“I guess. I can’t even think about any of that until I know she’s safe.”

“I have an idea of where she might be.”

Instantly on alert, Nick said, “Where?”

“You know.”

“Oh, God. Lincoln.” He wondered why he hadn’t thought of it. After all, he’d found her there once before during an earlier crisis. “Is she purposely skipping the shower?”

“Doubt it’s even on her radar at the moment.”

“Do we need to postpone the wedding?”

“You’ll have to play that one by ear.”

Nick released a harsh laugh. “It’s in seven days.”

“If she’s not ready, she’s not ready.”

Nick swallowed a new surge of panic. Somehow he knew if they didn’t get married next Saturday they never would. “I’m going to find her. Will you hold down the fort here?”

“Absolutely.”

“Thanks for the head’s up about what’s going on with her.”

“You’d have figured it out eventually.”

“I wish I was so confident.” Just when he thought he really knew her, he discovered he didn’t know her at all. The unsettling thought did nothing to calm his rattled nerves. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. If for any reason it’s not going to happen tonight—”

“Just call. Take care of Sam. We’ll take care of things here.”

On his way to the door, Nick took a second to squeeze Skip’s right hand, which retained sensation more than two years after he was shot on the job and left a quadriplegic.

“She loves you,” Skip said. “I’m sure of that.”

“I hope you’re right.” Nick grabbed a coat and went into the kitchen to go out through the backdoor. No sense alerting everyone that he was leaving. Whatever was going on with Sam was her business—and his.

In the cab he took to the Lincoln Memorial, Skip’s words echoed through Nick’s mind: She loves you. I’m sure of that. Nick had been too. But something had changed in the last few weeks, something fundamental and essential. Whether or not they could get back what they’d once had was anyone’s guess.

And the last thing Nick wanted the week before he was due to marry the love of his life was to be guessing about whether she still loved him enough to marry him or if losing his baby had broken her so badly she’d never be the same again.

As he took the steps to the Lincoln Memorial, Nick recalled the last time he’d come here to find her, after she’d met his friend Julian Sinclair, the Supreme Court nominee. She and Julian had sparred over right-to-life issues, which had brought up the painful memory of her first miscarriage years earlier. Nick had learned then that Sam came to Lincoln when she was troubled by something.