Page 111 of Waiting Forever
I laugh again, my nerves firing and my cheeks heating. His mom is right there.
“Did I hear you’re leaving?” Avery gives us her attention. There’s no line at the stand. The festival must be dying down. It’s after ten. Most of the families with kids are gone or leaving.
I don’t want to hug Avery given my current scent, but I don’t want to be rude. “I fell in the haunted barn.” I step back. “I don’t want to get you dirty.”
“Oh. Okay,” she says, not seeming offended at all. She brushes her apron. “I’m sticky with caramel, anyway. It got messy over here for a while.”
She’s so sweet. “Thanks again for the apple and for Azure getting us in for free.”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad you came.” She glances around, for Nathan I’m sure.
“He’s in the bathroom. He fell, too, and is messier than I am.”
Her brows pucker beneath her cat-shaped glasses. “It must be a scary haunted house.”
“It is disgustingly horrific. I was impressed. Shocked, but very impressed.”
She giggles with a glance at the haunted barn.
A girl around my age dressed as a sexy Dorothy walks up to the stand. “It was nice meeting you,” Avery says and tends to the girl.
“I’ll text you tomorrow,” I tell Azure and thank him one last time.
In the Hummer, Nathan sits behind the wheel, the engine running. He sees me coming and gets out.
“Ready?” He opens the passenger door.
“Yep.”
He lifts me into the high SUV. “What was that for?”
“I’ve been wanting to do that for a while now. In fact, I need to buy a new car. Something lower and easier to get into.”
“Probably a good idea with the baby coming,” I say without thought. “That didn’t come out right.”
He frowns, torment and sadness glinting in his eyes
“Come here.” I pull him between my legs for a hug. His head only comes up to my chest. I press him to me and hold him tight. “I’m sorry this is happening to you. I know you would have wished for things to be different. It’s not fair.”
“It might not be mine,” he murmurs, his head nestled in my boobs, but not in a horny way.
“How would you feel if it is?” I haven’t even asked him.
“I don’t know. Scared. Worried. Sad.” He lifts his head and holds my gaze. “I’d want it to be ours.” The words are a quiet whisper.
Tears fill my eyes. “Me, too.” Guilt wriggles through me for admitting that. I don’t mean it in a bad way. I cup his cheeks. “How about this? We take things day by day and try to make this relationship work as best as we can. No promises. But even if the baby is yours, maybe it won’t be as bad as we think.”
He nods, and for all his muscles, he looks so vulnerable. “I’d still wish it was ours.”
I can’t bring myself to say maybe one day it can be. The future is too uncertain. I kiss him instead, a tender peck on the lips. “Let’s go home and shower.”
He snaps to attention, his focus redirected like a dog’s when a squirrel passes by.
I almost laugh. “Separately, of course.” I wink, and he smiles.
As horrible as it is to think, I pray this baby isn’t his so we can have our own family one day.
43
