Page 82 of Finding Fate

“I don’t want you to have to give up on your dreams either,” Tucker assured her. “We can figure something out. Maybe we’ll have to take turns with school.”

Isabel shook her head, traitorous tears starting to brim. She was so tired of crying today, and she hadn’t realized how important that email was to her until that moment. She ducked her head to her lap, not wanting him to see.

“Hey,” Tucker lifted her chin to meet her gaze, studying her with concern. “Tell me.”

Her throat tightened, worried what he might think of her selfishness. “I just, I don’t see how that will work. You can’t postpone college for years for me to go to school first and still get one of those scholarships, but I can’t postpone dancing for several years without changing what I want, either.”

“Dancing? What does that have to do with school?”

She gave him a tight smile. “There’s an Academy outside of Houston I’ve been thinking about going to for a while; they specialize in dance. I got an email this morning saying they offered me an audition for late May. I’d actually gotten one for November, but they were nice enough to reschedule it.

“But I know it’s selfish of me to go,” she said quickly before he could say anything. “Annie would be crushed if I wasn’t near her. We don’t know which scholarship you’re taking yet or where you’ll be, and even if we used Leo’s sister’s daycare, I couldn’t stay at Academy housing with a baby. How could we afford everything?” She pressed her face to the back of the couch, waiting for Tucker’s reaction to her outburst.

Tucker had to process for a minute. There was a lot of information, and it was way more than he’d known to consider. “You’re not being selfish. You love to dance. I get it.”

She hedged a glance at him. “You do?”

He nodded, hesitating for a second over his following question. “You’ve been talking to Leo about this?”

“Yes,” Isabel whispered.

“Is he going to the Academy, too?”

“His audition is next week.”

Tucker nodded, taking it in. Leo had laid into him when Izzy had told him she was pregnant, warning him that he had to do right by her, asking him if he had any idea how much this was going to affect everything Izzy had been working for. Now, he realized how much it really was, and damn it that he actually had to like the guy now. Tucker had been so worried about losing his own dream of basketball that he honestly hadn’t considered Izzy might have had similar dreams on the line. Somehow, things just got even more complicated.

“You deserve to follow your dreams, too.”

“I won’t let you give up on yours,” she insisted. “Yours are much more attainable right now anyway, and I’ll have a baby at home.”

“No, we’ll have a baby.”

“We will,” she agreed. “But on that note, I need you to clarify something you said earlier. How can you say you want the baby when you say you don’t feel anything for the baby, either?”

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Talk about hard to explain.”

“Try, please.”

“I don’t know, Izzy. It’s like…I want the baby because it’s a part of us, but I just don’t feel that attachment towards it that you seem to.”

Isabel pursed her lips in concentration as she considered his words. “So tell me, why did you agree to keep the baby if you didn’t feel the same?”

He didn’t want to answer this question. He knew she wouldn’t like what he had to say, but he answered it anyway. “Because I could see how badly you wanted it.”

She frowned up at him. “That doesn’t seem right, and it actually makes me a bit angry. You shouldn’t have agreed just because it’s what I wanted. It’s something we should have talked through. How can you be a good father to our child when the only reason you agreed to keep it in the first place was because you didn’t want to upset me?”

“That won’t be an issue.”

“Why not?” she pressed, growing frustrated.

“Because I do want this child on some level like I explained before. And I didn’t bring it up because it wouldn’t have made a difference. It wouldn’t have changed what I was feeling, and I still would have decided to keep it because that’s what would make you happy. If this baby is a part of your future, then it’s a part of mine, too. End of story.”

“But can you be happy?”

“I’m happy as long as you’re happy. Having this baby makes you happy, so I will figure this out. I will be a good father. I will love our baby.”

They were both aware that he seemed to be trying to assure himself of those words just as much as he was her. It was silent for a minute before they heard the garage door lifting.

“I guess we’ll have to talk later. Your mom’s home,” Isabel said, standing up.

Tucker grabbed her hand, stilling her before she could walk away, unsure of how they’d left their conversation. “I love you,” he stressed.

Understanding, she smiled. “I love you, too.”

“Come on,” he said, getting up to join her, “let’s go see what my mom has planned for dinner. She loves when you help.”

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