Page 151 of Before I Loved You

“How far along are you?” Vanessa asks, her eyes sliding to my completely hidden stomach under Paul’s sweatshirt. I mean, my sweatshirt.

I glimpse up at Paul first before saying, “Five months.”

Everyone looks at each other, most likely doing math in their heads and probably now realizing the day we introduced ourselves to each other, we were already very familiar with one another.

“Wait, so that means…” Natalie begins to say.

“It’s a long story.” Paul wraps his arms around me and pulls me in for a kiss, taking me by surprise in front of the group.

But I don’t even care.

Not one bit.

Because as my eyes close and my hands grip Paul’s shirt, I feel the happiest I’ve ever felt in my entire life.

thirty-two

PAUL

“Has anyone seen Greyson?” Coach Rivers yells into the locker room, letting the door swing shut behind him as we prepare for our game.

Everyone looks around, shaking their heads.

It’s unlike Greyson to be late for a game, or even a no-show, for that matter, and immediately something feels off.

“I’ll call him.” Glen picks up his phone and places it against his ear, but after a few seconds, he lowers it, glancing at the screen. “It went straight to voicemail.”

Coach runs a frustrated hand through his hair, shaking his head. “We have five minutes until we’re supposed to be out there.” Placing his hands on his hips, he stares down the entire room. Every teammate straightens their shoulders, holding their heads high. “I expect everyone to give it their all tonight—no sloppy passes. Stand your ground when you’re on defense. I want to see powerful blocks and well-executed shots.” Every player in the room intently listens when he says, “Now, let’s go kick some ass!”

Whooping and hollering resounds in the room as everyone closes their lockers and begins walking through the doors, heading into the arena.

Glen pats me on the back. “You coming?”

“Yeah.” I nod, momentarily distracted by the news of Greyson.

“You don’t think…” Glen’s brows raise as he scratches his head. He’s the only person I told about what we found on Greyson’s computer and how we erased it all. Every single last one. Figured he deserved an explanation after I lost my shit in front of the team.

“No. I’m sure it’s nothing,” I state, trying to convince myself more than him as fear mounts within me. “There’s no way he knows it was me. Ray hid all traces of everything.”

He lets out a breath. “I hope so. The last thing you want is for him to find out it was you. He already hates your guts as it is.”

“Thanks for the reminder, but he won’t. I’m sure of it.” I unzip my warm-up jacket and throw it in my locker. “I need to finish putting my stuff away, and then I’ll meet you out there.”

Glen stretches his arm over his opposite shoulder, pushing on his bicep. “I’ll be the one scoring all those threes tonight,” he declares confidently.

“Yeah. And Earth orbits around the moon,” I say, amused.

Glen pauses. “Wait, it does, right?”

“No, you idiot. The moon orbits around Earth.” I place a towel over my shoulder before applying gym chalk to the palms of my hands, rubbing them together to help enhance my grip.

“Jesus, you really are a nerd.” He snorts as he bends over laughing.

“Get the hell out of here.” I whip my towel at him, but he runs out of the room right before it strikes him. His hyena laughter echoes down the hall.

With Glen gone, I reach into my locker and grab my phone, finding a new text from Sarah waiting for me.

Sarah

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