“Okay, if you’re sure.”
“Of course.”
She didn’t like seeing him like this, any emotion and passion gone. But Blue wasn’t sure how to break through to the man she knew was beneath—the funny, generous, and caring one she’d been sharing this house with.
“All right, then. Are you still coming to my appointment with Dr. Hannah?”
“I’m sorry I have to work now. But let me know how it goes,” he said.
Jay walked away before she spoke again, and Blue let him. He’d told her he wanted to come with her to the appointment and now was backing out. She felt sad, confused, and a whole number of other emotions that she put down to being pregnant. She was used to unemotional people in her job. Had even become like that herself while at work, but you couldn’t hide your McAllister side for long.
Blue took a shower, washed and dried her hair, and then left to see Dr. Hannah. The black pickup across the street wasn’t a vehicle she’d seen in Lyntacky before, but then, there were plenty of new people moving in these days, whereas once she could have told you the make and model of every car and who it belonged to.
“Change,” Blue whispered. “It’s all around us.”
She was feeling a little off-balance for no other reason than she wasn’t sure how to get through to Jay. The problem was, most couples—if that’s what they were or were going to be—hadtime to get to know each other before a child entered their lives. They’d done it the other way round.
She walked and let the thoughts come and go, and when she reached Dr. Hannah’s clinic, she had a plan. Tonight, she’d sit down with Jay and lay it all out. How she was feeling and what she was beginning to feel for him.
Being open was the best move going forward for both of them because secrets were destructive. They needed to be open and honest. That had always been her family’s mantra, no matter how much she’d hated it when she was younger.
Blue reached the clinic and took a seat in the corner, not feeling very sociable. The place smelled faintly of antiseptic and lavender oil. A fish tank burbled in the corner, as it had since she was a kid and her mom had reluctantly brought her here because the home remedies hadn’t always worked.
Somewhere down the hallway, a baby cried, and Blue felt her heart squeeze at the sound. Would she bring her baby into this clinic, too, one day?
That was another thing she needed to talk to Jay about. Plans were important, and she needed them more now than ever. Blue could still work and planned to, though as yet she wasn’t sure at what, but an idea was forming, and it made her feel excited.
She pulled her phone from her bag and decided a few minutes of scrolling wouldn’t hurt anyone.
Her thumb hovered for a moment before she typed the name she’d memorized into the search bar. There were a few Hazel Davises, but the one on Facebook was the one she clicked on.
The page loaded slowly, like it was considering whether Blue deserved to see it, and then a young woman with Jay’s eyes and hair color was staring back at her. To Blue, there was no doubting the similarities.
Not identical. She was softer, more feminine, with a wide, open smile. She was outside with a mountain behind her and looked happy.
Blue leaned back in her chair. “Well,” she whispered. “You don’t look terrifying.”
She scrolled some more.
Photos of a golden retriever. A lopsided birthday cake with too much icing. A shot of Hazel with a man, both smiling at each other. There were comments under it like,you two are the bestandlove you guys.
Blue didn’t know Hazel Davis, but she didn’t look like a bad person. She wasn’t naive, and experience had taught her that people could hide their true identities. But she felt like this woman was more a support-the-local-bake-sale and host-cookouts kind of person than the stomp-all-over-other-people kind.
“She’s nothing like her mother, I’m sure of it,” Blue murmured.
“Nothing like who?”
Blue started and dropped her phone. Dan Duke bent to retrieve it. Of course the screen was facing him, so he saw the picture that was still open. She watched him study it before handing it back to her.
“You surprised me,” Blue muttered, taking her phone back. “Are you not working today?” she added, noting he wasn’t in uniform.
“Nope. Day off, and I need to get some shots—so yay, go me.”
“Not my kind of day-off activity, to be honest,” Blue said.
“Leah made me do it. Hudson was supposed to come with me, but he’s got a head cold. So I’m bringing him next week.”
“He’s a cool kid.”
