Page 34 of Sebastian's Baby

I trace the L in the symbol on the table as I tell her, “I’ll call you back with flight details.”

“Sure; you do that.”

I should probably give her a way to contact me, so I add, “I’ll send you through my number, princess. If you want to talk to me, you can call or text. You won’t need to call Cooper’s office.”

“I might do it anyway,” she says coolly. “It was so enjoyable having to beg and plead for the honor of getting Sebastian Fox to dignify me with a phone call.”

I sigh because it obviously wasn’t ideal for her to have to get a hold of me that way, but neither of us exactly knew that she would need to contact me.

“I don’t know what to say to that, Lolita. I didn’t know you would get pregnant, or I would’ve given you my number.”

“Right, because until I was knocked up, I didn’t warrant it.”

“Don’t pretend you thought we were going to have anything more than one night together, princess,” I point out.

“Oh, I am under absolutely no false assumptions about you, Sebastian Fox. I have no doubt I haven’t crossed your mind at all in the last four weeks. How many nights has it been?” Lita pauses for a second, then spits at me, “Let’s see, it’s Tuesday today, so I countthirty. I’m assuming that’s how many women have been in your bed since me. Sorry to call and bring back bad memories for you.”

Her words once again have the power to cut right through me, and I have so many regrets about the way I treated her that morning. She has no idea that I’ve thought about her far more over the last month than I’ve thought about nearly any other woman in my life. I couldn’t name most of the women I’ve slept with, and I certainly haven’t given them another thought, let alone masturbated over them repeatedly.

“You’ve crossed my mind, Lita,” I admit with a sigh. “More than once. I’m sorry for the way I treated you when it happened. I panicked, but I was too harsh with you, and I could tell I’d hurt you. I wish I’d reacted better.”

“I don’t know if I accept your apology,” she tells me with frank honesty, and I’m surprised by it. “I need time to process it.”

“I see.” I don’t really know what else to say, so I don’t say anything more.

“I’ve been hurting for a month, then dealing with this shit. I’m sick all the time, and I spend half my life in the bathroom, either peeing or puking. Pregnancy issoattractive,” she points out.

I can’t help but laugh. “I’m sure it is. I’ll see when I come over there, I guess. I’m sorry, Lita. It was my condom that broke.”

“Exactly. So, acting like I’ve somehow trapped you into a pregnancy is pretty fucking low.”

Ouch. She has a very good point there. Once again, her brutal honesty is painful, and I deeply regret my comment about getting my checkbook.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. Look, I’ll come out to Seattle as soon as I can, and we can talk.”

“Okay.”

We end our call, and I drop my phone on the pool table as I stare blankly at the symbol in the middle of it, stark white against the black felt. Lita is pregnant with my baby. What the fuck have I done?

Cooper’s request for me to call him as soon as I knew comes to mind, but he can sit on it. I need to tell someone, but I don’t know who, and I don’t want to have the conversation multiple times.

I call Gabriel first since Ariana is the only one of us who works for an employer.

“Have you heard something?” he answers the phone.

I’d actually forgotten about the verdict because Lita’s news pushed it entirely from my mind.

“Nothing yet, but I’m calling a band meeting at my place. ASAP. I need Ariana and Heather here, too. Is Ariana working today?”

“What? Why?”

“I’ll tell you when you get here. Is Ariana working?”

“Yes, she is, but if it’s important, she could maybe come over on her lunch break or something.”

“Great. Let me know. I’ll call the others.”

I don’t think I’ve ever been the one to call a band meeting, so I’m subjected to a similar line of questioning from both Hayden and Harrison before I finally call Heather at Serenity.

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