“Didn’t you think he was, like, smoking hot?” Chloe asked.

Daisy was sitting on the couch, both hands curved around her belly. For the past five days, ever since Carter had left in a way that clearly signaled something was wrong, she’d been feeling sick and depressed.

Now she was feeling sicker than ever—kind of woozy and feverish. Emotions could really screw up one’s physical well-being.

She sighed and answered her friend’s question. “Of course I did. I mean, we had sex the first time we met. It was like we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.”

“So you like how he looks?” Chloe prompted. She was putting up the dishes that had been sitting in the dishwasher now for two days.

Daisy never left chores undone like that. She didn’t know what was wrong with her. Carter shouldn’t have been so important to her that his absence made everything fall apart for her. “Yes, you know very well that I like how he looks.”

“Unshaven, kind of rough around the edges? And you like how he works with his hands and gets a little dirty?”

“Yes,” Daisy groaned. “What’s your point?”

“So if you like him how he is, why did you get into a fight over something so stupid?”

Daisy sighed. She’d been asking herself the same thing for almost a week now, and the truth was she already knew the answer. “I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do. You just don’t want to admit it. I agree he was being completely unreasonable and overly sensitive, and his not calling for five days is blowing the whole thing way out of proportion. But he was picking up something in your behavior, and you know what it is.”

Daisy winced slightly as she felt a twinge below her belly. It wasn’t one of those pleasant twinges she felt all the time around Carter. It was different. Sharper. She’d been feeling it on and off all day. But she made herself focus on Chloe’s question, and after a minute, she admitted, “I like him. A lot. Just as he is. But I want…”

“You want what?” Chloe was holding two glasses in her hands, but she paused and gave Daisy a significant look.

“I want everyone else in my life to like him too. My parents. The folks at church. Preston people. I want everyone to see how great he is, and I don’t know that they will if he’s…”

“Rough around the edges.”

Daisy let out a long breath and leaned back to close her eyes. “Yeah.”

“So why don’t you just tell him that?”

“Tell him what?”

“Tell him why you made a big deal about his appearance and his job and everything. He thinks you don’t want him for him.”

“But I do.”

“I know you do. And you know you do. But he doesn’t know you do.”

Daisy frowned and thought for a minute. “So I just… tell him?”

“Yeah. Why not?”

“Because he’s not calling me.”

“He’s texted every day, hasn’t he?”

“Yeah, but just to check in and see how things are going. He’s obviously not wanting to really talk to me.”

“I know, and I think it’s kind of shitty of him. But still, sometimes guys are like that. It’s obviously really bothering you, so why can’t you just do something about it. Even if he still acts like an ass, at least you can know that you did the right thing. Just call him. Tell him you’re sorry and explain why you made a big deal about things. Easy peasy.”

“Easy…”

“Peasy.” Chloe grinned.

It wasn’t easy at all, but Daisy knew Chloe was right. She’d never stop rehashing everything in her mind, crying herself to sleep, and yearning for things to be different if she didn’t take a step in the right direction herself.

She summoned the energy to push herself up off the couch and was momentarily so dizzy she swayed on her feet. Relieved that Chloe was stacking plates in the cabinet and hadn’t seen her brief weakness, she took a few deep breaths and walked over to where she’d left her phone on a side table.

“Just do it,” Chloe said from the kitchen. “Just do it right now before you chicken out.”

“Right. Do it. Now.”

Despite her pep talk to herself, it was a full minute before Daisy had the courage to pull up Carter’s number on her phone and connect the call.

It rang. And rang again. And again.

Daisy shook her head. “He’s not going to pick it up,” she told Chloe. “He doesn’t want to talk to—”

She broke off abruptly when she heard his voice on the other end of the call. “Hello?”

Rattled and disoriented and ridiculously nervous, Daisy clung to the edge of the table with one hand. “Hi,” she managed to say.

“Hi,” he said.

“I… I…”

Chloe made an expansive hand gesture from where she stood in the kitchen, urging Daisy to go on.

Daisy took a ragged breath. “I was just… just checking in.”

“Oh.” Carter sounded stiff, unnatural. “How are you doing?”

“I’m fine.”

“You’ve been feeling okay?”

“Yeah. Fine.”

She hadn’t been feeling fine. She’d been feeling terrible, and now she was feeling feverish and chilled at the same time, with those same strange twinges below her belly.

“Good,” he said.

She cleared her throat and forced herself to go on. “Anyway, I was just… I wanted to…” She couldn’t seem to get the words out, so she ended lamely, “I was wondering if you were coming out this weekend.”

He’d come to Preston every weekend for months now. It was their regular pattern. But he hadn’t called her all week, and she knew something was wrong. Maybe if he came out, they could really talk and fix things between them. Get back to where they’d been—before they’d both been stupid.

The pause on his end was far longer than it should have been. “I don’t think so,” he said at last.

“Oh.” The lump in her throat threatened to strangle her. “It’s just that I… I wanted to explain… I felt bad about… I wanted you to come out tomorrow so that—”

“I’m sorry, Daisy,” he interrupted. “I don’t want to hurt your feelings or anything, but I think I need a break.”

She swayed on her feet again. “A break?”

“Yeah. A break.”

She must have looked really terrible because Chloe put down the casserole pan she’d taken out of the dishwasher and hurried over to put a supportive hand on Daisy’s back.

Daisy wasn’t going to let Carter hear how upset she was though. She said in a mostly clear voice, “Okay. I understand.”

“I’ll call you later.”

“Okay. Sounds good. Take care of yourself.”

Carter started to reply, but Daisy was already hanging up the phone. She could barely hold it in her hand.

“Damn, Daisy,” Chloe breathed. “You look like you’re going to faint.”

“I feel…” Daisy trailed off, the room spinning. Then she felt more of those twinges of pain, but this time much, much sharper than before. She almost doubled over.

“What’s the matter?” Chloe demanded. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“It’s… nothing.” Daisy could barely catch her breath. “Just… strange… cramping… pains.”

“That can’t be nothing. Should we go the emergency room?”

“Not… yet. Let me just… sit down and see if they…”

She didn’t want to be a silly woman who overreacted about a little cramp. But it didn’t feel like the pain was ever going to go away. She let Chloe help her over to a chair, but she just clung to the top of it, unable to even sit down.

Something was wrong.

Something was definitely wrong.

She felt something between her legs and looked down to investigate.

Chloe gasped. “You’re bleeding!”

She was bleeding. She could see the color staining her heather-gray leggings. Her knees almost buckled in fear.

“We’re going to the emergency room,” Chloe said, reaching over to grab her purse from the counter. “Right now.”

***

Fifteen minutes later, Chloe had pulled her car up to the emergency room entrance of the hospital and was running around to help Daisy out.

“Can you…” Daisy was in even more pain now, and she was having some real trouble walking. “Can you call my parents when you get me in?”

“Of course. And what about Carter? You want me to call him too?”

Daisy shook her head.

“But he’ll want to know—”

“No. He said he needed a break. Don’t call him… yet. Not until we know what’s going on.”

Chloe clearly saw that Daisy was in no fit state to argue, so she just murmured “Okay” and let the subject drop.

***

Eight hours later, Daisy was alone in a hospital room, finally able to get some sleep.

Her parents had come right over, and they and Chloe had stayed until just a few minutes ago when Daisy had finally sent them all home. She and Chloe had run into their neighbor, Heather, in the parking lot of the building, so Heather had dropped by for a while too, although she’d been easier to get rid of than Chloe and her parents.

Daisy was fine. The baby was fine. And now that the pain was better, she was exhausted and just wanted to get some sleep.

She closed her eyes, wishing with everything inside her that Carter was here.

It just felt wrong that he wasn’t.

But he’d wanted a break.

A break from her. A break from their baby.

He was a guy. He was able to take a break if he wanted one.

She couldn’t. This baby was inside her. This baby was part of her.

And would remain part of her for the rest of her life.

She didn’t want a break from her baby.

And she didn’t want a break from Carter.

A tear slipped out of one eye and slid down her cheek.

“Angel.”

She must have been imagining his voice—low and husky—coming from the doorway of her hospital room.

Her mind was playing tricks on him because she wanted to see him so much.

“Daisy,” the voice came again. “Are you asleep?”

She opened her eyes.

She hadn’t been imagining it.

Carter was here. In the room. Wearing jeans and a grease-stained gray shirt. He was walking over toward the bed.

“What… what are you doing here?”

“Chris called me.” He sat down in the chair next to her bed. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

“And the baby…”

“Is fine.”

“What happened?”

She shook her head. “I don’t even know. I was totally out of it when they were explaining. But they called it preterm labor—with some complications or something. It was evidently not life threatening for either of us, and they said we both should be fine, although I might need to be on bed rest for the next month until the baby is born so she doesn’t come too early.”

Carter’s face relaxed. She could see he’d been worried.

He’d driven all the way out here just to see her.

Then she backtracked. “Chris called you?”

“Yeah. I guess Heather had seen you.”

Of course. Heather had been at the hospital. She knew what happened. Naturally, she would tell Chris, and then Chris had…

“You weren’t going to tell me?” There was a low-level accusation in Carter’s voice.

It made Daisy stiffen. “I was.”

“When exactly were you going to tell me?”

Any soft feelings she’d felt at his appearance vanished at the stern note in his voice. Who the heck did he think he was anyway? He thought she’d lean on him for support after the conversation they’d had on the phone that afternoon. “Tomorrow probably,” she said quietly.

“And you didn’t think I should know right away?”

She stared at him for a minute. Then said, “You needed a break.”

His lips parted slightly. “I didn’t mean a break when there was an emergency.”

She gave a little shrug. “I was fine. I was going to tell you tomorrow.” She was actually starting to feel a little guilty for not letting Chloe call him right away, but she didn’t like how he was making her feel guilty.

He was the one who’d pulled away. He was the one who’d wanted a break.

He didn’t get to come in here and act like she owed him complete loyalty and communication.

He took a deep breath and let it out. She could see he was angry. Really angry.

And that made her angry too.

“You made it clear I’m in this alone,” she gritted out. “What exactly did you expect me to do?”

“Alone?”

“Yes. Alone. You can take a break. I can’t. It’s very clear I can’t let myself rely on you. Twice now I’ve let myself trust you, and twice now you’ve walked out on me for no good reason. What exactly did you expect me to do?”

He stared at her almost blindly, like he wasn’t even really seeing her. “So what are you saying?” he asked at last. “You’re cutting me off completely?”

She shook her head. She was too tired to be dealing with this now. She was tired and hurt and scared and still shaky from what had happened over the past eight hours. She just needed this conversation to end. “No. Of course not. I wouldn’t do that. If you still want to be a father to our baby, then of course you can be. We can keep working together as parents. But that’s it. For real. There can’t be anything else between us. It obviously just will never work.”

He stared at her some more, and she had no idea what was going on in his eyes.

It occurred to her then that, if he’d argued, if he’d explained himself, if he’d just opened up and told her why he’d pulled away the way he had and let her apologize too, then maybe they could have worked things out.

She didn’t want things to be so empty between them.

It felt wrong.

Completely wrong.

But she also couldn’t risk her heart or her baby’s future by entrusting them to a man who just wouldn’t stick around.

There was far too much at stake here to take that risk.

“Okay,” he said at last, his blue eyes strangely vacant. “Then that’s what we’ll do.”

She nodded. She was going to burst into tears in about thirty seconds, and he really needed to be gone when she did. “Okay. That’s fine then. I’m really tired, and you wanted a break. So if you don’t mind…”

He took the obvious hint and stood up. He stared down at her for a long moment.

Then he said, “All right. Take care.”

And that was it. He was walking out the door.