Unable to hold back, I grab the phone from Kane. He stands there, mouth agape as I speak softly into the phone. “Hey, Sassy, how you doing, honey?”
She’s surprised to hear me on the phone, but a sob still escapes her. “I’m okay,” she lies.
“Where are you?” I ask.
She names a gas station in a town two hours away. “Sit tight. Okay. I’m going to be there in less than two hours. Don’t stress, okay, Sass? It’s not good for the baby.”
She gasps. “Kane told you.”
I nod my head, avoiding Kane’s gaze. “He did tell me, honey. I’ll be there soon.”
“No! I mean, I don’t want to bother you. Kane can come get me… no rush… I’m fine.”
“Sit tight. Lock your doors,” I tell her before hanging up.
I instantly send Sassy’s contact information to my phone, and then I shoot her a text from my phone. “This is Elijah. Call me if you need anything. I’ll see you soon.”
I hand Kane his phone back, avoiding his gaze. I grab my jacket off the hook by the door, and Kane follows me through it. “Elijah, what the hell?”
Instead of admitting my feelings, I shrug. “Kane, today is the first day working on the new hospital complex, and you just said that eight months is an aggressive timeline. I can go pick up Sassy.”
He’s huffing as he’s trying to keep up with me. “You’re going to miss the groundbreaking.”
I shrug and open the door of my truck. “You will be there. It’ll be fine.”
I get in, but before I can close the truck door, Kane blocks it. “What is this? What’s happening here?”
I avoid his gaze. “What is it? You’re busy, and your sister needs to be picked up. I can do it.” I blow out a breath. “Kane… this is Sam.”
He doesn’t budge. “Are you…”
His voice trails off, and even though I have every urge to push him away from my truck so I can get to Sam, I wait. “Am I what?”
He crosses his arms over his chest and blows out a breath. “Are you the father?”
I push my way out of my truck and tower over my best friend of sixteen years. “Are you asking me if I’m the father of Sam’s child? And if I walked out on her?”
He leans his head back to look up at me. “She won’t tell me anything about the father. You have been weird lately. Never wanting to go out like we used to. And I saw…” He sucks in a breath. “I saw the way you looked at her five years ago.” He throws his hand up. “And I forgot about it but—” He points toward my office. “But that… this reaction, this is weird… right?”
I stare at him and shake my head. “Kane, if your sister was with me… I would never walk away from her… or her baby. There would not be any doubt who she—or her baby—belonged to.”
He scrunches up his nose as if that wasn’t clear enough for him. I gruffly answer him. “I’m not the father.”
He doesn’t question me, but he looks at me with a whole other level of curiosity. I basically just confessed to my best friend that I want his sister to be mine. But I can’t focus on that right now. No, the most important thing is getting to Samantha sooner rather than later.
“Now can I go?”
He takes a step back. “Yeah, okay. Hey, Elijah, she’s going to be crying. She’s been doing that a lot lately.”
I hold back my curse. “I can handle it.”
He nods. “Okay. Don’t worry about the groundbreaking. I’ll take care of things here… Just take care of my sister.”
I give him a nod and slam my door shut. I peel gravel as I take off out of the parking lot and head to the interstate. My hands are clenched on the steering wheel, and all I can think about is the fact that Sam, my Sassy, is pregnant, broken down, and crying. I press on the gas to get to her faster.
CHAPTER 2
SAMANTHA
