Page 13 of There Are No Words

Allegra had said it was mine.

Allegra was pregnant, and the baby was mine.

Inside Allegra’s stomach was a baby, and it was ours. Mine and Allegra’s.

Either I was swaying, or the walls were moving. I gripped the corners of the counter and tried to slow down the spinning.

Then it dawned on me, she wasn’t for real. The corner of my lips curled upward, and I couldn’t help it, I laughed. Outwardly laughed. “I never knew you to be a kidder.” I shook my head. “But I have to say, you’re a pretty damn good one because I thought you were seri—”

“Brady, I am serious. I’m pregnant and the baby is yours.” Her eyes shone with something else now—anger.

Allegra was serious, and she was. . . she was. . . pregnant.

With my baby.

* * *

Allegra

My cheeks burned. Actually burned. Didn’t he know I’d already had my freak-out? I didn’t need this right now.

Brady’s eyes grew wide, and his jaw twitched. “How—” He rubbed a hand over his face before leaning forward and gripping the counter with his hands until his knuckles turned white.

Yeah, I knew the reaction well.

“How could this have happened?” he finally ground out.

I crossed my arms and flashed him an are-you-serious look. “Skipped sex ed?”

“Smartass,” he remarked, harrumphing.

The sound sent a chill running down my spine, and I immediately brought my knees together. The effect this man had on me was borderline outrageous. He got me pregnant and I still wanted him, still wanted to grant him access to my flower field.

“Well?” Brady pushed, his brows raised as he waited for me to answer. As though I would have some grand explanation for the whole thing.I didn’t, by the way.

Unfazed by his meltdown, I walked to the couch and crossed my legs, staring into his brown eyes. “You can really only blame yourself.”

“Me?” His typical deep voice was more high-pitched with that one. He must’ve shocked himself because he cleared his throat. His lips formed a thin line. “How do you figure?”

I shrugged. “Easy. Rough sex can cause condoms to break.” Facts, by the way—I looked it up.

“You should have thought about that when you insisted I go deeper and harder.” He grinned, looking so smug, so cocky. “I believe those were your exact words.”

“We both benefited from that, don’t you think?” I spat back at him, remembering that night. Then I shifted in my seat. “Plus, these things happen all the time, right?”

“Not to me.” He crossed his arms and stood back, leaning against the stove. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I don’t have little kiddos running around.”

Well, planned or not, it happened and no amount of discussing it was going to change the facts. I was pregnant. Brady was the father. He was my roommate. We were not destined to be together. It was unfortunate, really, what with him being some of the best sex I’d ever had in all my years.

Finally, trying to put him out of his misery, I said, “You don’t have to be part of this baby’s life if you don’t want to.”

“What gives you the impression that I wouldn’t want to? I’m not going to abandon them. I wouldn’t do that to my kid. Frankly, you should know me well enough to know that I’m not that guy.”

“I’m just trying to give you an out.” A way to not be tied to me forever.

“Well, don’t.”

“You mean to tell me you’re ready to be a father?” And wanted to stick by me for the next eighteen years? Seemed unlikely. To share an apartment together, sure, but to be together in any real way. . . sharing a child. It felt far-fetched.

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