Page 71 of VOGUEish

Loud sobbing greeted his ears.

Hell. Should he let her know he could hear? Or pretend he couldn’t? Why hadn’t he stayed away from her wall? Shit. Instead of a peeping Tom, he was a listening Tom. Too late now. He’d done the deed and heard her distress. He couldn’t unhear the sound of escaping tears.

He really wished the resort had been able to move his room to a different floor from the ladies. Having a room between Isabella and Annie on the resort’s family-friendly floor where all the rooms had connecting doors was anything but ideal.

Another sob.

Why was Annie crying? Maybe he should tell Isabella and let Isabella comfort her. But Isabella didn’t know about Annie’s pregnancy.

He grabbed his sweats off the bathroom floor and stepped into them before unlocking the door connecting his and Annie’s rooms, and lightly knocking. Surprisingly, Annie heard the knock and opened her side of the door.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She nodded and sniffed loudly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.” She wore short pink pajamas with ruffles.

He glanced down at his bare chest.

Neither of them was appropriately dressed. Hell, why hadn’t he grabbed a shirt? “I wasn’t sleeping. I was reading. Do you want to talk?”

She sat on her bed and hugged a pillow, apparently completely unconcerned about what either of them wore. She was obviously too wrapped up in grief to even notice. “I’m fine.” The words were accompanied with a fresh burst of tears.

Torn between asking her to change or offering her immediate comfort, he just stood there.

“I hate him so much,” she wailed.

He sighed, sat next to her, and pulled her into a side hug. “I’d probably hate him, too.” She was talking about the baby’s daddy. Naked Runway’s former editor-in-chief.

“How can he not want his own baby?”

“Are you sure he doesn’t? Did he say he didn’t want the baby?”

She shook her head against his shoulder. “He doesn’t want the baby. I told him I was pregnant. And he told me to get an abortion.” Another wail erupted out of her tiny frame. “He’s reuniting with his wife.”

He awkwardly patted her back. Shit. What a fucker. The asshole deserved to get fired. “I’m sure it’s quite complicated.” This made her cry harder.

Several minutes later the crying stopped. “Why am I so stupid? He told me their divorce was hung up in court, and I believed him.”

She glanced into his eyes as if wanting him to confirm her worst fears. To brand her with a scarlet letter. He couldn’t. “You chose the wrong man to fall in love with, but you’re not bad, and you’re going to be a great mom.”

Annie hiccupped. “How do you know that? How can you know that? I am bad. I deserve everything bad that’s happening to me.”

He made a shushing noise. “Listen to me. This isn’t about you anymore. This is about that baby you’re carrying. You don’t get to wallow in pity. You need to pull yourself out of this funk, and you need to get busy being the best mom you can be.”

She sniffed loudly and curled back into his chest. “You’re right. I know. I’m just so scared.”

“That’s what friends are for. Lean on them.”

Instead of comforting her, this elicited a fresh set of tears. “I don’t have any friends,” she said between sobs. “Everyone still thinks of me as the boss’s spy.”

He wasn’t sure what she meant by that. Had she spied on the employees for her old boss? “Then lean on me.” The sight of Annie broken by a man strengthened his resolve to not break Isabella by sending her mixed signals. He needed to decide what he could give in the way of a commitment before he asked for anything from Isabella. “I’ll help you in any way I can.”

“Do you mean that?” She looked up at him with puffy eyes.

“Of course.”

He heard a clicking noise and stilled. Then the distinct sound of his door opening. Hell. Isabella. She would find him in Annie’s room. Before he could untangle himself from Annie, Isabella stuck her head around the door and saw the two of them on the bed.

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. The undiluted disbelief in her eyes caused his heart to hitch, and he closed his eyes. He should go to her. Stop her pain before it came. But what could he say since the truth wasn’t on the table? Annie had sworn him to secrecy when she first spilled her secret.

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