Page 27 of There Are No Words

He set the book down on the table. “I’m glad you’re here. I made you break—”

As I sat down, I got a good look at the book and that was when I could no longer see straight. I could no longer hear him. Blood pumped in my ears with a vengeance.

He was reading a pregnancy book.

A pregnancy book.

A book filled with information about being pregnant.

I couldn’t seem to peel my eyes away from it. I was completely zeroed in on it and hoped Brady noticed the way I was focused on his choice of reading material.

He could read any book in the whole frigging world, but he’d decided to read this. A pregnancy book!

I no longer cared about when his birthday was or being friendly. I didn’t even care that he’d made me breakfast. What, was he waiting for me to see him being better than me and reading a pregnancy book? Give me a lecture on what he’d read?

I didn’t need a mirror to know my face was red. My ears were burning, which was a surefire way to tell I was pissed.

“Are you reading a pregnancy book?” I practically shouted.

He smiled and actually had the gall to look pleased with himself. “I am. It’s—”

“How dare you!” Seething, I stormed from my chair and picked it up, swinging it in the air. “How could you read this? I can’t believe you even bought it!” My heart was beating so fast I thought it would beat right out of my chest. If it did, it would be all because of Brady and his newfound love for reading pregnancy books.

His eyes widened, and they were practically bugging out of his head by the time he said, “I ordered it online.” He sucked air through his teeth. “What’s the problem?”

What was the—

As if he didn’t know!

The problem was that he was reading it. He was reading the book like he was the one carrying a baby.

I fanned the pages at him. “It’s a pregnancy book!I’mpregnant.”

I could tell he was biting back a laugh as he responded, “That’s the point.”

“I’m the one who’s pregnant.” I didn’t like repeating myself, but it obviously needed repeating because he was missing thepoint. “Not you!” I shook my head, unbelieving I’d walked in here to find this. “You think I’m going to be a crappy mom. That I won’t do this right? That I’ll mess up before the kid is even baked? Ohmigod, I can’t believe this!” I was spiraling. I knew I was. But, come on, first Brady wanted to be part of every little thing and now this?

Brady moved to get up, and I raised a hand in the air and stopped him. He sat back down and lowered his voice as he said, “Allegra, I don’t—”

“Don’t even. Don’t talk to me like I’m being irrational.”

He cocked a brow. “Is there a tone of voice for that?”

“Yeah, and it’s the one you just used.” I put a hand on my hip and waited for him to argue with me on this. I didn’t know why, but for some reason I felt like getting into an argument. I wasn’t normally like this. I usually thought arguments were a waste of time.

“All right, well, I was just trying to explain that my intention was to get more information because I want to be the best partner I can be in all of this.”

Partner? What was Brady not understanding? Now I got why people tried not to get knocked up. Among the myriad of reasons was this one: the man got mixed up with what was happening. “That’s just it, though. You’re not my partner.”

“When it comes to this baby, I am.”

I dropped my arm and relaxed the muscles in my face. I supposed he had a point. Brady was trying to do the right thing by our baby. I couldn’t fault him for not seeing all sides of it before he bought that stupid book. “Fine. Sorry I got upset.”

He shrugged and the corner of his lips curled upward in that smile that practically had me wanting to drop to my knees right here. In case you didn’t get the memo, I was seriously physically attracted to Brady. Like if I could spend all day and night worshipping him, I would. Pretty sick, right? Just so you know,I’d never felt this way about anyone before. This was much more Bianca’s territory than it was mine.

I sat down across from him and licked my lips, nodding my head toward the book. “So is the book any good?” Honestly, I hadn’t felt the need to read a pregnancy book. I mean, Maria had read one when she got pregnant with Isabella, but she’d told me she wished she hadn’t because it was pretty generic. Just because certain things happened to some women didn’t mean it happened to all women—it was like periods.

He shrugged. “I learned a few things.”

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