Ashley Price knew the day was doomed the second her mother said the word doctor in that cheerful, terrifying tone mothers use when they have already prepared for the worst.

Two months.

That was how long Ashley had gone without her period.

To Ashley, the explanation was obvious.

Stress.

Too much coffee.

Too little sleep.

A breakup she had never fully recovered from.

Her body had been running on nerves and denial for weeks, and eventually something had to give.

To her mother, however, there were only two acceptable possibilities: pregnancy or a terrible disease.

So on a gray Thursday morning, Ashley found herself being escorted through the polished lobby of St.

Catherine Medical Center while her mother muttered catastrophically under her breath.

‘I’m telling you, sweetheart, this is not normal.’

Ashley lowered her sunglasses.

‘Stress can do this.’

‘Yes,’ her mother said.

‘So can pregnancy.

Or thyroid problems.

Or tumors.

Why are you fighting medical science?’

Ashley let out a slow breath and looked away.

She had slept maybe four hours the night before.

Her chest had been tight all week.

Her body felt like it belonged to a stranger.

The last thing she wanted was a lecture in a hospital lobby.

Then she saw the digital directory.

Doctor Cole Jacobs.

Her feet nearly stopped moving.

It was a common enough name, she told herself.

It had to be.

There were probably dozens of Cole Jacobses scattered across the city.

Surely fate was not cruel enough to place her in an exam room with the man she had loved for three years and lost in one ugly, pride-soaked week.

Fate, apparently, had no such boundaries.

When the exam room door opened, there he was.

Cole stood beside the desk in a white coat, silver-rimmed glasses catching the overhead light, every inch of him maddeningly composed.

He had always looked unfairly calm under pressure, but now the control in his face felt almost brutal.

‘Ashley Price,’ he said, glancing at the chart.

‘What seems to be the concern today?’

It took all her strength not to laugh from shock.

Her mother stepped in before she could answer.

‘Her period has been gone for two months.

May you like

She insists it’s stress.

I insist something is wrong.

Please examine her thoroughly.’

Cole nodded once.

‘Of course.’

If he was surprised, he hid it well.

That was the problem with Cole.

He hid everything well.

Ashley sat on the exam chair feeling suddenly and absurdly exposed.

This man had once kissed her forehead when she couldn’t sleep, had once carried her to bed when she fell asleep at her desk, had once murmured future plans into her hair at two in the morning.

Now he held a chart between them like a wall.

‘Have you taken a home pregnancy test?’ he asked.

‘Not yet,’ her mother answered.

‘I brought her straight here.’

Cole’s eyes flicked to Ashley only briefly.

‘Are you currently sexually active?’

Ashley opened her mouth.

Her mother answered again.

‘She has a boyfriend.

They are very serious.’

Cole’s pen stopped.

The air changed so sharply Ashley felt it against her skin.