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My tears sting once more. “I didn’t know.” I reach down, try to draw Xander to his feet, but he remains on his knees in front of me, bent double, nearly broken. “Xander, I didn’t realize it was about something like this. I thought…” I shake my head. “I don’t know, I thought you were lying to your father because you wanted money, or some kind of inheritance. Something heartless.” My throat goes tight with feeling. “That’s why I felt like such a pawn. When your father seemed so nice and genuine…”
“He is.” Xander shakes his head. “He was right to take the store from me, the first time. But that was years ago. I’m better now, healthier. Wife or no, he would have seen that soon, I think.” Xander’s gaze flashes up to mine. “But Melanie… you were never a pawn. If anything, you’re the one who opened my eyes. Who made me realize how much of life I really am missing out on. In some ways, I’m still that young boy who just lost his mother, hiding out in the one place he felt comfortable. I was stuck in my comfort zone… but you pushed me out of it. Shoved me, in fact.” The corner of his mouth shifts into a grin.
I laugh softly. His hands slide up the backs of my calves to my knees. I can feel every inch of his hands against my skin, white-hot below the hem of my skirt. It makes me want to abandon the airport right now. To let him take me back home, spread me down across his bed and touch me more, harder, everywhere.
But there’s still something else between us. Another weight that Xander doesn’t even know about.
Oblivious to my sudden distress, he’s still talking. “Melanie, I took you for granted, and I’m sorry. I didn’t stop to think about what I was really feeling, because being with you, it never felt like a lie. It was so easy, so natural. As natural as breathing. And I didn’t think about what would happen when it ended, or how hurt you might be expecting it to end soon. Hell, I didn’t even consider how devastated I would have been, watching you walk away, because I never even thought about that as a real possibility. I was living in the moment, enjoying our life together… but now, I realize, I don’t want it to end. I don’t want to let you get on this plane.”
He tightens his grip around my legs, and I have to reach down to steady myself by twining my hands through his hair.
“Melanie… I love—”
“Xander, wait.” I let my hands fall from his hair. “There’s something I need to tell you, before you say anything else. Something I should have told you days ago, but I couldn’t find the right time, the right moment… Is there ever a right moment, really, for something that could change everything? That will change everything?”
He stares at me, confusion written all over his face. But he doesn’t interrupt. He just waits for me to go on. To explain what I mean.
I take a deep, steadying breath. “Xander… I’m pregnant.”
He sits back on his heels, and his face goes slack with surprise. His gaze drops from mine, almost instinctively, to find my belly instead. It tightens when he looks at me, and even though I know I’m not showing yet, I feel like a giant neon sign is pointing at my stomach. Announcing this change, this shift in gravity, to the whole wide world.
Without thinking, I raise my hands to cross them over my belly, almost defensively. “I know, I should have told you sooner,” I whisper. “And I’m sorry.” I take a step backward. Or at least, I try to.
But Xander sits back up and wraps both arms around my thighs, drawing me against him. Clinging to me. He kisses my thighs through the fabric of my dress, then leans up to press his mouth to my belly. I frown with confusion, even as I feel him start to shake against me. Laughing, I realize.
When he pulls back, tears shine in his eyes. But they aren’t the same tears I saw before, of fear and doubt. These are tears of… joy. “Are you sure? You’re having a baby? We’re having a baby?”
I nod, feeling tears sting at the back of my own eyes. Mostly from sheer shock at his reaction. I expected him to be upset, maybe even freaked out. Not… happy. Excited. “I’m sure. It’s happening.”
“And you want this. You want to be with me.” The way he says it, so hesitant, almost like he can’t believe it either, almost makes me laugh. Because it’s exactly how I feel. Like this can’t possibly be real life.
“Of course I do,” I respond, struggling to suppress my smile.
