Page 19 of Inked Devotion

“All of the sperm talk,” she said with a laugh. “I can’t make a decision. I think it’s mostly I just want the baby to be healthy. I’m not looking for a rocket scientist unless they want to be a rocket scientist. There’s just so much information, and yet not enough. I don’t know. It’s a lot.”

I drove for a few minutes, thinking as she muttered to herself, tracing her finger along the edge of the files. “Why haven’t you told anyone else about this? Annabelle, Paige, Beckett?”

“That’s why I’m a hypocrite. I got mad at Beckett for not telling me about the shooting. For keeping his secrets, but it wasn’t that…”

“You know, I wasn’t thrilled with him either,” I growled, thinking about the shooting that Beckett had been in and the fact that he had hidden it from everybody except Lee.

She reached out and squeezed my arm before letting go. “I was angrier that every time that I tried to tell Beckett I was excited about this new journey for me, he pushed me away because he was hiding his secrets. I wasn’t sure where we went from that. Who we were supposed to be. I feel like a horrible person. He was pushing away, and I tried to tell him numerous times and he always changed the subject. And yet, did I push enough? This is a huge decision for me, and I have been keeping it to myself. Mostly because I don’t want someone to say it’s wrong, and what if it doesn’t work? What if I can’t get pregnant and then I put everybody through this situation for nothing? For nothing but heartbreak.”

The clouds darkened around us as rain started to splatter against the windshield, and I turned on the windshield wipers. “Brenna, you don’t have to tell us everything. You would tell us if and when it happened, though, right?”

“Well, first, I wouldn’t be able to hide it, and of course. I was figuring out a way to do so, and I thought Beckett would be the person I would talk to because we talked about everything. Then it didn’t work out that way, and I just needed to think. I’m glad I could tell you.”

I couldn’t look over at her as the rain started to pour down harder, and I frowned.

“I’m always here for you. You know that.”

“I do,” she whispered. “And I knew it was supposed to rain today, but I didn’t know it was going to be this bad.”

“Considering where we are, we’re coming up on the river soon, and this is going to suck,” I said.

We kept driving for a couple more hours, but finally, we hit a roadblock.

I cursed as we pulled over to the side. We saw an eighteen-wheeler had skidded off the road and hit four other cars in its path, all damaged, ambulances all around. I could barely hear my heartbeat ringing in my ears over the sound of the rain hitting the windshield, and when a deputy came over to us and tapped our windshield, I rolled down the window.

“Road’s out from here on out, trees are down, and there’s another eighteen-wheeler up on the highway. We’re surrounded by trees here, and the only way you’re going to get out is off this exit, but there’s no way out of that town either. Not for now. Storm will get worse before it gets better, so you guys better find a place to stay for the rest of the afternoon and into the night.”

“There’s seriously no way even to go back?” I asked.

“Mudslide washed out the way to get back, so we’re all stuck here. I would be pretty quick about getting that room. There are not many places around here.”

I looked at Brenna, who cursed, looking down at her phone. “There’s no cell service.”

“I guess we better find a room.”

“Damn, this is not what I was expecting.”

I sighed as we pulled into the hotel, other cars pulling in as well, and Brenna hopped out. “I’m going to need to get there first, just do my best.”

“Sounds good.”

I pulled into a spot far away, secured all of our belongings as well as possible, and ran through the rain into the hotel lobby. Brenna was coming towards me, plastic keys in her hand, a scowl on her face. “Looks like the storm is indeed going to get worse before it gets better, and I have some bad news.”

I raised a brow. “Worse than a storm blocking off the highways and people getting into accidents?”

“Okay, not the worst news, but there’s only one room.” She held up her keys. “We’ve got the second to last one, and that family with six kids needed one right behind us. Instead of getting both rooms, I only took one because I’m not a monster.”

I shrugged, wondering why the situation felt weird when it shouldn’t. “That’s fine with me. We’re adults. We can do this.”

“There’s only one bed, Benjamin. The only room that they had was a king room. Tonight is going to be a very long one.”

I looked at her then and knew precisely how long it was going to be. Because hell, one room? One bed?

Thank God Brenna and I were just friends, or else that would be very, very interesting.

Chapter 5

Brenna

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