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She didn’t want to wait and do the test at her cottage, so she went into the nearest café and ordered a cheese scone and a mug of hot chocolate.
She was probably being ridiculous. Of course she wasn’t pregnant by her ex. She couldn’t be. Though the test felt as if it were burning a hole in her bag.
How pathetic was that? She was twenty-seven, not seventeen.
But what if she was pregnant? What if? What if? The question ran round and round in her head.
She gritted her teeth, forced herself to eat the scone and drink the hot chocolate, then headed for the bathroom.
Thankfully it was empty and there were three cubicles, so she didn’t feel guilty about causing any kind of queue. She did the test and stared at the little white stick.
One blue line, to show it was working...
And there it was. In stark black text, so she couldn’t pretend she’d make a mistake and misread the result.
Pregnant.
She swallowed hard.
What was she going to do now?
Last time she and Brad had done something reckless—eloping to Gretna Green—they’d kept their castle in the air going for a few years... And then it had all come crashing down and she’d realised how naive and foolish they’d been.
Nearly ten years later, they hadn’t learned a thing, had they? They’d been reckless and stupid, and had a crazy affair. Something that both of them had known deep down could never last. Abigail didn’t expect Brad to give up his job for her—and, even though the other day she’d thought that maybe she could follow him to London, now it came down to it she wasn’t so sure that she could. Her life was here. Her family was here. In London, she’d be isolated.
Or would Brad offer to give up the job she knew he loved and come back to Great Crowmell? Would he consider taking a job that maybe he didn’t love so much? Would he want to make a life here with her?
And then the doubts came slamming in. What if he didn’t? What if Brad did expect her to give up everything for him and move to London? What if she put a manager into the café and ran the business from a distance, so she wasn’t letting her parents down—would things really work out between them? Because, the last time they’d been together and life had thrown up a major change, their marriage had disintegrated. Brad hadn’t coped with the shock of his father’s death and he’d frozen her out.
What if he did the same if things went wrong this time round?
OK, so she’d had the confidence to push him when he’d gone quiet on her at the lighthouse, and he’d opened up to her. But that was over something relatively small. What about something bigger? What if—God forbid—something happened to his mum, or to Ruby? What if he was made redundant and it was difficult to find another job? Would he talk to her and let her help him through it, or would he shut himself off again?
And a baby would be a huge, huge change to both their lives. They hadn’t discussed having children; she had no idea how he felt. Was it too soon for him? Or didn’t he want children at all?
Plus she knew that a baby was never the answer to a sticky patch in a relationship. Those early days, with all the broken nights and worry and stress, would put extra strain on them and would widen any rifts between them, to the point where those rifts couldn’t be bridged any more. What if the baby made him feel trapped? What if he froze her out again? Because this time it wouldn’t just be her, it would be the baby as well.
But could she do this on her own? Could she have a baby and keep running her family’s business as a single mum?
There was another option, but she pushed it away. She’d made a choice that had led to a pregnancy, and getting rid of a baby just because it wasn’t convenient felt wrong. Not that she’d ever judge anyone else for making that decision, but for her that wasn’t the right option.
OK. She knew her parents would stand by her. So would Ruby, and Brad’s mum. They’d all be supportive. But Brad himself...
She had absolutely no idea how he was going to react. Or how she was going to tell him. The only thing she knew was that they had to talk about it. Tonight. And only then could they decide if they wanted to move on together—or apart.
