Page 120 of The Mistakes I've Made
“But it’s yours now.”
“No,” I corrected. “It’s always been yours.”
“I can’t pay you for it,” she said. “The money I have, it’s not my own.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll gift it to you right now if that’s what you want.”
“You what?” Her voice ricocheted across the small space. “Are you crazy?”
“Probably, especially considering I used the business as collateral.”
“Oh my God,” she moaned. She grabbed her abdomen and looked like she was going to be physically ill.
“Are you okay?”
“No! You bought my hotel and now there’s a storm coming that could obliterate it! Do you see the problem here? We could be destitute.”
I smiled.She had said we, hadn’t she?
Stepping closer, I tested the waters to see how hot they still were, sliding a tentative hand around her waist. When it didn’t get slapped away, I pulled her close, feeling her melt against me.
Jesus, I’d missed this.
“You’re an idiot,” she whimpered against my shoulder.
“Yeah, but I’m your idiot,” I said, lifting her chin upward. “We’ll figure it out. Promise. Think of it as an adventure, for just the two of us. You, me, and our hotel.”
Her eyes widened, her cheeks ballooned, and then she bolted to the bathroom and spilled her guts into the toilet.
I tried to push my way in, but she continually kept shoving me back out, saying, “Get out! You do not want to see this!”
I finally managed to get in and calm her down. She didn’t let me near her though until I went and retrieved her toothbrush from her things so she could do some damage control, as she’d called it. I got her upright, sitting down on the edge of the bathtub. I wiped her forehead with a damp cloth.
“Was it something I said?”
Her face blanched, making me wonder if I needed to clear the room again.
“No,” she said. “Well, kind of.”
My brow lifted.
“All those dreams of yours? They’re my dreams, too. I don’t want to work for my father anymore. But the hotel? It won’t exactly just be you and me.”
“Oh?”
“I’m pregnant.”
This time, I was the one who felt queasy as the room sort of started wobbling, my world shifting from the news I’d been given.
“You’re pregnant?” I had to say it out loud for it to be true.
My eyes went to her stomach, like I was looking for some sort of physical sign, but it was just as flat as it had been a moment earlier.
I was going to be a father.
Tears stung my eyes before I realized she was rambling, trying to apologize for the gift she’d just given me.
“It’s my fault,” she said. “I thought my IUD was still good, but—”
