Page 124 of Sing You Home (Nashville Star 1)

Crossing the room quick, Luke reaches her in two long strides. He palms her shoulders, and she raises her tear-streaked gaze. “Are you okay? What happened?”

He’s stunned when Sal steps away from him.

“I lost control of the truck on Hellier Curve,” she says, and Luke’s stomach drops into his boots. She lifts her chin. Her brow furrows. “That’s where I had the accident the first time, isn’t it?”

“Sal, listen—”

But she doesn’t wait for him to explain. “I remembered,” she says, continuing. “When I was spinning around on the road, it jarred something, opened a memory inside of me. I remembered that curve, and I remembered Seth ...” She takes a bracing breath. Her eyes lock on his. “And I remember being pregnant.”

Her words sap all the air from Luke’s lungs. “Jesus, Sal.” He shakes his head. “I never wanted you to find out this way.”

Desperate to touch her, he reaches out to take a slim wrist to pull her into him. But Sal, her eyes enormous, steps out of Luke’s grasp.

“So it’s true? I was pregnant? We were going to have a baby?”

The hollow in Luke’s stomach expands. “We were.”

Christ, just the way she’s looking at him—so hurt. Betrayed. And he has no excuse. He always knew she’d remember. Hell, he wanted her to remember. But not like this. Never like this.

“It was my fault,” Sal says in a heartbroken whisper. “The accident. I ran the stop sign.” Her eyes fill. “I killed our baby.”

“God, no.” His voice, his face contorts. “Never. I never want you to think that. It was nothin’ you did, do you hear me?”

Sal braces a hand against the workbench and turns her no-bullshit gaze to his face. “Then tell me what happened, Luke. I can take it.”

Smearing a hand down his face, Luke lets out a ragged breath. “I’m not sure I can.”

Tears track down her cheeks. “You said you’d help me remember. So help me. Please. Tell me the truth.”

Her voice shatters on the last word. Truth. It’s what she’s wanted ever since she came back to him and he hasn’t given that to her.

Luke blows out a breath, unprepared to relieve one of the worst nights of his life. The night he got the call from Seth that his wife and unborn child were in the hospital, their condition critical. He had never run so many red lights.

“You were out, it was late, and you missed the stop sign. A guy in a pickup T-boned you. Flipped your car. He was okay, but you weren’t. Seth got there and got you to the hospital in time. You were lucky, Sal. You were bleedin’ inside and had a broken wrist, but you made it.”

“But the baby didn’t.”

“No.” His voice breaks. “You miscarried.”

“What was it?”

Luke barely hears her question.

“Luke.”

“A boy.”

Sal closes her eyes in agony. “It was a boy?”

It takes all of his effort to nod.

“How far along was I?”

“Four months. We were hidin’ it. No one knew but family.”

“Did we have a name picked out?”

The word wrenches from Luke’s mouth. “Henry.”

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