, Dad.”
“Maybe. But he has a right to be a part of his daughters’ lives, married or not. And if he’s married, you will deal with it--for your daughters’ sake. Haylee and Kaylee’s needs come first. You’ve always known how to contact him, but he never knew how to contact you.”
True, but Liz never thought Sean would want to. “The hospital offered me a new position--Chief of Surgery in the Cardiology department. The salary is nice and I will be the first female in that position, and the youngest person, period. Not bad for a thirty-three-year-old, huh? Besides, I need to start thinking of the girls’ future. I will have two in college at the same time.”
“And medical school, I imagine, will be even more expensive,” her father added.
Liz grinned. “Med school? What makes you think your granddaughters will want to go into medicine?”
“Their mother and father are doctors, and so is their grandfather. I can’t see them wanting to be anything else,” he said, laughing. “But all jokes aside, I’m glad you’re telling Sean. I felt bad for him when he showed up in Memphis looking for you. The only reason I didn’t tell him anything was because I promised you that I wouldn’t. I always liked him.”
In a way, she felt bad about putting her father in that position, especially when she’d known how much her father had liked Sean and vice versa. Liz could clearly remember the day they’d met. Sean had flown with her to Memphis to attend the ceremony when her father had been recognized as Doctor of the Year at the hospital where he was now chief administrator.
“Yes, Dad, Sean will finally learn he’s a father.”
“So, when will you tell him?”
She drew in a deep breath. “I plan to contact him next week to let him know I’m returning to Boston Harbor, and the new position I’ll be taking on. I’ll tell him about the girls then. I don’t want him blindsided.”
She paused for a minute. “If he’s married, hopefully he and his wife won’t have a problem with me and the girls invading their space.”
“And if he does?”
She lifted her chin with a stubborn slant. “I guess then they’ll just have to get used to it.”