When I turned my head and looked out the window instead of at her, my mother swatted my arm.
“You didn’t, did you?”
“She’s pregnant.”
“Good Lord, Landry. No wonder she isn’t speaking to you.”
“So what do I do?”
She motioned in front of the car. “Pull forward.”
“About Sloane?”
“I knew what you meant. I’m thinking.”
I opened the window and took our order from the hands of a girl who looked really familiar.
“Hey, it’s you,” she said. “Remember me? From the pizza place?” The girl bent down and looked into the car. “Is that your mom?”
I groaned, rolled up the window, and drove away.
“I can tell you what not to do. Under no circumstances should you bring Sloane here for ice cream.”
I drove back to the park, and we sat in silence, eating our ice cream. My mom looked lost in thought, which I hoped meant she was preparing to tell me what to do.
Finally, she spoke. “Let me ask you this. Do you love Sloane?”
Of all the things she could’ve asked, that was the hardest for me to answer. I mean, of course I loved her, but was I in love with her? In love enough to marry her?
“Before you make Sloane any other offers—or in your case, demands—decide how you feel about her.”
I glared at her over the demand comment. “I meant well, Mom.”
“Beside the point, Landry. You bulldozed over Sloane’s feelings. You are aware she has feelings, right?”
“Do you not understand how hard this is for me?”
Apparently, that was the absolute wrong thing for me to say, given the look she gave me was the same as ones I’d seen from Sloane.
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m glad you said that, because it’s exactly what you need to think about, Landry. How hard is this on you versus how hard it is on Sloane. She’s five-months pregnant, and until tonight, it sounds as though the only person she’s been able to lean on is Knox.”
“Right.”
“What are you prepared to offer her? What kind of life, Landry? Do you plan to take over your father’s construction business one day? Is that how you’ll support your family? Or are you planning to continue working in intelligence?”
I started to answer, but she held up her hand. “Where do you plan to live? And the most important question of all is, if you don’t love her, why would you think she would agree to marry you?”
As I listened to my mother’s questions, I thought about the many I’d asked myself when I left Sloane’s place. It hadn’t occurred to me until now how much I was like her, at least in the way we processed through our thoughts and emotions.
“Landry?”
“Yeah, Mom?”
“How do you feel about having a child?”
“You gotta ask the hard questions, don’t you?”
My mother laughed and shrugged. “Do you have an answer?”
“It’s changed from what I would’ve said yesterday.”
“Tell me yesterday’s answer first.”
“No way in hell would I want a kid at this point in my life.”
“And now?”
I turned in my seat and looked into my mother’s eyes. “It’s Sloane, Mom. Can you imagine what an amazing mother she’ll be, not to mention how awesome the kid will be?”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Just as awesome as you are, Landry. It’s exactly how your father and I felt when I found out I was pregnant.”
“I couldn’t imagine wanting to have a baby with anyone else.”
“And yet, you aren’t certain if you love her.”
21
Sloane
I paced the kitchen, changing my mind as often as I changed direction. Maybe I’d been wrong to call him, assuming he’d go to my parents. As he said, he’d never do that. I knew he wouldn’t.
Instead of wearing a hole in the kitchen floor, I decided to clean up the mess I’d made earlier. I should’ve finished making the cookies. At least then I’d have something to binge on besides sappy rom-coms that only made me cry.
I opened the lower cupboard to put my chipped bowl away when someone pounded on my front door. For the second time, I dropped the damn thing. “What?” I shouted out.
“Sloane, it’s me, Tackle.”
“Argh,” I grumbled, walking over to the door that I flung open. “What?” I repeated, only slightly less angrily.
“I want a do-over.”
I leaned against the door and sighed. “What do you mean?”
“Let’s do the whole thing over. Everything that happened earlier tonight.”
“That isn’t possible.”
“Sure, it is.” He cleared his throat. “Uh, Sloane, I haven’t seen you in weeks. Can I please come in?”
I took a step back and waved him in, knowing damn well I couldn’t deny him and his puppy-dog eyes.
He walked over and picked up the magazine. “I wish I could come up with something different to say about this.” He set it back down. “I’ll skip ahead a little.”
When he held his hand out, I took it. He pulled me over to the sofa, and when I sat down, he knelt in front of me.
“May I?”
“What?”
He reached under my sweatshirt, rested his hand on my belly, and looked up at me. “Wow.”
That alone was almost enough for me to forgive him anything and everything. I put my hand on top of his. “Do you feel that?”
He shook his head, but otherwise, we both remained perfectly still.
“What about that?”
“No.” His eyes opened wide. “Wait. Was that something?”
I shrugged. “It just started happening, so I’m not sure. Could be a muscle twitch.”
Tackle reached up with his free hand and grasped my neck, pulling me closer until our lips met. When he kissed me, I put both my arms around him, and he did the same.
“Sloane?”
“Shh.” I put my fingertip on his lips. “Give me a minute, okay?”
He smiled. “I’ll give you all the time you need, peanut.”
“You seem happier than earlier.”
He cupped my cheek with his palm. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
“Okay.”
“Before I do, please know that she will not tell a soul, including my father.”
“You told your mother?” I tried to wriggle away from him, but this time, he
