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sheriff’s office to keep him busy, Wyatt quickly found himself bored and ended up reading the same book he’d read a thousand times before. Most of the pages were earmarked and worn. The binding was just about shot. He probably needed to buy another copy, but there was something about the first-edition hardback that made him feel better about life in general. It was like reaching out and touching the past, and he needed it desperately after the week he was having.
Lost in the story, Wyatt was jolted back to reality when the home phone rang, and he tossed his book aside, dashing into the kitchen to catch it before the caller hung up.
Everyone called their cell phone these days. It was probably just a solicitation call, but Wyatt still wanted to see who it was.
“Hello?” he asked, turning to walk with the portable back into the living room.
“Morning, Sheriff. Jules there?”
“Nah, it’s ten o’clock. She’s long gone.” Wyatt picked up his book, checking to make sure he hadn’t injured it. He placed a bookmark between the pages he was on and then set it on the coffee table. “Can I help ya?”
“It’s Dr. Philips.”
“Oh hey, Doc.” Wyatt sat up straighter, his heart doing a little flip in his chest.
“Everything okay?”
“I called her office, but the machine picked up. I was hoping to catch her this morning. It’s important. ”
“They miss calls all the time when they’re packed with clients. Ya know it’s her busy season,” Wyatt said, his shoulders tense with the anxiety. “Why the rush?
Something up with her tests?”
“I left a message there, but if you could get her to call me, I’d—”
“What’s going on?” Wyatt cut him off. “There’s something wrong. Tell me what it is.”
“I just need to talk to Jules.”
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“I have her medical power of attorney.” Wyatt refused to be intimidated by the doctor just because he’d been treating them since they were kids. “You tell me what’s wrong with her.”
“Wyatt, it’s not my place—”
“Is it cancer?” he whispered the words in horror. This whole thing with Wellings had Wyatt feeling like some horrible self-fulfilling prophecy was about to descend on them. “They told her she’s got a higher risk ’cause of—”
“It’s not cancer.”
“What is it?” The fear made Wyatt’s voice raspy. “Just tell me ’cause—”
“It’s nothing like that.” Dr. Philips was trying to pacify him, but there was an unmistakable string of concern in his voice. “You’re letting your imagination run away with you.”
“If ya’d tell me, I wouldn’t have to use my imagination!” Dr. Philips huffed. The silence between them was deafening before he finally asked, “Is Jules seeing anyone? Does she got a fella?” Wyatt was thrown by the off-topic question before something horrible dawned on him, and his eyes narrowed. A completely different type of fear surged through his bloodstream, and he finally managed to choke out, “Why?”
“I just hadn’t heard she was dating anyone.” Dr. Philips sounded mystified. “Ya think we’d have heard if she was. Is she serious ’bout him?”
“I didn’t say she was dating anyone,” Wyatt reminded the doctor before he asked,
“Is Jules pregnant?”
“Just have her call me.” Dr. Philips cleared his throat and then said, “I got patients.”
After Wyatt hung up with the doctor, he sat there on the couch for about two seconds before he dashed upstairs, going to Jules’s private bathroom. Usually it was a forbidden zone, a place filled with things Wyatt didn’t want to think about, let alone
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encounter. He searched underneath the sink, pushed aside tampons, maxi pads, and a sea of beauty products and came up with nothing. So he opened the drawer next, finding it right there in front—a package of pregnancy tests.
Hands shaking, Wyatt opened the box, finding two of the three tests missing. If she was taking tests, she’d had a scare. The possibility had been there at some point, but she obviously didn’t know she was pregnant or she would’ve gone to the doctor long before Wyatt started noticing something.
He tilted the box to the side and found the expiration date, seeing they were expired. Wyatt shook his head, knowing Jules had driven twenty miles to some pissant convenience store to buy the tests rather than have someone at Maple’s One Stop Shop asking questions. This box had probably been on a shelf for five years before Jules bought it, because those places couldn’t afford to throw out nonperishable items.