Free Mending Hope (Contemporary Western Romance) (License to Love Series:Book 2) by Amelia Rose

days now, headaches, tension, the upset stomach yesterday, and the almost fainting today.  It felt like she was coming down with something, but even as she wondered what was wrong, the thermometer beeped.  She did a double take a moment later when she looked at the readout and realized that she was actually a little below normal.
    Just in case, she decided to go to the pharmacy and get some cold medicine.  Her mother had always insisted that it was better to get out in front of the illness, and that was exactly what she intended to do. 
    Thirty minutes later she set the bags down on the counter next to the medicine satchel and pulled out a series of boxes.  The last box she pulled out was a purple and white EPT box.  Her hands shook a little as she lifted it out of the plastic.  She’d been told by several doctors that she could never get pregnant, and although she and Kyle had tried for years her dream had never come to fruition. 
    But in her gut she knew that something wasn’t right, and she knew that those symptoms could add up to pregnancy.  She’d been denying it for a couple of days now but the truth was she couldn’t even remember her last period.  It had been a month since she and Woody had first been together. 
    She acknowledged that two and two equaled four.  But if she was pregnant that could very well signal the end of her relationship with Woody.  She knew exactly how he felt about kids.  For a moment she continued to stare at the box not sure if she actually wanted to know the answer. 
    Before she could over think it, she tore into the wrapping and pulled the test out.  A few moments later she set the test on the counter in the bathroom.  It said that there would not be results for at least five minutes, and she didn’t want to be one of those women who paced around the bathroom waiting.  Instead she decided to go to the kitchen and get something to drink.
    She walked into the large kitchen and went directly to the refrigerator.  She had seen some juice in there earlier.  As she bent into the coolness of the fridge, she noticed the movement from the corner of her eye and she pulled back just as the door swung shut.
    “Hey!  What the hell!” she exclaimed as she jumped back.  That was when she realized that it was Charles Sanders standing there.  Without pausing a moment longer she stumbled back against the counter and grabbed for a knife, lunging out blindly as he advanced on her. 
    The knife was short, nothing more than a paring knife really, but it managed to clip his shirt and sink lightly into his side.  Blood covered her hand, and made the knife slip out of her hand and clatter across the tiled floor. 
    She turned and started to run back down the hallway, but a searing pain shot through her side, and she collapsed on the floor.  The last image she saw was Charles standing over her smiling, and then the world faded down into darkness.
     

Chapter 8
     
    The phone rang out across the shop.  At first Woody ignored it, but after ten continuous rings he climbed out from under the green Tahoe he was working on and went to the phone.
    “What’s the emergency?” he asked, his voice spiking with frustration at the unknown caller.  He’d been trying to get the engine put back together on that thing for an hour and the frustration was driving him crazy.
    “Thank God I finally got a hold of you!” Melinda’s voice rang out clearly on the other line.  “Charles escaped from his psych evaluation earlier today.  I called and gave Shad a head’s up but right now I’m headed to the farm.  I don’t think he’ll come after you.  Clara was his obsession after all, but I wanted to warn you.  Alyssa is staying with you, right?”
    For a moment Woody couldn’t speak.  He tried to force out words, but there was nothing but a dry crack where his voice would have been.  “Alyssa’s at the farm, packing up the last of her stuff.”
    There was a brief silence on the other end,