Page 37 of Prince of Tides
Frowning, I started toward her. “You don’t have to be nervous around me. I’m not going to hurt you. No matter what you say.”
She smiled weakly. “You don’t know what I’m going to say.”
I shrugged. “I’mhopingyou’re here to say you’ve taken back your desire to ‘never see me again.’”
She didn’t laugh.
“Darn,” I said, more than a little disappointed. “I don’t get it, then. You don’t want to see me some more. But you came back anyway? You’re really nervous.”
I suddenly looked around, listening sharply, scanning the room and apartment for any sounds.
“What? What is it?” Laurie asked. “Is everything okay?”
“I don’t know. I’m trying to figure that out. Are you here to sue me for anything that happened at your father’s house?”
“What? No! Nothing like that.”
“Well, whatever it is, it can’t be good,” I said. “The way you’re dodging the subject and all, I’m just getting ‘impending doom’ vibes over here.”
“It’s not bad!” she cried, then recoiled. “Well, I hope not, at least. I don’t actually know what you’re going to say. I’m a little nervous.”
“I can see that,” I said, deciding to take a seat and making sure to keep as much distance as I could. That seemed to keep her at ease. “But, Laurie, I swear, whatever you’re going to tell me, I’m not going to do anything to you over it.”
She chewed her lip. “Are you sure you can say that? There aren’tanyscenarios that would make you do otherwise?”
I shrugged. “If you pull out a gun, maybe. But only if you try to attack me. That’s all I could think of, and I don’t see you doing that.”
“I’m not,” she said.
“Then can you please, for the love of everything, spit out what’s going on? The suspense is killing me. Did I hurt you? Was it something I did?”
“Yes,” she said. “Sort of. Somethingwedid. But you didn’t hurt me. No, quite the opposite, actually. Very much the opposite.”
Her voice took on a slightly dreamy tone. I frowned. “Are you here because you want to hook up again? If that’s the case, this is really the most awkward way to do it. You could have dressed up a little sexier, too, if that’s all you want.”
I reached for my shirt, but the look on her face stopped me. It wasn’t that, unfortunately.
“Us doing that is what got me,us, into this situation in the first place!”
“Huh?” I blinked.
Nervously, tentatively, with the jerkiness of someone not quite used to doing it, Laurie reached down to cradle the bottom of her stomach.
I recognized the move. It was what women did when they were pregnant and wanted to emphasize their bellies for comfort or pictures. But why would—
“Yes,” she whispered as I went bug-eyed, finally catching on. “You’re going to be a dad.”
I licked suddenly dry lips, not quite sure I was processing everything. “What?”
Chapter Twenty
Laurie
Iheld my breath, waiting for the impending explosion I could see building within him. The steam was all but pouring from his ears as he quite literally began to tremble and almost shake violently.
“Uh.” I took several steps backward, my worry growing as Rip continued to say nothing.
He was between the door and me, preventing any sort of easy exit if he grew violent or angry at the news. Eb was probably nearby, but I wasn’t sure if he could get there in time if Rip came for me. I would have to defend myself, and—
