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father—”
    “Dad had a heart attack and died last spring.”
    His words left her speechless for several seconds. Zack’s dad had been such a robust, salt-of-the-earth kind of guy. The sort of man people looked up to and admired. Zack, especially, had idolized his father. He must be devastated.
    She knew that no words could make a difference, but she had to try. “I’m sorry, Zack,” she said, shaking her head. “I didn’t know.”
    “No reason why you should.” His tone was brisk, and knowing him as well as she had, she heard the silentmessage. He didn’t want to talk about it. “From what Maggie tells me,” he added, “you don’t get in touch very often.”
    “Probably not as often as they’d like,” she admitted. A sudden, horrible thought occurred to her. She looked up at him sharply. “Nit Whit didn’t call my parents, did he?”
    “No.”
    “And neither did you, right? Please tell me you didn’t.”
    Zack gave her a look that was full of disappointment. “Don’t you think they’d want to know?”
    “I contact them as much as I can. They know I’m doing fine.”
    “Yeah. You look fine.”
    She gave him a sullen glance, then wheeled away from the bars to perch on the cot.
    Panic threatened to send her thoughts scattering like a flock of crows. If Zack had called her parents, they’d come riding to her rescue. Full of good intentions, but making everything so much worse. When her sister had shown up pregnant and unwed at nineteen, they’d almost lost their minds, and she’d been the wild child in the family. Now with Alaina—once so sensible and willing to do whatever she’d been told—in the same boat…? Oh God. Disaster.
    The silence spun out. She didn’t look up at Zack, but she sensed that he hadn’t taken his eyes off her for a second. He must think she was completely nuts, landing in a fix like this.
    “I know they’d only want to help,” she agreed, drawing a deep breath. She swallowed hard. Morning sickness reared its ugly head, and she could feel it trying to takehold in her twisting stomach. She didn’t need that, either. “But please tell me you haven’t called Mom and Dad.”
    “I didn’t call them.”
    “Thank you,” she said, with such relief that the words came out a mere whisper.
    “Only because I couldn’t. Your parents left on a two-week cruise a couple of days ago. Maggie and Will and the kids went with them, too. Some big family celebration.”
    “To the Mediterranean?”
    Zack’s brows came together in surprise. “Yes. How did you know?”
    “Not long before I left Miami, Mom was talking about the next family vacation. She said she wanted to see the Greek Isles before she got too old. Dad said he’d make that happen. That Maggie and I would go, too. Mom’s birthday is next week.” Alaina grimaced at Zack. “I guess they decided not to wait any longer, and went without me.”
    To her annoyance, she felt tears sting the back of her eyes. In spite of the promise she’d made to herself—to get out from under the thumb of anyone who tried to tell her how to live her life—she couldn’t deny that she missed her parents and sister. Maggie’s daughter Amy would be ten by now, and her son Brandon no longer a baby. Did her little nephew look like his father? How strange it seemed not to know the details of her own family.
    As though sensing her thoughts, Zack said softly, “An occasional postcard isn’t keeping in touch, Al. Do you have any idea how much everyone in your family worries about you?”
    “I know. But I have to keep our conversations brief.If I don’t, everyone ends up crying and begging me to come home.”
    “When did you decide home was such a terrible place to be?”
    “When I finally realized that I didn’t have a home. All I really had in Miami was a pretty prison. First with Mom and Dad, and then with Gil. My entire life was spent making people believe I was someone I didn’t want to be anymore, and I was just so sick of