Page 47 of Sealed in Ink

“Brad is yourbestfriend.”

“I know. There’s no excuse—none. I want to tell him, but Mary doesn’t want me to. I don’t know what to do for the first time in my goddamn life. I’ve always had something to aim at—a plan. Here, everything ends in disaster.”

“Can’t you end this fling?”

“It’s not a fling,” I growl, feeling that intense protective feeling again over a relationship that shouldn’t exist. “It’s more than that. Much more. She’s pregnant.”

Marquis’ mouth actually falls open. Of all his theatrics, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this one before. He gapes at me like my brain has just fallen from my skull. “You didn’t useprotection?”

“I wasn’t thinking,” I say. “Hell, it was my first time.”

“Your first… I do not understand. For sex?”

I nod, gritting my teeth, waiting for him to comment, but he looks more curious than amused. Then he waves a hand like it doesn’t matter, which is good. I don’t want to talk about how my childhood ruined sex for me, the connection it had with what those losers did to my mother. It’s only been with my Mary that Ican forget it. With her, nothing else exists, just the moment, just the steam.

“Does she have plans for the baby?”

A smile touches my lips when I think about the hotel room, spinning her around. For those precious moments, everything made sense. I didn’t have to wonder or second guess. Everything justwas. “She’s keeping it. We’re going to raise the kid together.”

“How?” he asks.

I shift in my seat. “I haven’t figured that out yet or any of it.”

“How old is she? Twenty?”

“Eighteen.”

“Eighteen, Rust.”

“I know,” I snap. “It’s young, damn young. I didn’t choose to feel this way about her. It’s not her age. Hell, I know how that sounds, but it’s not. It’sher. I’d find her wrinkles beautiful if she were a wrinkled old woman. Her youth is beautiful becauseshe’sthe one wearing it. Just like her curves. Just like her everything.”

Marquis gives me another who-are-you stare. “You are getting emotional.”

“Maybe I am,” I snap. “Maybe I can’t help it with her.”

He waves his hands, snaps his fingers, and then stands up.

“What was that?” I say, laughing.

“That was me forgetting all of this. That was me erasing it from my mind. This is what I need from you, plain and simple. Whatever you gave me during yesterday’s practice.”

“I was angry,” I growl. “It’s weird, but thinking about the baby gives me a purpose. If I think about fighting for Mary and my kid, the emotion may work in my favor. This is all new to me.”

“I wantthatRust,” he says. “Everything else can wait. The fight is six short weeks away. The baby can wait. Your lady can wait. Just give me the killer I know you can be.”

“You got it, coach,” I say, hoping I can do it, but he said something wrong. He said my lady can wait. She can’t, and I can’t wait for her either.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-TWO

MARY

“I thought we could finally do some proper sightseeing today,” Brad says over breakfast the day after the conference. I spent last night watching movies on my laptop, a complete waste of a trip, and resenting myself for it.

I smile at Brad, doing my best not to think about Rust. I wonder what he thinks and feels about the baby, about everything.“Even your friend knows he doesn’t want a future with you,”the specter of Mom teases, but her voice is getting weaker the more I come to terms with the fact she wasn’t well. I remember what Chrissy said instead, the support she gave me.

“What do you think?” he says.

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