And he was staring at her.

Uh-oh.

"What is it, Hairy?" Emma laughed uneasily. "You can stop staring at me now." Her headache swirled. Her stomach lurched.

"Oh, boy," she mumbled, tossing Hairy aside. She staggered toward the bathroom.

"Are you okay?" Thomas was on his feet and right behind her.

Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh.

Three days later, Emma was still sick to her stomach and so tired that her arms and legs felt like they were encased in wet cement. She couldn't remember the last time the flu had hit her this hard, and was reevaluating her decision to come to work the way she always had in the past.

"I must be getting old." Emma accepted the new-patient questionnaire from Velvet, and scanned information about a calico who'd compulsively licked her front paws bare. "This virus is knocking me on my butt."

"Whatever you say."

Emma looked up to find Velvet glaring at her, her hands propped on her hips.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Emma… is there… well…?"

"What?"

"Could you possibly be pregnant?"

Emma's hands fell to her sides and she heard the chart slap against her leg. "Excuse me?"

"Pregnant. With child. Expecting."

"No." Emma quickly resumed reading. "You can tell Mrs. Wilson to come on back."

"Not yet. Just a minute."

Emma was already shaking her head. "Look, Velvet. I've got the flu, okay? I'm not pregnant. There's no way." She started toward the exam room.

"Why not?" Velvet was close on her heels. "We all know you and Thomas are… uh…"

Emma threw open the exam room door and whirled around to face her friend. "There's no way, okay? Let's get Mrs. Wilson in here so I can go home and die."

Velvet was in her face now, her expression menacing. Emma's heart began to race. This was ridiculous. She couldn't be pregnant! She just couldn't be…

"I'm running to the CVS for a pregnancy test," Velvet said. "Don't go anywhere."

An hour later, Emma was so freaked out, that she couldn't tell if the twin blue lines were real or the result of blurred vision and trembling hands. Velvet was pounding on the door again. How long had she been in the bathroom? How could this have happened?

She looked at herself in the mirror, splashed cold water on her face, and smoothed the hair back from her brow. She looked pale and tired. She looked shell-shocked. Well, hell. She looked pregnant

But Thomas was sterile.

Emma flung open the door and held up the test stick like the Statue of Liberty's torch. "Thomas said he was sterile."

Velvet's mouth dropped open. "What?"

Emma returned to her perch on the closed toilet lid and rested her head in her hands. "He was injured playing rugby and had all these tests…" She looked up and blinked. "I don't understand."

Velvet squatted in front of her and dug her manicured nails into Emma's knees. "What are you saying?"

Emma snorted. "I'm saying I don't know what the hell is going on! I'm pregnant, Velvet! Pregnant when there's no way I should be!"

Velvet got up and began to pace the tiny bathroom. It was making Emma's headache worse.

"And he's…?"

"The only one since Aaron, yes. And I went off the pill after the divorce."

Velvet pursed her lips and stared down at Emma. "Did you see his medical records?"

"What?"

"Is there any chance he was lying to you?"

"Of course not!" As soon as the words escaped Emma's mouth her heart twisted in a cold squeeze of doubt. Yes, he'd lied in the past… but that had been different… before his heart-wrenching confession at her feet and the way he'd loved her since…

"I can't even think that way." She shook her head and stared at the absorbent strip dangling from her fingers.

"Why not?"

"Because I love him too much. It has to be some kind of fluke." Her head fell back in her hands.

"What are you going to do, Em?"

"I'm going to tell him."

"Of course-"

"And we'll figure this out together."

"How far along do you think you are?"

Emma looked up and smiled, a rush of excitement moving through her.

"Three weeks at the most."

"What are you going to do?"

"Do?" Emma got up, pressed past Velvet and headed for her desk chair. She swiveled back and forth, biting her lip.

"What are you going to do, Emma?"

She blinked back tears, not sure whether they were tears of joy or distress. "I guess I'm going to have a baby. Is that the weirdest thing, or what?"

"And what do you want him to do?"

Emma laughed a little, and Hairy jumped in her lap. He'd been asleep in the dog bed in the corner of the office, where he hung out during the day when Leelee was at school. "He's already done it," she said. "He gave me a baby."

Velvet rolled her eyes. "You know what I'm asking, Em! I'm asking you if you want him to marry you!"

Emma absently stroked Hairy's head and felt a small smile play on her face. "Actually, he asked me to marry him a few weeks ago."

Velvet's mouth hung open. "What was your answer?"

"I said yes."

"Holy shit."

"Exactly."

"Is he stopping by this afternoon?"

"At five-thirty."

Velvet stuck her hands on her narrow hips and tilted her head. "Are you okay, Em? You look completely blown away."

She laughed, somewhat hysterically. "That would be because I am blown away. A month ago I was alone. Now I'm in love! I'm going to get married! I'm going to give birth!"

Emma launched herself from the chair and threw Hairy to the floor.

"But right now I'm going to be sick."

Thomas arrived at Wit's End a few minutes early, anxious to see Emma, worried that she was still feeling under the weather.

The bells jingled as he pushed open the front door and nearly ran over Velvet Miki, who was on her way out. He gave her a big smile.

"Hey, Velvet."

"Asshole."

Thomas whipped around and stared after her. He couldn't quite figure that woman. She was always mad at him for some unknowable offense. Thank God Emma was steady as a rock.

He found her sitting at her desk, Hairy asleep on her lap. She offered him a weak smile and Thomas immediately saw that she seemed sad. Her cheeks lacked their usual pink flush and her eyes some of their sparkle. She looked fragile to him, and his heart lurched.

"Hey, baby. You still feeling bad?"

Emma nodded. Now he could see that her eyes were red, like she'd been crying, and a stab of apprehension went through him.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

He went to her, pulled her up from the chair and into his arms. She felt thin to him, and the worry escalated. "Are you okay, Emma? What is it? Did you go to the doctor? Tell me."

She started to cry, and threw her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest. Then it hit him-brain tumor. Of course. He finds the only woman in the world for him and she's dying of a brain tumor.

Emma pulled away from him. "Have a seat, Thomas." She directed him to the chair and leaned on the edge of the desk.

Her eyes were swimming in tears, blue as an in-ground pool, but there was something in her expression he'd never before seen. Fear-real fear. Oh, God, it was going to be bad.

"There's no way to sugar-coat this, so I'll just tell you." She hugged herself tight, an obvious gesture of self-defense. Why in the world would Emma be afraid of him?

She took a huge gulp of air and locked her eyes on his.

"I'm pregnant."

And just like that, the air left his lungs and his brain went black.

Then he felt it-his heart was a tiny pebble in a giant slingshot and it was pulled back, back, back… waiting… waiting… then flung into the void.