“Were you hungry a lot with Blake?”
“Ravenous. I could eat a whole pizza . . . by myself,” I finished slowly. “No. I can’t be.”
“I don’t have any experience with pregnant women, but all the signs are there.”
“What do you know?” Of all the people to deliver this news, that witch I’d given up the rest of my family for just had to be the one. Not to mention I couldn’t handle another child. Or potentially losing one.
“Have you been with anyone else?”
I glared at him. “Have you?”
“No.”
“Like I’m supposed to believe that.” Jealousy streaked through me.
“Yes. You are. Let’s go.” He stood, pulled out a wad of bills and threw them on the table.
“I’m not finished.”
“We’ll get it to go.”
“Whether or not I’m pregnant isn’t going to change in the next half hour.”
“How can you be so calm? We might be parents.”
The people at the table next to us glanced over.
“I already am a parent. And it’s not your problem.”
“Did you really just refer to our child as a problem?”
“Sit down and eat or leave.” I ate half a taco in one bite.
He flagged the waiter down for to-go boxes. I made a silly face at Blake who tried to copy me.
Patrick snatched my plate up and dumped the contents into a box, doing the same with his.
“Hey. I’m still eating.”
“Eat it while we walk.” He loaded Blake up and put his favorite stuffed elephant in his hands.
He’ll be a great dad.
Whoa. That thought needed to go right back where it came from.
He was already to the door by the time I made it halfway across the restaurant.
“How can you be so casual about this?” he asked as we started down the sidewalk.
“I already know and there’s nothing to get worked up over.”
He stopped. “You blow a fuse over the littlest nothings. The biggest thing ever and you’re fucking calm.”
“Why are you freaking out?”
“Why aren’t you? And what kind of pregnancy test do I need to buy?”
“Are you taking it?” I tried and failed to keep from laughing.
“I didn’t want you to have to do it. In case you were embarrassed or something.”
“Why would I be embarrassed?”
“I don’t know.” He threw his hands in the air. “And you never answered my question.”
“All you do is ask me questions?”
“Have you been with anyone else?”
“Besides you? That once? No. I think I made it pretty clear how I felt about that.”
He bristled. “Crystal.”
Patrick remained silent until we got back to his place. All the way to when I laid the stick on the bathroom counter.
“Are you pregnant?”
“We have to wait a few minutes.” I strode to the bedroom and picked up Blake.
I knew it was positive. Felt like an idiot for not seeing it sooner. More than anything, my mother’s words wouldn’t leave me. Jack wouldn’t be happy for me to have another man’s child. I’d kill him if he did that to me.
Not if you were the one who died.
Apparently, my subconscious thought a lot of me. I’d hate his new wife, child, and the fact he’d moved on without me. Instead, I was stuck here hating myself for breaking my vows and betraying my husband with another man.
He appeared in the doorway, the test dangling from his fingers. His face was ashen. Way to go. Get knocked up by a man who hates you and doesn’t want kids, Marlow.
“Positive,” I said when he couldn’t speak.
He nodded.
“What do we do now?” He sank down on the bed like he could no longer stand.
“I keep eating everything in sight, throwing up, getting too big to do anything but waddle, and then there will be another person here.”
“How did this happen?”
“You were there. I think you know.”
He cut his eyes over to me. “We’re stuck together.”
Pain I had no right to feel twisted my chest. Hadn’t I told him time and time again I didn’t want to be with him in any capacity? I thought—well, I thought he’d hang with me. Not like a relationship, but as a co-parent. I guess I couldn’t blame him that the thought of being tethered to me was appalling.
“If you want me to take care of the child, that’s fine. I won’t think any less of you.”
He bolted to his feet, in front of me in a nano-second. “I’m not going anywhere. That baby is half mine and I’m not giving up a single second of my time with her. Are we clear?”
“You don’t know it’s a her.”
“Are. We. Clear?”
“Of course,” I said diplomatically. “If you change your mind . . .”
“I’m in shock. I may be a shithead asshole fucker. But I’m not one who leaves behind the mother of his child and their baby.”
“What are you saying? You want to get married?”
“What? No,” he said quickly.
I’d brought that torrent of hurt on myself with the loaded question.
“Good. Because I can’t. I’m already married.”
“He’s dead.”
“Not to me,” I yelled.
“You forgot that when you fucked me,” he said, his voice lethally quiet.
“I never forget.”
He recoiled. “You should have told me it was a threesome. I like to know that kind of stuff beforehand.”
“Go to hell.”
“You’re determined to drag me there with you. And stop yelling. It’s not good for the baby.”
“You’ve been a father for all of three seconds and now you’re an expert?” My temper was quickly rocketing out of control.
“It doesn’t take an expert to know stress isn’t good for either of you.”
“I don’t know anything different than constant stress.”
“Then let’s figure out how to relax you.”
I shook my finger at him. “Oh, no, no, no. One and done. We are not fucking again.”
“Did I suggest that? I was thinking more along the lines of a vacation.”
“You and me on a vacation?” I asked incredulously.
“Why not?”
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Can you try not to insult me at every turn?”
“Can you try not to give me a reason to?”
“Do you want to go on a vacation or not?”
“When?”
“When can
