He frowned while chewing, the light of the TV screen glowing on his face. He’d texted Ben days ago to let him know he was helping Leah with issues of hospital bureaucracy. He’d texted Ben again today to say that the hospital meeting had gone well and that at least one follow-up meeting would be needed to secure the information she wanted.

Ben had answered with a brief thanks both times. Since the farmers market, Sebastian had seen Ben once, when they’d gone to a Braves game. There’d been a slight unspoken strain between them. Ben, who usually talked about Leah a lot, hadn’t mentioned her that day. Neither had Sebastian. They’d both had to work a little too hard to make things between them seem normal.

Sebastian would travel to Misty River a week from today for Ben’s parents’ fortieth anniversary dinner. He’d get their friendship back on track then. If he wasn’t going to date Leah, and he wasn’t, then the trade-off had to be a good relationship with Ben.

Watch soccer, idiot.

Sebastian liked things done a certain way. He didn’t get embarrassed, and he wasn’t afraid to anger people when necessary. He was persistent. Stubborn.

Ben liked to ask him dryly if there was anything on earth Sebastian didn’t have an opinion about. The answer was no. He had strong feelings toward everything.

Ice cream flavor? Cookies and cream.

Sport? Soccer.

Indoor temperature? Seventy-two in the summer, sixty-eight in the winter.

Practicing medicine? Nothing but excellence would do.

Problem was, he could feel all his persistence and stubbornness and strong feelings funneling in one direction.

Toward Leah Montgomery.

His ability to focus, usually an asset, was becoming a flaw.

His phone’s pager system went off. Squinting, he checked his secure messages.

A baby with blockage in all four pulmonary veins had just been delivered, and he was needed immediately.

CHAPTER FIVE

Excuse me?” Mom squawked over the phone four days later. She’d finally called Leah from Guinea to inquire after the second DNA test.

“I’m not your biological daughter,” Leah repeated calmly. It was late on a Tuesday night. Dylan was sleeping over at a friend’s house, and Leah had paused Return of the Jedi to answer her phone. Beyond the walls of her house, the heavy darkness of the mountains reigned.

“Yes you are, Leah. You’re my biological daughter.”

“No, it turns out that I’m not. Which doesn’t have to change anything between us.”

Mom continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “They placed you in my arms in the hospital.”