Page 22 of Seven of Hearts

I stifled the urge to grind my teeth down to nothing, but losing my shit on Kylie—or worse, Leah—wouldn’t help now. Will had taught me to be more level-headed than that.

Leah had picked up a tea towel and was mindlessly wiping down the already clean countertop. “Kylie doesn’t know. I wasn’t going to tell her. Wasn’t going to tell?—”

“Me?” I said as hurt began to creep in.

I knew what her family thought of mine. I had watched Kylie deal with it when we were teenagers.

But did Leah think I was like my parents? Did she think I was the screw-up everyone assumed I would be?

Why didn’t she tell me? Why didn’t she call? Or text? It fucking hurt.

Leah looked down. “I thought if I kept it to myself, that you’d be happier. That if I didn’t say who the father was, that...that you could go on with your life. You deserve to.”

Whether or not she would have told me, it wouldn’t have changed the fact that I had fucked up in the most irreversible way.

My world collapsed like a house of cards. I couldn’t breathe. My lungs ached. Adrenaline roared in my veins. The fight or flight urge was back, and my body wavered between both options.

My phone buzzed again. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw the endless string of missed calls and text messages from everyone at the party, wondering where I had disappeared to.

“I should probably get back before they send out a search party.”

Leah nodded. “I guess . . . now you know.”

I reached into my pocket and pulled out one of the playing cards I had taken from the house in the dash to get over here. The seven of hearts.

“I already have your number,” Leah said with an edge to her voice.

I grabbed a permanent marker out of the little caddy she had beside a massive stack of mail. I popped the cap with a shaking hand and scribbled out a message, then pinned the card beneath the magnet holding the sonograms to the fridge.

“I, uh...”Shit.I couldn’t get my thoughts out with the way my head was spinning. I felt like I was going to pass out. “I should go.”

Tears streamed down her cheeks. “Yeah,” she choked out. “I think you should.”

7

LEAH

As the door closed and Logan’s footsteps faded, I stared at the playing card that he pinned to the fridge.

What. The. Hell?

The playing card stared back at me.

I’ll do better. -L

What the heckwas that supposed to mean?

My gut churned with unease as the last ten minutes replayed on a constant loop. He hadn’t been in my apartment long, but it had been long enough to throw me completely off kilter.

I slumped against the kitchen counter and cried as the scent of his cologne lingered around me.

I had been doing so well over the last six weeks.

I had made it through the first two doctors appointments by myself.

I had been managing the never-ending plight of morning sickness.

I hadn’t taken a single day off work.

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