Sean’s hands clenched into fists. “This isn’t about Romina.”
“No,” Jack said. “It’s about Debra. And Aidan.” He shook his head. “Don’t screw it up, man. This time there really is a kid involved.”
“I don’t need a sermon.”
“No? You ran once, Sean. Maybe it was the right thing to do then, but if you do it again, this time you’ll be running from a good thing. Don’t be stupid.”
“I think I’m the best judge of what’s good for me.”
Jack shrugged. “Fine. I just don’t want to see you give up.”
Sean scowled. Maybe Jack was right, and maybe Debra was the best darned thing in his life since sliced bread, but how was he supposed to figure it out in two months? What was the rush? Why was everyone—except him—so determined to push things…to complicate things?
Jack cleared his throat and nodded toward the corner. Sean glanced up to see Debra walking toward him, a stack of cups—presumably five black coffees—in her hand. He frowned. Jack was right. Debra had a healthy flush in her cheeks and a bounce in her step. The hem of her summer dress showed off the length of her tanned legs.
He had always thought her pretty, even when the rest of the town’s folks thought of her as tired and frazzled, but heck, she was beautiful now. A man would have to be blind not to notice the shine of her hair as it swayed about her shoulders or the sparkle in her brown eyes. She smiled at him. “Hey, you didn’t come by for the coffee, so I thought I’d run it over to you during your break.” She spared a glance at the glistening fire engine. “Hard at work, I see.”
“Are you pregnant?” He blurted out the words.
Debra’s eyes widened. Instinctively, she patted her flat stomach. “I hope not. No, I think I’m fine—” Her jaw dropped. “You think I’m pregnant?” Fury flared into her eyes as she shoved the tray of drinks into Jack’s hands and turned on Sean. “Is that what you think of the conversation we had last night—that the only reason a woman might want something more out of a relationship, out of life, is because she’s pregnant?”
Jack winced and scurried away, but Sean did not have the luxury of fleeing.
She poked a finger into Sean’s chest. “I’ll have you know I did just fine for eight years before you showed up.”
“Just yesterday you were saying how much I changed your life.”
“It’s true; you transformed my life. You electrified it. But if you leave, all the good you’ve done doesn’t evaporate. It stays. With me. I own it; I own my life—all the bad stuff, all the dumb stuff, all the good stuff. And I have a right to want more, to look for more, and it has nothing to do with being pregnant. It has to do with love.”
She spun on her heel and stalked away, her long hair flying in the breeze.
Sean stared wordlessly after her. What the—?
Jack let out a long, low whistle as he peeked out from behind the fire engine. “Wow, you really screwed that one up.”
“She didn’t let me get a word in.”
“Considering how badly you messed up with the words you did get in, you might want to just shut up for a while.”
“But she’s not pregnant.” Sean released his breath in a sigh of relief. And she loves me…
“Did you really think she was?”
“You put that thought in my head.”
Jack frowned. “But did you really think she’d lie to you?”
“No.” Sean wanted to kick himself. “It was a lapse. I forgot where I was, forgot who she was, and panicked.”
“You’re in a different time and place, buddy. You got your fresh start. Don’t screw it up.”
“I’m going to have to apologize to her.”
“Think she’s going to make you crawl?”
“It’s not her style, though I shouldn’t wait too long—” His cell phone rang its non-Romina tune. Sean glanced at the number, and his jaw tensed. Perfect. Just what he needed to ruin the rest of his day. “Hey, Brian.” He offered his older brother a cool greeting.
“You’re not taking any calls from Elkins.”
“I’m not interested in talking to anyone from Elkins.”
“Romina’s mom has been trying to reach you. Romina was admitted to the hospital this morning.”
“What? Why?”
“Her parents found her unconscious—they couldn’t wake her—so they called the ambulance and rushed her to the hospital.”
“How did you—?”
“They called me and asked me to reach you.” Brian laughed. It was a short, bitter sound. “Imagine how desperate they must have been. The doctors found drugs in her system. She overdosed. They’ve spent the past few hours pumping it out of her, and she’s regained consciousness. She’s asking for you.”
Sean drew a deep breath. “I’m not going to get manipulated back there again.”
“The hospital is real. The drug overdose is real. The doctors don’t think she’s going to make it.”
The acute sense of irritation and nagging grip of guilt transformed into shards of ice lodged deep in Sean’s chest. “What do you mean?”
“They don’t think she’s going to make it,” Brian repeated. “I’m on my way back there now.”
“To Elkins?”
“Yeah. You should be there too. After all, she’s calling for you, not for me.”
Sean hung up. His stricken gaze met Jack’s.
Jack shoved him lightly on the shoulder. “I caught the gist of it. You better go.”
“Right. Can you tell—?”
“Debra? Yeah, I will.”
Sean raced to his car and did the one thing he swore he would never do. He turned down the road that would take him back to Elkins and to Romina.
The nerve of him. Implying…no, flat out concluding that pregnancy could have been the only possible reason for the heart-to-heart conversation the previous night. Did he think women were a tangle of hormones that immediately switched on husband-hunting mode just because there was a fetus in the uterus? Did she look like a female on the prowl for a mate? Hadn’t she raised Aidan from an infant on her
