Page 25 of Just Between Us

He shook his head. “You know Annie. If I do that now, she’ll only dig her heels in further. She’s angry and she needs time to process all this.” He glanced at my stomach.

“I wanted to tell you.” Again, my hand fell over my stomach protectively.

“What do you want to do?” he asked, biting his bottom lip and nodding absently.

“What doyouwant to do, Rich?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

RICH

What didI want to do? That was easy. I wanted to be the sensible, decent man and take care of the woman I had impregnated. To stand by her, love her, and raise our child with her. But with my ‘permanent’ arrangement years ago, this didn’t seem like a conversation weneededto have just yet. Not beyond the basics we had covered at the start.

Apparently, I was wrong, and what I didn’t want to do was get it wrong all over again. “I can’t sway your decision one way or the other, Lucy. I’m older, I’ve had a child. I’ve done all that, and it’s your body. Ultimately, it needs to be what you want. But I’m here, whatever you choose.”

Lucy’s eyes got glassy again.

I took her hands in mine. “I know we talked about you having had the idea of all this cross your mind, but facing the reality of it is different. I know you want a career, too. I don’t want you to feel like youhaveto do anything. I will be here to support you, no matter what.” I reiterated my comments from earlier, wanting Lucy to know without a doubt I was there regardless of her decision.

“I know what I want.”

I nodded and braced myself for something I might not want to hear. It had to be what was right for Lucy because this was her life too, and this was huge.

“There has never been a single doubt in my mind that I want to keep this baby.” She glanced down at her still unswollen belly.

Relief washed over every inch of my body, and I couldn't help but grin at her.

“Then we keep our baby.” I beamed and put my arm around her, pulling her towards me for a kiss. I didn’t think I was going to be so happy in my life ever again. The woman I loved was carrying my child inside her. A child I didn’t realise that I was still capable of having.

“What about Annie?” she asked, bringing me back down to earth with a bump.

“She’ll come around, Luce. She loves you too much to fall out with you for too long, and she loves me and will eventually forgive me. It’s fine.” I knew the first part of my statement was true. I just hoped the last part would come to fruition. I didn’t want to gain a girlfriend and a child by forsaking my firstborn.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

LUCY

THREE MONTHS LATER

I calledRich’s number and couldn’t get any reply. “Come on!” My frustration and fear started to take over. I tried my mum’s, and she didn’t pick up either. I’d already left them both messages, but I was scared and I didn’t know who else to call.

I’d started cramping, and I was bleeding. I was terrified something was wrong, that I was going to lose the baby. There was only one other number I could think of dialling, and I was almost sure that person wasn’t going to pick up either since I hadn’t spoken to them since the day they found out I was pregnant.

Ring – ring – ring.

“What do you want, Lucy?” Annie answered. “I thought I made it clear I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Please don’t hang up,” I cried, and I was shocked at how much fear came out in my voice. “There’s something wrong, and I can’t get Mum or Rich. I’m scared, Annie. I’m bleeding. I don’t want to be here alone. I didn’t know who else to call.”

“You’re bleeding?”

“I’m at the hospital waiting to be seen. They want to take me for an ultrasound, but I asked them to wait. I can’t hear them say something bad has happened on my own.” My words flooded out and I couldn’t stop them. Next to Rich and my mum, Annie was the only other human I would want at my side in any time of crisis.

There was a moment of silence, and I panicked. “Annie, are you still there?”

“You’re in the maternity wing, right? I can be there in fifteen minutes. Just breathe.”

She hung up and I didn’t get to say anything else to her.

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