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Mostly because a number flashes through my head before I can stop it.

The doctor studies her notes. Then she looks up. "I'd like to run a test."

Every muscle in my body tightens.

The next twenty minutes crawl by while I sit in the exam room with Maggie.

“Maybe I've picked up some bizarre virus,” I say, my nerves threatening to take over.

“Maybe.” She manages to load the word with disbelief.

“Or it’s a reaction to some food I’ve been eating.”

“Uh-huh.”

I grow increasingly desperate, grasping at straws.

“I know! It could be the water around here.”

Her look is withering. “So how come the whole town isn’t throwing up every morning?”

I frown and lapse into silence. It feels like she knows something I don’t, and I hate that.

By the time the door opens again, I’m barely holding down panic.

The doctor comes in holding a folder, smiling.

My pulse jumps.

Then she says, "Congratulations. Miss Sterling."

The word lands and bounces right off me.

I stare at her.

Congratulations?

It doesn't connect to anything.

It just hangs there while my brain struggles to catch up.

Beside me, Maggie freezes as the doctor finally says the word pregnant.

The thought finally breaks through the fog.

I’m pregnant.

The doctor keeps talking about appointments, vitamins, due dates, and the months ahead, but it rolls right off me. My thoughts have gone somewhere else entirely.

I have a lease, clients waiting for me, a career. Julian needs me, and I need work too. I love my work.

Every plan I made before coming to Redwood Run still exists.

My fingers curl around the edge of the examination table as the reality settles over me.

How am I supposed to fit a baby into a life I'd already mapped out?

And if I can't...