Page 80 of Wild For You
Setting the glass of water on the coffee table, I stood up and marched toward him.
“And you think I planned for this inmylife? I have no job—thanks to you, I might add—soon, no home, and here I am, carrying a baby.Yourbaby.”
“So? There are ways to get rid of it.”
I gasped at his audacity. “So, you’re saying you want absolutely nothing to do with this child? Not now? Not in the future? Not ever?”
“Nothing.”
“Then expect paperwork from a lawyer for you to sign away your parental rights.”
“Okay.” His nonchalance at the notion was enough to send me over the edge—a crazy mix of frustration and agony.
“How can you not care, Caleb?” I asked, and he shrugged.
“The same way that youdocare. Look, we have plans, and I need to get ready. Is that all you wanted to tell me?”
“Yes,” I stated as I stomped toward the door. “All I wanted to tell you was that I’m having your baby. You can expect the paperwork in a few weeks.” First, I needed to find a lawyer who wouldn’t cost me a fortune.
I didn’t look to see if he followed me to the door or out of the apartment. I composed myself enough so that my tears didn’t fall until I reached the pavement of the sidewalk outside his building. I couldn’t imagine what the people passing me must have thought. I knew my mascara was running down my face in horrid black smudges. My nose was probably red, and snot dripped out of my nostrils. Not caring in the slightest about the material, I wiped away what I could with the sleeve of my jacket.
Through my blurry eyes, I knocked into a couple of people, barely able to utter an apology without sounding crazy.
I wasn’t actually sure how I made it back to my apartment in one piece. I’d crossed the intersections without a second glance at traffic.
Inside, I moseyed over to my couch and curled up on my side, running a hand across my stomach and mumbling to my baby that he was loved unconditionally.
At some point, I fell asleep, then woke to the sound of my phone ringing. Looking for my bag, I found it across the room by the door. I must have dropped it the moment I stepped inside.
“Hello?” I asked, not even looking at the screen to see who was on the other end of the line. I already knew who it was.
“Kelsey? Is everything okay?” Andrew asked, his voice concerned.
“I…. He…,” I began, and then I broke down into tears again.
“Baby, what happened? Do I need to come there? Do I need to kill someone?” His instinctive need to take care of whatever or whoever hurt me only made my sobs more pronounced.
He stayed on the phone with me for the fifteen minutes it took for me to catch my breath and form complete sentences.
“He…. Caleb…. He doesn’t want the baby. He suggested I get rid of it.”
“That motherfucker,” he growled.
“And when I said no, he said he wants to give up his rights.”
“Oh, baby. I’m so sorry. You don’t need him though. You have everyone here to be in that baby’s life.”
“I want to come home,” I murmured, because the confrontation today cemented the fact that Ashfield was where I wanted to be. Nashville held no appeal for me anymore.
“I’ll be here, waiting for you.”
The next morning, I piled back into my car. Before sunrise was in full swing, I was already on the highway, headed back to Ashfield.
Andrew was wide-awake when I unlocked the front door and stepped inside the house I’d begun to consider my own.
“There she is,” he said as he walked over to me and wrapped me in those strong arms I loved. They left me feeling protected, and wanted, and loved. “I missed you.”
“It was one night,” I pointed out, even though I too missed him terribly.
