Page 105 of Rival Hearts

29

CHARLOTTE

Iwoke up incredibly happy. The sun was shining, work was going pretty well, and Alex was a great guy. His family was just as wonderful.

What had I done to deserve this in my life? For so long, things had been so horrible that I’d been pretty sure that this was it—my life was pretty crap despite the things that went right from time to time.

But now, everything was great, and I couldn’t believe I’d ever gotten this lucky.

When I got up, my head throbbed dully. The day after the barbecue—which hadn’t been a barbecue at all but a lavish buffet—I’d had a headache and I’d felt sick to my stomach but I never handled wine very well.

Wine caused the worst kind of hangovers. Even if it was really expensive wine, like the kind Alex had brought me every time he’d refilled my glass.

The few days after the get-together I hadn’t felt much better. My head ached dully every now and then, a strange pain between my temples, and the nausea didn’t want to budge, either.

Was it possible that I had some kind of food poisoning?

Everything they’d had on that table had been delicious, and I had to admit, I might have overeaten. I’d had so much more than I usually did, but the food had been incredible, and the buffet had looked so good, so well thought out and put together by people who really knew how to make food.

The Blackwoods’ parents, Alex had confided in me, had access to the best chefs in the world and used them for everything, from dinner parties with friends to business meetings to their own family barbeques.

It couldn’t be that something there had been off and made me sick, could it? It didn’t seem like anyone would allow something like that to slip through.

I walked to the kitchen and programmed my coffee machine to make a cup. When the coffee was ready, I added sugar and cream like I always did and took a sip.

My stomach turned violently, and I ran to the bathroom. I fell to my knees and retched over the toilet bowl, emptying my stomach contents before it went over to dry heaves.

I finally sat back against the bathroom wall and pressed my hand against my head, breathing hard.

I couldn’t tell if I had a fever this way, of course, but something was definitely wrong.

I lay down on my bed and closed my eyes. I never usually felt sick; generally I stayed healthy, and even getting a flu wasn’t something that happened every year.

When I woke up, I didn’t feel much better. My stomach still turned, making me worry about eating anything. If I kept throwing it up, it was better for me to figure out what was wrong and get it over with.

I called my doctor and made an appointment, and I was lucky—he had a spot open. I drove to the doctors’ offices a couple of blocks away.

“Thank you for seeing me so quickly, Doc,” I said when I walked in. “I don’t know what’s going on. I think I might have a stomach bug or something.”

“We’ll fix that right up,” Doctor Norton said. He was an older man with graying hair and a warm smile that made everyone feel at ease. I’d come to the doctors’ offices the first time for a regular checkup and landed with him. It had been just after I’d arrived in Rhode Island, and since then, I’d always come to him when I needed help.

He always made me feel welcome.

“What are your symptoms?”

I told him what I was struggling with and that I’d thrown up the coffee I’d tried to drink this morning. I explained it wasn’t the first time this week I’d felt sick, either.

“It could very well be a bug,” Doctor Norton said, nodding. “There is one doing the rounds, and I’ve had a few cases so far. When was your last period?”

“Oh. It was…” I frowned, trying to remember when it had been. I’d been so busy, with so much going on, I hadn’t thought much about my period.

The more I thought about it, the more my stomach twisted into a knot, and my headache became more acute.

“I don’t remember,” I said honestly. “But I think I might be late.”

“That could be a reason for you feeling sick,” Doctor Norton pointed out.

I shook my head. “No. I can’t be pregnant. I have so much going on now.”