Page 38 of Last Minute Fiancé

“We should talk.”

I hadn’t even realized I had said the words out loud until she looked up and swallowed hard, a little piece of cheese on her lip.

Being the idiot that I was, I leaned forward and wiped her lip with my thumb.

“You had cheese.”

“Oh. Right. Yes, we should talk. Here. I just thought we’d have a few more minutes. But then something else would come up and we’d put it off.”

“We both know that’s true. We’re good at procrastinating.”

She nodded, then looked off into the distance. “Thank you. For this weekend.”

I raised a brow and she blushed. “Not for that. I mean, yes for that too. Because no matter what else happens, just know that you are amazing at that.”

I nearly puffed out my chest. But I was better than that. Marginally.

“Addison.”

“Thank you though. For real. For this whole weekend. For just being you. Because no matter what happens, no matter how many crazy moves we make or whatever slams into us from now on, I know that no matter what, I could only do this with you. You’re Luca. You’re steady and you’re amazing and you’re a rock. And I feel like a frantic mess who is trying to catch up, but you are so steady.”

“You call me steady one more time, I’m going to throw you over my shoulder and show you exactly how unsteady I feel right now.”

I hadn’t meant to growl the words, and when her eyes widened I nearly cursed myself.

But I couldn’t, not just then.

We needed to talk, we needed to get this out.

“We’re going to have a baby. It’s real, and somehow we’re going to have to make this work. But no matter what, we have to make sure that we don’t screw up who we are.”

I had a feeling we had already done that, especially after last night, as there would be no coming back from that.

But maybe screwing up who we were didn’t have to screw everything up completely.

Maybe we could change into what we needed to be.

Though I needed to figure out what that was.

“Okay. So we do this together. No matter what happens, I’ll be there. Sonograms, doctor’s appointments, helping you figure out what to wear for maternity clothes—all of it. I’m going to be there for first steps, first days of school. Everything.”

Because no matter what happened, this was my best friend and we were bringing life into the world. This was it.

We were going to have a child. No amount of pretending that didn’t exist was going to help.

And I would not abandon my child like my family had abandoned us.

I knew Addison had grown up with a relatively normal set of parents. Parents who loved her and cared for her and didn’t treat her like she was in their way. She had a solid base and had turned out to be a strong, confident, and terrifyingly amazing woman because of them.

My brothers and sister and I had come out who we were despite our parents.

But we were okay.

I knew that.

I just needed to prove it to myself sometimes.

“Of course, I know you’re always going to be there. But…” She let out a breath. “We can never sleep together again.”

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