Page 62 of Claimed by my Bestie's Dad

Instead, I think about the last thing I can do for her—the surf school.

The idea has been one I’ve been looking into for a few minutes here and there, whenever I have time. But now, it’s all I’ve got left to give her. I pull my laptop over and start scrolling through the listings I’ve saved– focusing on the listings I visited to review their details.

Madison deserves this spot, and I was already planning on doing it. It doesn’t seem right just to change that becauseof…everything. She deserves something real, something that can give her the future she’s been dreaming of. And if I can’t be a part of that future, then I’ll make sure she has what she needs to make it on her own.

I can take care of her from afar, even if I can’t be part of her life.

30

MADISON

I stareat the little plastic stick in my hand, my heart pounding so loudly I can barely hear anything else.Positive.

A positive pregnancy test.

I check the box again just to make sure. Yes, the cross means positive. I turn the pregnancy test slightly, looking at it in different reflections of the light. The cross doesn’t change to a single line no matter how I turn it.

I blink, trying to clear my head. It’s not a mistake. It can’t be. I’ve taken two more tests just to be sure, and each one said the same thing: I’m pregnant.

I push myself to my feet and stumble over to my bed. One of the dogs in the living room thumps against my bedroom door. By their growling, they’re obviously playing a rousing game of chase.

I sit down on the edge of my bed, my legs suddenly feeling too weak to hold me up. My hands are shaking. I try to take a deep breath, but it feels like my chest is too tight. It’s like air can’t get in. I struggle to take a few deep breaths before I’m able to feel like the oxygen is really reaching my brain.

This can’t be happening. Not now. Not when everything with Ethan has just blown up in my face.

Ethan.

The moment his name pops into my head, my stomach flips, but not from morning sickness. I’ve actually had some relief from the constant nausea these last couple of days. This time, my stomach feels nervous.

Ethan doesn’t even know. We haven’t spoken since I told him we should end things, that it’s too complicated with Aurora knowing. The last thing I expected to happen was this. How the hell am I supposed to tell him that I’m pregnant?

I drop the pregnancy test onto the bed beside me and press the heels of my hands into my eyes, trying to push back the tears that are already threatening to spill over. I can’t break down right now. I need to figure out what the hell I’m going to do.

A loud crash from the living room snaps me out of my thoughts, and I jump up from the bed, rushing toward the noise. One of the dogs must’ve gotten into something—again.

“Tigger! What did you do?” I know immediately who it is because Tigger is slinking away from the kitchen with his tail between his legs. Piglet is too small to create this much chaos. And Samson knows better.

Tigger has managed to knock over a chair, which must be what the loud noise was. But before he went for the chairs, he somehow managed to open the pantry. And now… everything on the bottom shelf has been yanked off and trampled on the floor. Somehow, he ripped open a bag of flour. There’s flour everywhere—on the floor, on the counters, on Tigger, who is now tracking it through the living room. It looks like a bakery exploded in my kitchen, and I can’t help the scream that escapes my throat.

“Are you serious right now?” I yell, my voice shaking with frustration.

Tigger wags his tail which swings more flour back and forth in the kitchen, looking up at me with those big, innocent eyes like he has no idea why I’m upset. Normally, I’d laugh this off, but today… Today, it’s just too much. The stress, the pregnancy test, the disaster in my kitchen—it all comes crashing down on me at once, and I feel like I’m going to explode.

I grab a towel and start wiping up the mess, but my hands are trembling so badly I can barely hold it. Tears are stinging at the corners of my eyes again, and this time, I don’t bother trying to hold them back. I sink down to the floor in the middle of the mess and bury my face in my hands, letting the tears flow freely.

I feel so overwhelmed. It’s better to just cry than to try to hold it all in.

After a few minutes, I pull myself together enough to reach for my phone. I can’t deal with this alone. I need someone—someone who can help me think straight. I scroll through my contacts, and my thumb hovers over Ethan’s name for a second. But I can’t call him. Not yet. Not until I figure out what I’m going to say.

I can’t tell him I’m pregnant like this, not until I have a better handle on the situation.

Instead, I dial Zoe’s number. I can always trust her to listen and give me good advice. And she already knows about my relationship with Ethan. She picks up on the third ring, and the sound of her voice immediately brings a fresh wave of tears to my eyes.

“Madison? What’s wrong?” She sounds concerned, and she should be. I’m on the edge of a mental breakdown.

“I… I don’t know what to do. Can you come over? Please?”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” Zoe says without hesitation.

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