Page 422 of The Doctors Will See You Now

“Listen. I need to make a phone call really quick, okay?”

She shrugged and pulled her hand from mine.

I dug into my pocket for my phone and went to my recent calls list to find Charlotte. She was third from the top, so it didn’t take long.

She didn’t answer until the fourth and final ring, and when she did, her voice sounded funny.

“You okay?” I asked immediately.

“No, um,” she mumbled. “Not really. I know tonight was a big deal, and I was really looking forward to it, but I’m not feeling well. I don’t think I should come.”

My eyebrows shot together, and I pulled Lexi to a stop on the sidewalk. She looked to her watch and tapped it impatiently. Just hold on a minute, I mouthed.

“Do you need us to come by? Get something for you?”

“No,” she whispered, her voice sounding agonizingly sad. “That’s all right. Really. I just need to go to sleep.”

I was silent for a moment, considering what I should do, when Lexi looked at her watch again.

“Char—”

“It’s okay, Nick. Really.”

“Okay,” I agreed finally, a pit in my stomach. “I’ll call you later, then.”

“Mmhmm,” she agreed. “I’ll talk to you.”

As I filled my favorite mug to the brim with fresh coffee, my phone vibrated and pinged on the counter with a text message notification. I added sugar and milk and stirred it together with a spoon before finding the strength to pick up my phone.

Nick: How are you feeling today, sweetheart?

A sad, pathetic sigh escaped my lungs as I stared down at the latest text from Nick. He’d been sending me sweet messages all weekend, checking up on me, and even offering to bring me soup and keep me company.

He was a good man. God, he was a good man.

And with the way I’d flaked out on Friday dinner with him and Lexi, I felt like the biggest asshole who’d ever lived. Every time he’d sent me a text or attempted to call me over the past two days, I felt more ashamed of my behavior.

I'd spent the last forty-eight hours going through the following stages: Shock. Anger. Fear. Doubt. Guilt. And the worst, heartbreak.

Winnie and Remy.

When Nick had texted me—happy, innocent texts about a chance at all life had to offer, starting with the details for a fun evening with his daughter—my poor, tattered heart had dropped to the floor.

I knew those names.

Hell, at one point in my life, those names had been synonymous with my family.

Remy had been the man I was going to marry and spend the rest of my life with, and his sister Winnie had been one of my very best friends.

Fresh tears pricked my eyes as it all hit me all over again.

The shock of reading the names. The hopeful, desperate clamor to see if the text had, in fact, come from Nick’s phone or some ghost of love lives past. The harsh reality of what I didn’t want to face.

I'd panicked, the complication of it all nearly knocking me off my feet, and then, like a total asshole, made up some lame excuse about feeling ill to avoid meeting his daughter.

It had been a shitty thing to do.

Cowardly? Yeah, that too.