Nick grabbed a blanket from the back of the sofa and spread it over them, arranging them so they lay facing each other. He traced a finger over Sam’s frown. “I don’t know what’s causing you such concern, but whatever it is, we’ll get through it together, Sam.”

She rested her hand on his chest.

Nick’s heart galloped under her touch as he waited for her to gather her thoughts.

“When I was with Peter,” she said tentatively, “we tried for a long time to have a baby. We were about to go for infertility treatment when I got pregnant.”

Imagining what she was going to say, Nick ached for her.

“I was so excited, even though Peter and I were already having a lot of problems. I know it was foolish to think a baby could fix it, but I still had hope then.”

His heart breaking, Nick wiped away a tear that spilled down her cheek.

“I miscarried at twelve weeks.”

“Sam… I’m so sorry.”

“It was a bad miscarriage. I lost a lot of blood, and it took me a really long time to bounce back. Peter was so devastated. He kind of retreated into himself.”

“So you went through it alone.”

She shrugged and sat up, moving out of his embrace. “I had my sisters, my family. Angela had Jack a short time later, and he saved me in so many ways. He’s my baby as much as he’s hers. She even says so.”

“He’s adorable.”

“He’s my little man.” She wiped her face with an impatient swipe, as if the tears were pissing her off. “A couple of months later, the doctor told me we could try again. Things with Peter had seriously disintegrated, but we both still wanted a baby so we made an effort to fix what was wrong even though I already knew it couldn’t really be fixed. For a while, though, things were better. A year after the miscarriage, I got pregnant again, but I didn’t know. It was an ectopic pregnancy. Do you know what that is?”

Nick sat up, reached for her hand and tried not to be hurt when she brushed him off. “I’ve heard of it.”

“It’s when the embryo implants outside the uterus. In my case, it was in one of the fallopian tubes. I was home alone when the tube erupted. I had almost bled to death when Angela found me.”

“Jesus, Sam.”

“I was in the hospital for more than a week that time. It was the most painful thing I’ve ever been through—physically and emotionally. I lost the tube and one of my ovaries. Because of some other problems I’d had with endometriosis, my doctor told me it was unlikely that I’d ever conceive again.”