Page 81 of Before This Ends (Before)

Yeah? Just… yeah? “That’s really soon.”

“I like having you here. You like being here. Unless that changes in the next few months, there is no point in you signing a lease and putting down a deposit you likely won’t get back when you try to get out of it in a few months or a year.”

“There is still so much we don’t know about each other.”

“Then we will spend the next few months learning everything we can,” he states, and I swallow. “Just…” His fingers drag through my hair. “Just think about it before you agree to sign anything.”

“Okay,” I agree quietly.

“Thank you, baby.”

“I’m starting to get that your definition of slow is a lot different than mine,” I tell him, and he rests his forehead against mine.

“Mmm,” is all he says before he kisses me deep and sweet. When my eyes open, he grins at me. “I’ll see you tonight.”

“See you tonight.” I let out a breath as I watch him walk away, then turn back to the mirror to finish my makeup, stopping once more when Winter comes in and wraps her arms around me from behind.

“See you tonight!”

“Have a good day at school.” I shift her forward and kiss the top of her head.

She smiles at me before running off while shouting, “Love you!”

My throat clogs, but I somehow manage to shout back, “Love you too!” Then a minute later, I hear the front door shut.

I look down my side when I feel Dolly’s tiny paws on my calf and bend to pick her up. “Well—” I hold her to my chest. “—let’s hope this afternoon and evening are less eventful than this morning and last night.”

She licks my chin, and I kiss the top of her furry head, then place her back on the floor. With a deep breath in then out, I finish getting ready for work, a wobbly smile on my face the whole drive there.

CHAPTER29

miles

Sitting next to Tucker, the two of us face Tiffany across the booth. The coffee I drank before her arrival sits like a lead weight in the pit of my stomach as I take her in.

Patrick Green’s ex-lover and possible mother of his child might be twenty-one, but she looks no older than sixteen. The pretty brunette with a button nose and doe eyes, who’s eating a stack of confetti pancakes, reminds me of Win. And Patrick started sleeping with her when she was eighteen. Still a fucking kid. And who knows how long he’d been waiting for the right moment to take his shot at her, if he hadn’t been grooming her for years before that.

“I’m sorry,” she says, glancing up at Tucker and me. “No matter how much I eat lately, I’m always starving.”

“That’s normal,” I assure her, then ask, “How far along are you?”

“Fifteen weeks,” she mumbles around a mouthful of food. “I didn’t even know I was pregnant. I thought my cycle was just out of whack.” She tips her head to the side, looking between us. “Do you have kids?”

“I have a daughter.”

“My girlfriend has a son,” Tucker tells her.

“I didn’t even want kids, then I found out, and I….” She shakes her head. “That’s why, when Patrick told me to get rid of it….” Her chin wobbles. “I can’t.”

“That’s your decision. Only yours,” I tell her gently, and she nods. “Do you have friends and family close by?”

Her chin lifts ever so slightly, a move of defiance. “My parents go to the church, and so do all of my friends. I haven’t told anyone I’m….” She drags in a breath. “They don’t know yet, but… I don’t think any of them will be very happy when they find out I’m pregnant. Especially when they....” Her words trail off, but I know she was going to say “when they find out Patrick is the father.”

“Do you live at home?”

“No, I have an apartment.”

Good. If her family decides not to stick by her when she’s already so vulnerable, she at least has a place of her own. “We’ll give you a number. If you need any kind of support before or after the baby gets here, you can use it. They can help you get anything you might need or just offer advice if you have questions.”

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