Page 176 of Puck Prince

“Owen,” I reach for his hand but he snatches it away, pacing the room. “Owen, you have to stop. Please. None of this is your fault. None of it is because of you.”

“Yes it is, Callie. And it’s over.”

My heart drops through a trapdoor in my chest. “What’s over?”

“This mess. The cycle.” He throws his good arm in the air, encompassing me and the whole hospital room in one fell swoop. “Summer and Nicky don’t need me to save them; they need out of Houston completely. Away from the media. Away from her ex. Away from me. And the same goes for you.”

“What are you talking about? I’m not going anywhere.” I’m starting to get mad. This has all exploded in a way that doesn’t even make sense. I get that he’s upset about the accident, but he’s spiraling out of control right now. “You need sleep. Have you slept? You need?—”

“You’re not listening to me! I need to get Summer and Nicky out of Houston. And I need you and the baby to be safe, too.”

“Owen…”

“I am going to make sure you have everything you need. Money. A house. Security?—”

I shake my head, reaching for him again. This time I catch his hand and hang on. Then I ask the question I don’t want to ask,but I know I have to. “Do you not want this baby? Is that what this is about?”

Owen stops. “What I want is for the baby to be safe. Healthy and happy. I want to break the cycle.”

“Then why are you making it sound like you’re walking away?” I’m crying now. “I know this relationship isn’t real, okay? But even if the label wasn’t real, can you honestly say you believe none of it was? Because some of this… some of this has been very real to me.”

Owen swallows hard. “It doesn’t matter how I feel. It doesn’t matter what I want. What matters is that you and the baby are safe.”

“Owen—” His name is a broken plea. It’s the only thing I can get out.

He pulls his hand out of mine and reaches in his pocket. Then he pulls out a set of keys. “These are for the apartment.Yourapartment. I’ll hire security. We can put in cameras. No one will come within a hundred feet of the place without me and the police knowing.”

“We can do that at your apartment,” I sob. “Ourapartment. I don’t need my own?—”

“You’ll be safer without me, Callie. All I want is for you to be safe.”

He folds the keys into my unwilling hand and leaves.

And he takes my heart with him.

51

CALLIE

“Alright, girl. Where we goin’?” Kennedy drums the steering wheel like we’re off on someThelma and Louiseadventure instead of being discharged from the hospital.

Even if my quasi-boyfriend and father of my baby hadn’t just dumped me mid-hospital stay, I still would’ve needed a ride home.

One, I don’t have my car. And two, I’m still in a lot of pain.

Because I’m pregnant I can’t have the normal pain meds they’d normally prescribe to someone who’d been hit by a truck, so I’m kind of just zombie-ing around for now.

But where I’m zombie-ing off to is the question.

I have the keys to my new apartment in my hand, but it’s nowhere near as satisfying as I imagined it would be. Turns out, I might like it when Owen keeps keys from me, after all.

“I don’t know.” I run my thumb along the inside of the key ring. I didn’t tell her what happened with Owen, only that we got in a fight.

Kennedy studies me as tears start to run down my swollen cheeks. Normally, she’d be the sobbing mess right now. Kennedy is known for big feels energy. But since she showed up yesterday and found me weeping alone in my hospital room, she’s been the collected one. Which is nice because I feel like I’ve been shoved through a meat grinder, emotionally and physically.

Kennedy to the rescue.

“Alright, let’s weigh the options. If we go to your new place, it’s just that: new. You get to start over. We get the place furnished and decorated. It’ll be a nest for you and the munchkin. We can do anything you want with it, Callie. We can?—”

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