“What?” he asked, catching my eyes in the glass.
“Nothing. Is that less than you were lifting last week?”
He grinned at me. “Is that a criticism? Your legs are barely moving.”
I redoubled my efforts and managed to turn the wheels a tiny bit faster.
“What did Ellie say today?” he asked. “I’m assuming you talked about the baby.” He didn’t need to add the word “finally” to that.
“Yes, I told her that she’s going to have a niece and she flipped completely. She’s happy. Pretty much. She’s going to come home for the shower.” She was also very upset that I had kept it from her and very worried about my future and the baby’s future. It had been a long, difficult conversation.
“Move to Florida and live with me and Teddy,” she had told me immediately. “Come right now.” No matter how much I had wanted to move before, I didn’t feel like that was an option now, but the reasons I gave her—my job, my car not being able to handle the drive down—were dumb even to my own ears. “Is it because of César?” she had asked. “Are you thinking you don’t want to leave him?”
I had remembered him putting his cheek gently on my stomach to talk to the baby and I couldn’t explain myself any more than, “I’m not going to move, I don’t want to.” I had a feeling that Ellie was going to try some serious convincing when she came home to visit. She had hung up and then called back three times with more information and more questions, and each time she got more worked up than the last. And the texts had been coming hot and heavy, too.
“It’s hard to care about someone who doesn’t want you to,” César said suddenly.
“What?” I asked, sitting up straight on the bike. “What do you mean by that?”
He paused. “I’m thinking about your sister,” he explained.
“Oh. No, that’s not right,” I said. “Of course I want Ellie to care about me. I love her, and she loves me.”
“Sure, but you shut her out and didn’t tell her something really, really important. Her feelings must be hurt.”
“Like when she ran off and got married without telling me?” I sighed. “Yeah, I understand what you mean. I wasn’t trying to hurt her feelings but I did, just like she hurt mine by mistake when she went to Vegas with Teddy.”
“So, in the interest of not keeping things from you, I’ll tell you what I’ve been doing. I’ve been looking at houses,” César announced. “I found a few I like and I’m going to put in an offer on one. Get ready to pack up your stuff into garbage bags pretty soon.” He grinned again at me. “Or maybe we could even upgrade to boxes for you.”
I thought for a moment, a little stunned. “You’re thinking we’ll still be roommates,” I said. “You want me to move, also.”
“I know how you love all the pink marble here in this rental, but yes, I want you to move. There’s a room that will be perfect for the baby right in between our bedrooms. That was one of the reasons I picked this house, because it has good space for both of us.”
“And I’ll keep giving you rent.”
“About that, I should also tell you that I’ve been putting the money that you give me into an account for the baby. For college, or whatever future expenses she has. I’ve been adding in my own money, also. She’ll be able to afford things without feeling like she has to pay us back.” He raised his eyebrow at me, reminding me that he thought my payback plan for my own father was a bad idea. “When we move to the new house, I don’t want you to keep giving me rent. Don’t start arguing, just consider that,” he said, and started up the treadmill. His legs flew.
I watched them move and felt a little dizzy. “Thank you for saving for her already,” I said. “I know you wouldn’t want to be repaid for her college or other stuff. Whatever you do for her, you’ll do it out of love, not obligation or with any expectations. Because I know you’ll be such a good dad, César.” My voice sounded funny to my ears but I forged ahead. “You had a great role model but it’s more than that. It’s just you. That’s how you care about people.”
He hit the button to stop the treadmill and turned to look at me. “Is that what you really think? You think those sweet things about me?”
I nodded and stopped pedaling. I wasn’t sure why I had suddenly blabbed all that, but I was feeling very strange at the moment, discombobulated. “I want to go upstairs. I’m going to go…I think I’m tired or something.” I started to get off the bike and had to cling to the handlebars when everything around me turned fuzzy.
“Camdyn? Honey? Camdyn!”
The next thing I knew, César had laid me on my back on the floor. “I think you were going to faint. Are you ok?”
I blinked up at him, the weird, grey haze receding. “I didn’t faint. I’m ok.” But I didn’t want to immediately move.
César had his fingers on my wrist, taking my pulse. “Your heart is pounding.”
“Yeah, that was scary.”
His face was tight and worried. “Can you try to sit up? I want you to have some water.”
I did slightly, leaning against his hard chest, feeling better with his arms around me. I sipped, and César even helped me
