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Savannah’s heart ached and she had to remind herself of why she was there—not to make nice with Charlie, but so she could tell him about their baby on the drive home.
But by the time they got into the car, her head pounded and she closed her eyes. She couldn’t tell him. Not like this. Not in a car, when things felt so wrong. Not until after her doctor’s appointment and she knew more details.
Not until she could handle whatever reaction he might have.
* * *
“You’ll understand if I don’t invite you in,” Savannah said, her fingers clutching the car door handle.
Charlie frowned. He hadn’t planned on going in. Getting some space between him and Savannah was what he needed. Still, something in her tone irked him and he found himself saying, “You should invite me in. We could have a good last month together, Savannah.”
She gave him a horrified look. “You mean sex?”
She made the word sound like it should have four letters and he pushed on. He needed to destroy whatever glimmers of feeling she still had for him.
“You can’t deny it,” he said with a tone so smooth it almost disgusted him. He could only imagine how dirty it made Savannah feel.
“You were more to me than sex, Charlie.”
Were. As in past tense. Which was how it needed to be. She needed to find someone who could protect her and give her a fairy tale. Too bad the thought of her with someone else made his blood boil.
“I could make you feel good.” He raked his gaze over her. “That hasn’t changed and we both know it.”
“Everything’s changed.”
He wanted to argue that some things would never change, but then realized what he’d be admitting if he said that. Did he believe he was going to spend the rest of his life wanting this woman? Missing this woman?
To think that was foolishness. They’d both move on—her to someone who deserved her, him to his career. She deserved so much better.
He was to blame for her misery. No surprise there. He’d been making people miserable since before his birth. So much so his own mother had preferred death to him.
Savannah hesitated on opening the handle, looking indecisive, but, without another word, she opened the door and disappeared into her apartment complex, leaving him to wonder what she’d been considering saying.
“Goodbye, Savannah,” he said to his empty car and drove away without a backward glance. She was right. Everything had changed.
CHAPTER FIVE
“HER ECHOCARDIOGRAM SHOWED an ejection fraction of fifteen percent, but apparently that is an old finding and related to a myocardial infarction she suffered three years ago. She’s here because the defibrillator she had put in at that time keeps going off, causing her to lose consciousness.”
Charlie studied Savannah as she kept her voice professional and monotone, just as she had at every other point their paths had crossed over the past two months.
“Defibrillator malfunction?” he asked.
“The ER doctor who admitted her didn’t think so. She’s been in and out of ventricular tachycardia since arriving. He started her on—” she named the medication “—which has stopped the defibrillator from firing, but her shortness of breath is worse.”
“That’s why you called me?”
Her lips pressed into a thin line, displaying her annoyance with his question.
“Her heart rate has stayed in the low sixties and her blood pressure on the low side of normal, but when I assess her I know something is spiraling downhill.”
He wasn’t familiar with Iva Barton. He was taking the call for one of the other cardiologists, who’d squeezed in a vacation prior to Charlie’s last day.
Which was quickly approaching.
Just one more day and he’d be in Nashville.
He and a couple of friends had moved his personal items last weekend. He was leaving most of his furniture to stage his house and had signed the real estate agreement just this week. Everything was happening fast.
