Page 23 of Just Between Us

“Sorry,” she replied sheepishly. “You’re in shock. I’m going to make you a sweet tea.” Annie headed downstairs, and I rushed back to the bathroom to throw up again. At least this time I knew the reason.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

RICH

Annie cameinto the kitchen with a look of shock on her face. “Is that Lucy throwing up?” I asked, pointing at the ceiling.

“Uh, yeah. I didn’t think you were home.”

I eyed my daughter suspiciously. There was something she wasn’t telling me. “I’ve got a meeting in London next week, so I thought I’d come home early and sort out some things. Why? What’s going on?”

“Oh. Nothing.”

I’d been able to tell when this kid was lying from the day her first lie fell out of her cute little mouth. This was one of those times. She wasn’t making eye contact as she moved around me and put the kettle on.

I raised an eyebrow and looked at her. “Annie. What is it?”

Annie sighed and leaned against the counter as the kettle boiled. “It’s not my thing to tell you.”

Panic filled me. “Is something wrong with Lucy?”

Annie gave me a look that confirmed it but also told me she wasn’t willing to tell me more.

“Is she okay? Should I call her mum?”

Annie shook her head. “No! Don’t do that. It’s something she needs to deal with without her mum first, I think.”

“Annie, you’re worrying me.”

My daughter’s shoulders sagged. “Look, she just found out she’s pregnant. But I didn’t tell you that.”

I wanted to reply in a sensible way, but I couldn’t. “What? That can’t be right. I mean, I’ve...” I caught myself before saying the final part of that sentence. I tried hard to keep my emotions in check before they became obvious to Annie. My heart thumbed in my chest and stomach flipped in every possible direction.

“You’ve what?”

“Taught you girls better,” I said in the hope it worked as a way to get me out of this situation.

Annie rolled her eyes at me and went back to finishing the tea she was making. “As I told Lucy, not everything is one hundred percent effective, Dad.”

I nodded absently. A vasectomy was meant to have been, though. But if I was honest with myself, I’d never had it confirmed that the vasectomy had been a complete success. Erica blew up our marriage before I had to, and then I was too much in a dark fog of booze and depression to attend the follow-up appointment.

Shit.

“I’m just going to take this back up to Lucy.” Annie held the mug up and headed back to her friend. Her friend, pregnant with my baby. My stomach sank to my feet when I thought about how messy everything had just become. Sure, it was messy before, but we’d just amplified that by about three thousand percent.

Lucy was going to have my baby. Her mum was going to kill me. Annie was never going to forgive me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

LUCY

I honestly didn’t knowwhat I felt anymore. I had been convinced this wouldn’t happen. I didn’t think it was even possible, and now there I was with Rich’s baby growing in my belly. Absently, I let my hand trace over my stomach.

My mind was already full of thoughts about whether they’d look like me or Rich, or if they would be smart, or if they would be a boy or a girl. The realisation of that hit me. I had no doubts in my head that I would be keeping the baby. I didn’t have to ponder the choice or if it was the right decision for me at that point in my life. There was no decision to be made. I was pregnant, it was Rich’s, and that meant so much to me. I could never do anything but have the baby.

That panicked me a little.How is Rich going to take this news? Hell, how is Annie when she finds out I’m about to have her half sibling?I could hear Annie coming back up the stairs. I couldn’t face the thought of dealing with any of that right then, so I pushed it out of my mind and sat up before she came back in.

A few hours later,I was ready to go home and start to properly plan out what I wanted to do. I needed to tell Rich. I needed to tell my mum. And more than anything, I needed to tell my best friend. This changed everything.

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