Page 84 of Healing Hearts
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Brett says. “You’ve still got such a chip on your shoulder about what you did at nineteen. And sure, there are some people in town that’ll hold that over your head forever, but you don’t need to be holding it over your own.” He takes a deep breath. “Yeah, they asked questions about Emily and her involvement in this place. But again, and I want you to really fucking hear me, you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I dragged her name through the mud.”
“Dantried to drag your name and hers through the mud.”
“Dan is only a factor because of what I did at nineteen.”
Brett shakes his head and lets out a frustrated laugh. “You’re so intent on putting yourself on the cross, man. Dan is a viper, and he does what any snake will do when they’re backed in a corner—strike out at anyone they can. It’s not your fault he’s a viper. It’s not your fault that his strike grazed her when it wasaiming for you. It’s not even your fault he wasaimingfor you. When he came here, you made therightchoice.”
“Coming back to Little Falls was a mistake,” I say. “I can’t build a life here.”
Brett lets out a huff of frustration and throws up his hands. “I’m going to go get a coffee. You want anything?”
“Nah,” I say, replacing one tool and taking another to wrap in the cloth in my hand. “I’m good.”
The roar of Brett’s truck reverberates through the silence, and then I hear him drive away. For a beat, the quiet feels good, but then all my thoughts start getting loud, telling me things I don’t want to listen to.
“Hey,” Emily says from outside the bay.
I whip around, startled, and I drop the tool in my hand. “Hi,” I say, and I breathe out the word, conscious of the weight it holds in the air.
“Can we talk?”
I scoop up the tool off the ground, polish it up, and put it back. “There’s nothing to say that hasn’t been said.” Mentally, I’m bricking up my heart, shoring up any leak in my emotions.
“There is, actually.”
“Brett’s gone on a coffee run, and no one else is here today.” I gesture to the empty bays. “Business is shit.”
“It’ll pick back up. As soon as people realize it was a mistake.”
“There will be people who’ll never believe it.”
“They were probably the ones who were never going to give you a shot no matter what. Not everyone in this town is a good, decent person who believes in second chances. We both know that.”
“Is that what you came to talk about?”
“No,” she says, and she releases a breath, as though she was holding it in, even as we were talking. “God, this is so hard. I really thought this would be different.”
She’s got my attention now, and I let myself scan her figure, search her expression. There’s a grayish pallor to her skin, and I feel like the worst person in the world. She’s obviously unwell.
My heart constricts at why she’d be here to talk to me when she was feeling sick. What if she’s really, really ill? Dangerously ill. I take a step toward her, all my defenses starting to crumble.
“Em?” I ask, almost afraid to voice the rest.
“I’m pregnant,” she says. “I just found out I’m pregnant.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Emily
“Oh Jesus.” Trent breathes out the words, and the shock on his face is clear. “You’re pregnant?”
“I took a test when I was in New York City. I haven’t been to the doctor to confirm, but Maggie said it’s rare to get a false positive.”
“Maggie knows?”
“Trent,everyoneis going to know.”
