Champagne Romance (Romance Novel) by Suellen Smith

jogging with his
happy Doberman heading for the beach. After paying the taxi driver
from bills folded a certain way to indicate the denomination, Swan
made her way to the office of the medical building.
    Climbing the steps into the large five-story
building, Swan was feeling rather proud of having found the
elevator. She felt for the button that went to the third floor. She
used her white cane to get herself to the reception desk and
announce her presence to the office clerk. Having found the nearest
chair, she sat down.
    Even though Swan wore her designer
sunglasses she could feel the rude stares of other patients---funny
how she was even aware when the novelty of a blind person in their
presence wore off and they looked away engrossing themselves in
a People or Entertainment magazine. It wasn’t
long before the nurse called her name, guided her to a room at the
back, gave her a medical gown, made sure she was comfortable, and
shut the door behind her.
    Swan could hear the quiet murmur of voices in
the next room. If she didn’t breathe she could almost make out what
was being said. A few minutes later a door shut quietly and
footsteps approached her door. The doctor made a ten second read of
the file that was placed outside the examining room and entered
with a quiet knock.
    Doctor Maggie was always very considerate and
thoughtful. It was easy to have a good relationship with her. She
understood the white coat syndrome and always tried to make her
patients feel as comfortable as possible. Today was no different.
Swan had been going to her for a very long time.
    Taking Swan’s hand for reassurance, Dr.
Maggie expressed her sadness of the accident and then moved on to
her professional self. Having told the doctor her symptoms of
lethargy and nausea, Swan expressed her concern that the concussion
was affecting more than her sight. The doctor listened to her vital
signs and felt her tummy. She then ordered a blood and urine test
to be rushed to the lab. She was soon finished and told Swan to get
dressed and meet her in her office. When Swan was ready, a nurse
appeared to guide her down the hall and into an office leather
chair.
    It was a while later before a shocked Swan
left the medical facility. With the name of an obstetrician in one
hand, she slowly made her way down the handicap ramp. She was
trying not to go into shock as she moved along like an old woman
putting one foot down in front of the other in a very mechanical
gait. She felt that the unbelievable had happened and she was
having a hard time getting her mind around the grim fact. Ace
apparently had a very potent sperm count and she was three months
pregnant. She would be a mother by fall.
     

CHAPTER 23
     
    Slater needed some R&R at his working
Malibu ranch north of LA. He fired up his twin-engine private plane
and headed for his Yucca Point Ranch near the small coastal city of
Malibu with his Doberman companion, Caesar. He landed on his
private runway just in time to see the lavender and magenta sunset
crisscross the rolling Pacific.
    The first residence of this small unique
California town was the Chumash Indians in the 1500’s. They lived
up and down the sleepy shore from Malibu to San Luis Obispo in
their dome-shaped grass huts. These Indians were fabulous craftsmen
famous for the canoes they made using shells and flints. They were
fishermen as well. They liked to traveled as far as Santa Catalina
to trade with the Indians on the island for steatite, a form of
soapstone, which they made bowls lined with the colorful shell of
the abalone. They were considered one of the most advanced of the
California Indians.
    The modern town of Malibu is quite quaint
with only approximately thirteen thousand residences that reside
there year around on very rich real estate. It sets on the Pacific
Coast Highway that winds through hilly terrain and gives a constant
view of the Pacific Ocean with its lumbering tides and sandy
beaches. The twenty-three miles of rugged