The mysterious flowers on my foyer table also had to get in line for my attention, but I knew I’d lie awake at night thinking about them.
The call connected, and I worked up a bright smile I hoped he could hear across the line. “Hey, Jeffrey,” I said. “Annie’s with me. She’s okay, and she’s already in bed for the night, but she’ll call you first thing in the morning.”
“Oh, thank God.” The rush of air from his lungs brought tears to my eyes.
“I should’ve called sooner. I’m sorry.”
A soft sob crossed the line.
“She’s okay,” I repeated, infusing my voice with promise. “And for the first time in a long time, she and I are okay too.”
“Really? You talked.”
“And cried. And talked some more,” I said. “It’s part of the reason I didn’t think to call sooner. I’m on a hot chocolate run now.”
He made another sobbing sound. “I shouldn’t have argued with her. I’m supposed to keep her calm and happy.”
“Yeah, but she can be a pill,” I said teasingly. “And you’re only human, though I’ve wanted to have you knighted for sainthood a hundred times over the years.”
“I really love her, Emma,” he said. “She’s everything I aspire to be, and I don’t want a world I can’t share with her and our baby.”
“You’re all going to be fine,” I assured him. “Why don’t you surprise her by driving up for a visit in the morning?”
“You don’t think that would be too much? I want to give her time, if that’s what she wants.”
“Call me a romantic,” I said, finally accepting that was exactly who I was. “You can never go wrong with a grand gesture.”
“Then I’ll be there,” he said.
The line grew quiet as I parked outside the all-night grocer.
“Did she tell you about the fall?” Jeffrey asked.
I turned off the car and sat in the darkness, save for the light from streetlamps along the nearby road. “Yeah.”
“I should have brought the basket down before I left for work.”
“Not your fault,” I said. “Things happen.”
“She could’ve broken her neck or lost the baby. Or both. I wasn’t there. She was alone, and I wouldn’t have known what happened until I got home that night.”
A shuddered breath leaked out of me at the scene he painted. “You can’t think like that. It’s not what happened. And you would’ve left work to check on her if you didn’t hear from her all day. You’ve probably been looking for her all evening, and you know she was fine when she left.”
He moaned. “You know me well.”
“I know you love her,” I said. “I would’ve done the same thing.”
“Keep her comfortable and insist she sees a doctor if anything seems wrong. She’s stubborn, but she loves that baby, so it won’t be hard to convince her. We only have six days to go.”
Gooseflesh rose over my skin as his words hit like arrows to my heart. “What are you talking about? Six days until what?” Annie wasn’t due for weeks. She’d just said as much tonight. “What might seem wrong? What specifically am I watching for?”
Jeffrey heaved a bone-weary sigh. “She’s been struggling with preeclampsia for a couple of weeks. She’s had some early contractions and bleeding. The doctors recommended a C-section, and it’s scheduled for next week.”
My ears rang, and my vision blurred. Annie was sick. The baby was in danger. And no one had told me. Not even Annie, after all the other confessions we’d just made.
Why would she keep that from me?
“Watch her closely for me,” he said. “She barely talks about any of this. It’s as if she’s so scared her only way to deal with it is to pretend it’s not happening. She gets mad every time I mention it. She’s supposed to stay calm, so I let her do what she needs to do.”
