“I don’t care what price you get for it as long as I don’t lose money, and as long as I don’t have to deal with it.” That sounded a little more revealing than Damien intended. He quickly added, “So how have you been, George?”

“Hanging in there. Listen, you’ve got to sign the listing agreement, so why don’t you stop out at my house tomorrow, have dinner with us. The wife would love to see you. She always had a crush on you—something about those ugly blue eyes of yours.”

Damien snorted as he stepped off on the tenth floor. “Sure, I can do that, though I highly doubt Melanie ever gave one thought to my eyes. But don’t go blabbing to your mom that I’m here until I’ve had a chance to call my mom. I don’t want her to find out secondhand.”

“Can do. And Damien? It’s good to hear from you.”

And Damien found that he actually felt the same way.

Mandy didn’t know what to think.

Damien had disappeared.

He had walked out of the hospital and hadn’t returned to the office. She had gotten a cryptic e-mail from him asking her to cancel all of his appointments for the remainder of the week, as well as their dinner plans, because he was taking care of some business out of town.

Damien never canceled appointments. And it was only Tuesday. Taking three days off in a row was just unheard of for him.

Mandy was worried sick.

“Are you even listening to me?” Ben asked, a hint of irritation creeping into his voice.

“Hmm? Oh, sorry. It’s the pregnancy, you know,” she lied. “It makes me forgetful and easily distracted.” There was one definite plus to being pregnant. She could blame everything on that fact.

Ben had called to explain that he’d been caught up in a meeting and hadn’t been able to get away for the ultrasound. Mandy crunched pretzels and decided she couldn’t care less where Ben had been.

“It apparently has also affected your manners. Are you chewing in my ear?”

“Yes. I’m hungry. This is my bedtime snack.” Mandy set her feet on the coffee table and sank farther into the sofa cushions. It had been a sweltering day outside, and she was still sweating, even in the air-conditioning. She picked at her tank top.

“I’ll keep this brief, then. I just wanted to see how the test had gone.”

“Everything’s fine. The technician said the baby looks great and I’m due October twenty-one.” Mandy picked up the pictures she’d spent all evening leafing through. “I’ve got pictures of the scan. Do you want me to fax them to you?”

“All right.” Ben didn’t sound terribly enthusiastic. “But fax them to my apartment, not the office.”