Page 40 of Samuel

“Of course.” Worry etched across his features as he looked at her from behind his desk. “Do you need me to drive youinto town to see your doctor? You looked so flushed when I walked in earlier, but now you do look a little pale. Have you had anything to eat?”

“I’m okay, I’ve just been feeling a bit nauseous today. Nothing some rest won’t cure. I’ll work a few hours tonight to make up for it.”

He waved her off. “Don’t worry about it. You’ve already whipped this office into shape over the past few weeks and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. You take the rest of the day off and actually rest.”

“Thank you.” Tears threatened to spill over her lash line. Stupid pregnancy hormones. If he didn’t already think something was really wrong, he would as soon as he saw her cry.

Turning quickly so she didn’t have to try and cover her sudden outburst of emotions, Evie pushed the ledger and folders into her messenger back, pulled it up onto her shoulder, and flew out of the office.

“Hey, Mom.” Sam called from the doorway as he walked in the house.

“Hi, sweetie. I’m making pork chops tonight. Hope you’re hungry.”

“That sounds amazing. Oh, do you know if you have any chicken noodle soup in the freezer?”

“Do you feel like you’re coming down with something?” Sylvie put her hand to his forehead and worry creased the corners of her eyes.

“No, it’s not for me. I’m feeling perfectly fine. Evie left the office early today, said she was feeling nauseous and needed to lay down. I want to take some over to her in case she’s not up to cooking. I don’t think I saw her eat anything today.”

“Oh, that poor thing! There is nothing worse than feelingsick when you’re pregnant. I’m sure I have some in the freezer, I’ll warm it up for her and you can take it over. I made a few loaves of bread this morning too, and a lemon cake. We can package some up for her.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Sam kissed her cheek and went up to his room to change.

As he carried the food across the yard towards Evie’s apartment, he couldn’t help but think about how pale she’d looked when she left the office. Sam had noticed the tears that lined her eyes. Was she worried about how he would react to her asking for some time off?

Letting out a sigh, he rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. As he walked up the steps to her apartment, he prayed her tears were just a reaction to him granting her time off earlier. What if she was worried about something being wrong with her baby? Did low blood sugar cause nausea? He was about ready to kick his own ass for not researching it more.

He’d quickly realized the need to drop this soup off might actually be more for himself then for her. He needed to see that she was okay. Christ, his palms were getting sweaty as he waited for her to answer the door.

Something shuffled inside her apartment and when it finally opened, the sight nearly took his breath away.

“Evie? What’s wrong?” He watched her swipe tears out of her eyes. “Are you still not feeling well?”

“W-Why don’t you come in? I was actually just about to call you.”

“You were?” Sam walked into the apartment, looking around at all the papers she had scattered about. “What’s going on?”

She sat down on the edge of the couch, her hands running up and down her legs. He set the food he’d brought on thekitchen counter and joined her in the living room, careful to not step on any of the paperwork.

“Hey, you can talk to me, okay? Whatever it is, we can figure it out together.”

“I can’t make sense of it. I swear, I don’t know what’s going on. But I’m going to figure it out.”

“Are you okay? Nothing’s wrong with Jellybean, right? You said you weren’t feeling well and I’ve been worried all day.”

“That’s really sweet, Sam. This isn’t about the baby. It’s about your business. I found something I can’t explain when I was trying to balance the accounts.”

“You’ve already done so much, Evie. I don’t want you overextending yourself worrying about proving that you should be here. You’ve already done that one hundred times over.”

“I appreciate that, but I’m not sure you’re going to feel that gratitude towards me when I tell you what I’ve found.”

“Really? What did you find?”

“I think someone has been siphoning money out of your various accounts. It looks like a few dozen dollars at a time from the animal feed and wellness funds, larger amounts from the business expenditures. The largest sum I’ve found was for over two thousand dollars when you purchased that tractor the week after I got here.”

Sam was shocked. Out of everything that had run through his mind over the past few minutes, that hadn’t even been on his radar.

“How can you tell?”

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