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Heath rubbed his forehead, struggling to find a way out of this. He needed to accept there was none. Piper had finally found her voice and she was using it.
“How’s Matty?” Piper asked.
“He’s resting on the couch. He had a seizure on the drive down here,” Claudia explained. “This is the first one since the medication change.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Sawyer said. “Did he get accepted into that experimental treatment study?”
“We just got word last week that he has. Thanks to all the work Piper has done to get his name out there.”
“And all the money she donated,” Heath added.
Until now, he hadn’t realized how much this prenup could influence both families. He needed to take it more seriously. “I’ll fax this to my attorney,” he said, taking the papers from Piper. Time really wasn’t on their side. As much as it begrudged him to admit it, maybe they were moving a bit too fast. Sawyer couldn’t give up now, though. Not when they were so close.
* * *
PIPER COULDN’T BELIEVE the extent to which her father would try to delay the inevitable. Didn’t he understand that she was about to get exactly what she had hoped for since she found out she was pregnant? Sawyer was willing to commit to her. He wanted to be a family. Her father could not ruin this for her.
“Did you come here to help me or hurt me?” she asked her dad.
“Helping you is all I ever want to do. But it’s hard to sit by and watch you do something that might hurt you in the end.”
“With some support from our families, maybe we would have a much better chance of having a successful marriage. A little positivity could go a long way.”
Piper’s mother put a calming hand on her shoulder. “We’re here, aren’t we? Your father is overprotective. When that little baby is born, you’ll understand how hard it is to bite your tongue when you disagree about something.”
“I don’t understand why we disagree about this. Getting married is the best outcome we could ask for. It doesn’t jeopardize my career. My son will have married parents. What more could you want for me? A prenup that protects money that Sawyer doesn’t want anyway?”
Her father didn’t answer.
“As long as you love Sawyer and Sawyer loves you, Dad and I will support you two until the end of time,” her mom said.
That queasy feeling was back in the pit of Piper’s stomach. Anytime someone mentioned the word love, the uneasiness struck.
Sawyer flew down the stairs and handed Piper her papers. “I saw from the window that Harriet’s here to dismantle the bus flowers so she can repurpose them. Do you want to come out and tell her what you have in mind?”
Piper and her mom followed Sawyer outside. Harriet parked her flower delivery truck next to the bus. It was nice to do something in favor of the wedding rather than against it.
“Good afternoon, my little chickadees. Are we ready to do some magic with our flower friends?” Harriet said, jumping out of the driver’s seat. “I brought a few extras in case not everything is usable. We might have to clean up some of the garlands.”
Harriet walked to the back off her truck and unlatched the door. She slammed it shut nearly as quickly as she opened it.
“What’s wrong?” Sawyer said, coming around back. Harriet had a look of dread on her face.
“Nothing. I brought the wrong flowers. I need to run back to the store.” She hurried around to the driver’s side door.
“Oh, come on, Harriet,” Sawyer said. “I’m sure it’s fine. Let’s take a look before you go all the way back.”
He pulled the handle as Harriet came racing back to stop him. “Don’t open that door!”
Sawyer had already wrenched it open. His face dropped and a scowl appeared. Piper came closer to see what the problem was. She couldn’t imagine Harriet had packed anything that terrible back there. Piper gasped.
Besides the wedding flowers, there was Gretchen plucking petals from a rose.
“You have a serious problem,” Sawyer said.
Gretchen tossed the last petal on the floor. “He loves me not.”
