Page 86 of Objection to Love

Em thought she heard a stifled sob on the other end. “Yeah, it’s fine. I’m fine. Just a little… hiccup at the ultrasound.”

Her heart apparently hadnotbeen at her toes before, because now it felt like a weight had been tied to it, and it was sinking fast. Plummeting, really. “What happened?” she asked, her mind spinning into all of the horrible scenarios.

“There’s something wrong with her heart. Oh. It’s a her, by the way. Jackson and I are having a girl.” Her voice broke on the last word, but she continued, “They aren’t completely sure yet what the problem is, but they were talking surgery. As soon as next week. I… I have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow to discuss everything.”

Em opened her mouth to tell her sister she would go with her. To tell her she would cancel her whole day, and she’d be at that appointment. But she couldn’t make that promise. Not when tomorrow might not be the final day of the trial. So she told her the next best thing she could think of.

“I’m on my way, April. I’m coming over now.” And she wrenched her car door open and broke about seven traffic laws to get to her sister’s house as soon as possible.

Chapter 30

Garrett

Emhadsaidshewouldn’t be great about responding to calls this week, but he’d kinda thought she would have answered at least one of his messages over the last forty-eight hours. If she wasn’t such a mature, bold woman, he would have thought she was ghosting him. He couldn’t even catch her leaving in the morning, she was gone so early. He was pretty sure she hadn’t even come home the night before.

Which was frustrating because he had things to tell her. Really good things, he hoped.

His current company had finally contacted him with the information on the regional managing job. And it was incredible. He could work from anywhere, though he would be required to join a meeting in Denver once a week and likely travel to various job sites—one or two a month—as part of the job. And the pay was higher than he could have hoped for.

When he’d first gotten the offer, he’d been ecstatic. Seeing the path that would so easily allow him to stick around made him realize how badly he wanted to stay in Greenbank. Or rather, how badly he wanted to stay with one September Miller.

He felt like he was continually on the edge of his seat with the anticipation of talking to her. This trial was obviously important… but did it rank so far above him that she couldn’t even send him a quick note to check in?

At least he’d see her that weekend, and hopefully, she’d be as excited as he was about this job offer.

His phone rang, and he glanced down, expecting to see Em’s name and the picture he’d assigned her on the night of their first kiss flash across the screen. Except it was a spam call. Annoyed, he almost tossed the phone across the room, but at the last second decided to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Hello, sir, I’d like to talk to you about the warranty on your car.”

“Oh, great, that’s just the thing I wished to discuss.” Garrett flopped onto his couch.

“Err… wonderful, sir. The warranty on your vehicle will expire in two days, but if you act fast, you can extend it for an extremely low cost. This offer is only available today and only available to the first one hundred customers to—”

“Let me just cut you off there,sir. You see, I lied when I said I wanted to talk about my car warranty.”

Silence on the other end, then, “Yes… well, if you act today, you can save thousands. Your vehicle—”

“Is four years old and the warranty expired two years ago. Tell me… what’s your name?”

“Err… Silas, sir.”

“Silas. Great. Do you know much about women?”

The call clicked off. Garrett looked at his phone, then dropped it onto the couch beside him. “Yeah, me neither, Silas.”

His head fell back against the couch cushions, and he groaned. Since when did he worry about women calling him back within two days? He couldn’t remember the last time he’d even talked to the same woman for two days. What was different about Em?

Everything. Freaking everything was different about her.

She was real, honest, and hard-working—although that last one seemed as much a negative as a positive just now. But she was also funny, gorgeous, and, now that he knew her better, had a hidden depth he was sure she didn’t show most people. In fact, she might not be aware of it—which was somehow the most attractive thing in the world.

If he was honest with himself… he was pretty sure he was falling in love with September Miller.

He grabbed his phone, deciding then and there that he didn’t care how pathetic he looked leaving her another message. He dialed her number and didn’t have much time to second-guess himself—because she answered.

“Hello?”

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