Page 99 of You Cake My Breath Away

As if the universe had a front seat to my breakdown, I reread the words with a sense of peace.

Home.

Where Tilly is.

I pocket my phone without answering Shantel. There’s no point in responding to her until I know if what I’m thinking about doing is possible. With a renewed spirit, I walk up to Gideon. “My shots are done for the day, and you don’t need me tomorrow, right?”

He nods, gaze focused on something through the camera lens. I see him catching a spat between Bliss and Canon, and even I can see the sexual chemistry sparking between them.

“The next two days are all day shoots for the contestants at the house. You’re back on Thursday for the next elimination.”

I stifle the urge to jump into the air and instead clap him on the back. “Great, I’m going to grab my stuff and head out then.”

He mumbles an approval and waves me off, zooming in on the fiery couple at the table saw. Within seconds, I cue up all available flights back to San Antonio. If I can get a flight out tonight or tomorrow morning, I’ll be able to be there for her opening day.

During the cab ride, I find a five a.m. flight out of Knoxville tomorrow morning that arrives at nine am. My fingers have never tapped a screen as quickly as they did buying the ticket back home.

I empty my pockets and place the poker chip beside my wallet on the sink top before undressing for a shower. My stomach hardens when I think about continuing to let it make decisions for me when it’s done nothing but bring me heartache. Sebastian will always be a part of me, but I don’t need his chip to make my decisions anymore. I feel confident in the path I’m taking by going home to grovel and ask Tilly to take me back.

I’ll attend the opening day of Tilly’s bakery and convince her that I’m not going to leave until we figure out a way to move forward together. Until I convince her she’s my beginning and my end, the one I wantto spend my life with, the woman I want to be the mother of my kids and the matriarch ofourfamily. A family that accepts, forgives, and encourages one another.

Tomorrow my new life begins.

Chapter forty-eight

Tilly

“You’re pregnant,” Shantel squeals.

Every muscle in my body tenses, and I jerk my head back. “What?”

“Have you taken a test yet?”

A coldness settles into my bones. “I’m not preg…No.”

Suddenly, there’s not enough air in the room and I’m gasping for any morsel my lungs can get.

“Tilly,” Shantel says, voice high pitched. “We’re pregnant together!”

My vision swims, brain fuzzing out on every thought trying to ram through my mental block.

Pregnant?

I can’t even say I’m surprised by how much sex we had after that night at the barn, but I’ve always known my ovulation cycle. How could I get pregnant if there wasn’t supposed to be an egg in there?

How am I going to tell him?

A million questions batter my weary mind, and I rest my head on the cool island to catch my breath.

“Fuck.”

“No, no, no,” Shantel says, arm laying over my shoulder. “He’s going to be so happy, Tilly.”

“You don’t know that.” Tears drip onto the countertop, and I reach for a napkin to wipe them away. “He left.”

She shakes my shoulders. “He has loved you since the day he met you, Tilda St. James. And he might have left, but he didn’t want to. You didn’t give him any reason to stay. You were too scared to tell him you loved him too. Too scared to give him your heart again, but it’s not too late.”

“He’s going to be so mad.” My stomach clenches with the thought. We never spoke about kids and whether he wanted to have them. With how he was raised, I’m not sure he’d want any himself.

---