Page 18 of Between Our Hearts

Clark nodded with understanding. When Sadie had stepped out of his apartment bathroom more than three years ago and blurted out that she was pregnant, it had seemed like some large cosmic hand had just given him the best gift of his life. He’d already been mind-blowingly in love with her, ready to propose to her, and now she was carrying his child. It was simply too perfect.

“Good advice.” He cleared his throat. “You staying to let Grace play?”

Jayce’s daughter was a year younger than Lottie, but she often toddled after his daughter on the playground following class.

“We’ve got to jet off to her eighteen-month well check for S-H-O-T-S.” He spelled the offending word, now that they were in earshot of the preschool-age kids.

Clark wrinkled his nose. “Good luck.”

Jayce laughed without humor. “I’ll need it. Holding them down for that is the worst.” He steered his stroller to the parking lot.

Clark wanted to disengage his stroller break and head to his truck himself, but he knew if he did, his only company would be his daughter for the rest of the day. Usually, he had some afternoon activity for Lottie—library story time or swimming lessons, but today’s schedule was vacant.

“Did you see the Giants and the Reds last night?” Victor, Omar’s dad, asked.

“I missed it. Any good?”

Victor bounced with a groan and proceeded to provide Clark with just the distraction he needed as they wheeled their kids to the nearby playground.

?Chapter 9?

Hook keys. Flats off. Sadie moved through her getting home routine like she’d been moving through the last two weeks, on autopilot. It had been almost impossible to hide the hollowed feeling that constantly cloaked her skin from her colleagues. Unfortunately, Josh had had his appointments in the office with her today. After he’d spent the moments between their respective patients critiquing her most recent director decision over staffing and coordination with the hospital’s surgical nurses, he’d offered to take over her last two appointments with a false smile, stating she “looked exhausted.”

Though most of the surgeons in their group worked as a team and generally supported each other, Josh was that prototypical arrogant surgeon who thought that he was more skilled than everyone else, particularly her. A little over a year ago, she’d been almost unanimously selected to be the new director—except for one vote. It hadn’t been challenging to determine who the one “nay” had been.

Sadie sighed, running her hand over her ponytail before an object beneath her feet stopped her evening flow. A scuffed pair of women’s white Pumas carelessly littered the entry mat. Sadie groaned as her body sagged with fatigue, remembering that Clark had scheduled a date night for them. Aurelia, their college-age sitter, was already here. She must have parked beside the woodshop where Sadie would have missed her car.

Stepping over the shoes, Sadie continued toward the study to drop off her messenger bag. Clark was sitting on the stairs and rose as she came by.

“Hey.” The boyish hope in his eyes sliced through her like a scalpel. “I called Stove and pushed our reservation back. You don’t have to change if you don’t want to.”

Her eyes fell over her traditional office day attire—slacks and a collared shirt—before taking in that Clark was wearing the slate-blue cashmere sweater she’d bought him for Christmas, even though it’d been eighty degrees today. He also had on grey slacks she hadn’t seen before and the black dress shoes he’d worn at their wedding.

Her brain warred with her. He clearly was trying to make an effort—Clark usually lived in jeans and T-shirts or exercise clothes—but she was already mentally and physically exhausted. Having to sit across from his beautiful face and watch it twist in disappointment during a gourmet meal sounded as appealing as another phone call with her mother.

Penelope’s words from her requisite bi-monthly call on the drive home still rang in Sadie’s ears. She’d always suspected the entire purpose of their conversations was for her mother to flaunt her superiority. If it hadn’t disappointed her father when she hadn’t answered her mother’s calls, Sadie wouldn’t have kept enduring them.

“Family’s blood, Sadie girl.” The memory of his scratchy voice still resounded.

Tonight’s call hadn’t been anything new; it was always the same onslaught of grievances. Sadie was too soft—her mother’s way of saying not thin enough. Sadie was too plain—she should do something with her hair, her makeup, her nails. It was distasteful that she had a man’s job and that her husband was raising their child. In essence, Sadie wasn’twomanenough.

With Mother’s Day looming three days away, Sadie was already struggling with the feelings of imposter syndrome following her third miscarriage and second-guessing every decision she’d made about her daughter.

And since Penelope had been in a particularly ruthless mood tonight, she’d laid the largest charge before the call disconnected—that she didn’t know how a handsome man like Clark put up with Sadie.

Sadie opened her mouth, but nothing came out. In that action, the light died in her husband’s eyes.

“She’s already here, putting Lottie to bed.” He gestured up the stairs.

She wanted to explain that it wasn’t about Aurelia. It was if they went out to eat and she didn’t talk enough, or have the right amount of fun, or not kiss him the right way at the end of the night, she’d end up letting him down again. She’d already let him down three devastating times, but if she could conceive again and keep this baby, maybe Clark would love her the way he used to.

Her fingertips pressed the placket of her black shirt, feeling for the metal circle beneath. Though she’d never taken her new necklace off, the scientific-minded side of her brain—the side that had prevailed for decades—kept whispering that it was just inert metal, not a magical charm. Still, she couldn’t help but hope.

“I’m just not up for dinner out.” The defeated look on his face shredded her insides. “We can spend time together. I’d just like to be at home.”

His jaw loosened. “All right. I’m going to pay her for the full night anyway.”

“Of course.”

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