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He snorted and kept climbing. “You’ll call her?” he mocked. “Don’t forget to leave a message with she direct-to-voicemails your sorry ass.”
I stood up as he reached the top of the steps. His hand was on the door handle when I finally barked, “Fine, I’ll go to her fucking dad’s house so he can beat the shit out of me. Will that make you happy?”
He glanced back over his shoulder consideringly. “Yeah. I think it might.”
“Fine.” I picked up his shoes and lobbed them at him, one at a time. “Then put these back on. I’ll be back next Saturday.”
“I’ll visit you in the hospital next Saturday,” he corrected, catching them easily.
I flipped him the middle finger as I stomped back to my car.
“You gonna leave your coffee, man?” he called after me. “That’s fine with me. I’m going to set myself up a lemonade stand.”
I drove off without answering, but when I glanced back at him in the rearview mirror, I thought I saw him grinning like he’d just won something.
Yeah, he was going to make a damn good lawyer.
CHAPTER33
LAYLA
Ispent the week in my childhood bed, staring at the ceiling. Cross Media’s HR had put me on a week-long leave of absence, and I was grateful. I kept my hands folded over my abdomen as though if I kept them there long enough, eventually I would believe there was a real baby in there. My baby. Aiden’s baby. Apparently, the three pink plus signs on the pregnancy tests I still had lined up on my bathroom sink weren’t enough proof.
Even if my brain wouldn’t accept it though, my body wouldn’t let me forget. The sudden nausea and exhaustion made so much sense now, I didn’t know how I hadn’t seen it before. I suppose because I hadn’t wanted to. I’d fallen in love with Aiden before I had the chance to rationalize it. With Christian, I’d done my legwork. I’d gotten to know him. I’d ascertained that we both wanted roughly the same thing–to establish our careers, then have children. With Aiden, just like with this baby, my body had succumbed before my brain had a chance to catch up.
As far as I knew, he didn’t want children. That had been one of the issues between him and Shara, wasn’t it? The Disney Plus subscription he’d never wanted.Iwanted children though, and I wanted this one. It was funny how even as I struggled to conceptualize the reality that I was pregnant, my heart was already wrapped around the idea. In seven months, give or take a few weeks, I would be a mother.
Liv had gone out of town on her own business trip, but when she got back in town, she came over right away. I was in my room, of course. She tapped on the door and then poked her head in without waiting for an invitation.
“Hi,” she said, coming all the way in when she saw only me in the room. She crawled up on the side of my bed and sat cross legged, looking down at me. “Rough week?”
I laughed drily. It had been a long time since my body had tried to produce that particular sound. “You could say that.”
Liv tilted her head, and her long brown hair slid off her shoulder. Her face was a question mark, but she was having trouble figuring out where to start. Finally, she just asked, “Whathappened, Layla?”
I lifted one hand palm up as if to say,your guess is as good as mine. “Blake was even worse than we thought. Aiden put his fist through his nose.”
“And you’re pregnant.”
I looked at her sharply. Had that hit the news too somehow? Then I relaxed. “Bran?”
“He thought I knew.” Liv struggled not to sound disapproving. “I called you.”
My phone was in the bed somewhere with me, but it was dead. I hadn’t bothered to charge it in a few days. Too many people were calling. I had no idea how strangers had gotten my number, but they had, and they all wanted my side of the story.
“I get that,” Liv said when I explained. “But what about Aiden? Surely, he’s trying to get in touch with you.”
I stared up at the ceiling. Aiden was the other reason I’d let my phone die. I loved him too much to talk to him while I sorted out my complicated tangle of emotions about this baby. I was afraid that if he’d so much as hinted that he didn’t want to be a father, my emotions might have slid toward him the way everything else in my life had. I tried to tell Liz that, but she didn’t get it.
“I’m sure Aiden will support whatever you want to do.”
I choked on a laugh. “I’m gladyou’resure. I have no idea.”
“But you don’t think he’d pressure you either way, do you?” Liv’s voice took on that hard edge that it got when she felt like someone’s rights needed defending.
I shook my head, feeling how flat and deflated my pillow was after days of bearing the weight of my head. “No. But I’m afraid–” I broke off as tears formed a cloudy hazy between my eyeballs and the ceiling. I sniffed and swallowed. “I’m afraid he won’t want to be with me.”
Liv’s face softened and she laid down beside me. “He’s in love with you. He’s going to love this baby.”
