Charlie’s mother hadn’t been much better, blaming Charlie for her lot in life as well.
Sometimes Charlie wondered if he’d have chosen something besides medicine if he hadn’t been brainwashed from birth and so eager to try to win his mostly uninterested father’s affections in the hopes it would somehow magically transform his parents into good ones. Regardless, when Charlie had been eleven, his maternal grandfather’s congestive heart failure had worsened and Charlie had decided that, rather than work as a travel doctor, he wanted to do cardiology, to work on healing people’s physical hearts, because he sure hadn’t been able to do anything with his parents’.
Charlie had dreamed of heading up a cardiology unit his whole life and now he had the chance.
* * *
If he’d learned nothing else from his parents, he’d learned giving up one’s dreams only led to misery for all concerned and that he couldn’t protect anyone from that misery, not himself or the people he cared about.
Which was why he was leaving Chattanooga to set Savannah free.
To truly accomplish that, he’d have to hurt her, make her hate him.
Based on past experience, that should be no problem.
* * *
Stuffing the last of the shopping bags into her closet, Savannah closed the door just as her doorbell rang.
Charlie was there.
Finally.
He had a key but always rang the bell rather than just coming in, as she’d asked him time and again.
She turned from the closet and a pair of blue baby booties sitting on the bed caught her eye.
Oops.
She grabbed up the soft cotton booties, hugged them to her for one brief happy moment, then put them in the closet with her other purchases and reclosed the door. She’d decided she was just going to place his hand on her belly and let him figure out for himself why. She’d watch as his face lit with surprise, then excitement. She felt so giddy her insides quivered.
“You okay?” Charlie asked when she opened her apartment door, his dark eyes curious as she had taken longer than usual.
By way of an answer, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his.
Immediately, his arms went around her waist and pulled her close, kissing her back. A thousand butterflies took flight in her belly that had nothing to do with the little life growing there and everything to do with the man making her heart race.
His kisses always made her heart race.
“Hmm,” he mused, looking confused, when he pulled back from her mouth. “What was that for?”
“Do I have to have a reason to kiss you?” she asked, batting her lashes. She wanted to just tell him, to jump up and down and scream to the world that she was having a baby—Charlie’s baby. But, seriously, she should probably let him into the apartment and close the front door before doing so.
Probably.
Frowning, he shook his head. “You have to admit, that’s not the usual way you greet me.”
“Well, it should be.” He was right. She didn’t meet him at the door and throw herself at him usually, but nothing was usual about tonight. Tonight, she was going to tell him the greatest news.
His brow lifted in question.
About to burst with excitement, she searched for the right words. Loving the strong feel of him, the spicy smell of him she wanted to breathe in until he permeated all her senses. “I have good news.”
She was about bursting to tell him. But it registered that he’d yet to smile, as his face took on a tired appearance and he closed his eyes, tension tightening his body. “I have something to tell you, too.”
“You do?” She stepped back and motioned for him to come into her apartment. Rather than sitting down, he paced across to the opposite side of the living room.
“Yes, and maybe I should go first.” He raked his fingers through his hair, turned, gave her a troubled look.
The cloud nine Savannah had been walking on all afternoon dissipated and she felt her stomach drop. She’d been off work, but had met him that morning to run at the greenway. Then, they’d hit the gym together for about an hour. He’d been all smiles when he’d walked her to her car and kissed her goodbye. He’d kissed her so thoroughly and soundly that she’d wanted to drag him into the backseat and have her way with him.
Not that that was anything new. She always wanted to have her way with Charlie. He had that kind of body. One she still had difficulty believing she got to see and touch and kiss and hold and...
She shook off the sensual rabbit hole her mind was jumping down. “What’s going on?”
“I didn’t mean to get into this first thing.” He paced over to a bookshelf, picked up a framed photo of them at Lookout Mountain, stared at the smiling image of them as if he’d never seen it before rather than being part of the couple in the picture. “But it’s just as well to get it out in the open.”
He was the most upfront person she knew. She’d never seen him so distracted. Was something wrong?
“Charlie?”
He set the photo down, turned and faced her. His expression was clouded, which was odd. Charlie never tried to keep his feelings from her. He’d never had to. He knew she was as crazy about him as he was about her.
Only right now, at this moment, he didn’t look like a man who was crazy about her. He looked like a man who was torn by whatever he was about to say, a man who was about to deliver earth-shattering news.
Fear seized Savannah’s heart and she struggled to get enough oxygen into her constricted lungs.
“Charlie?” she repeated, this time with more urgency.
“Have a seat, Savannah.”
She made her way to her sofa. Slowly, she sat down and waited for him to tell her what was going on. She didn’t like his odd behavior, didn’t like that he hadn’t greeted her with smiles the way he generally did, didn’t like the way her heart worked overtime.
Where was her loving, kind, generous, open lover of the past year? The man whose entire face would light with happiness when he saw her? The man whose eyes would eat her up with possessiveness and desire and magical feel-good vibes?
The man avoiding looking directly at her looked as if he was about to deliver the news that she had a terminal illness or something just as devastating.
What if...? Her hands trembled.
Oh, God. Please don’t let something be wrong with Charlie. Please, no.
Not now. Not ever.
“I’m leaving.”
His two simple words echoed around the room, not registering in Savannah’s mind.
“What?” Her chest muscles contracted tightly around her ribcage as she tried to process what he was saying, her brain still going to something possibly being wrong with him. “What do you mean that you’re leaving?”
His expression guarded, he shrugged. “I’m leaving Chattanooga. I’ve taken a cardiology position at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville on the heart failure team and I’m moving there as soon as I can get everything arranged. I turned my notice in at the hospital today.”
Her ears roared. What he was saying didn’t make sense. “You’re leaving the hospital?”
He nodded. “I’m working out a two months’ notice, during which time I’ll be relocating to Nashville.”
“But...your house.” The