Page 114 of Never Forever

“Okay.”

“The baby is the size of a pea, did you know that?”

“I did.”

“The pea doesn’t want me to have cheeseburgers.”

“Having a sudden revulsion toward meat is common.”

“Is that in the book?”

“No, I read about it online.”

“You’re looking stuff up online already? I’m not.” That seemed terrifying. Online was a place I tried very hard not to go.

“That’s okay. I am.”

I put the book down on my lap and stared up at the darkening blue sky. The clouds were pink and it smelled…like the island. Pine trees and salt water and something sweet.

The bugs in the underbrush whirred and overhead the birds were adding their usual noise. It wasn’t easy relaxing after a chaotic shoot, but there was something about this place. And the little pea in my belly, that made it easier.

It’s why I’d done this, I realized. It’s why I’d been ready to come home.

Maybe I should have been coming home all along. I shouldn’t have stayed away so long. But I left here with a fire in my belly to make something of myself. To show Matt Sullivan that he might break my heart, but he’d never break me.

Now here I was, home in Calico Cove and pregnant with his baby.

I thought about the email I hadn’t been able to send to my lawyer and decided I had to be more resolved to the reality of the situation. Not the fantasy of it.

“I’m going to be reaching out to my lawyer about the custody agreement,” I said. “Tomorrow.”

“Pardon?”

“I told you we need an agreement written up,” I said louder. “I’m going to get on that.”

Soon.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” he said, poking his head out of the boat house.

“I’m not marrying you, Matt.”

So please stop asking.

“That’s not what I was thinking, though…it would make things easier.”

He had that charmer smile on his face. It was a rare sighting and he didn’t share it often. I was one of the lucky ones. Although, I would not be charmed by that smile. I refused. He could bring me all the french fries and Caesar dressing he wanted.

“What were you thinking?” I asked.

“I would like to go with you when you film the super hero movie.”

“Huh?” None of those words made sense.

He crossed the lawn, wiping grease off his hand on a rag he tucked in his pocket. He crouched down beside me. “I’m not going to ask that you leave the baby with me when you go shoot your movie. Knowing you, you’re not going to want to be separated that long-”

“Of course not! The baby will be too little!” I cried out, already defending my position as a working mother.

“Right. So…I’ll go with you.”

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