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I think I’m going to throw up again.

I manage to stuff the nausea down and take the box with a shaking hand.

“To rule it out,” I say.

She gives me a nod.

I pace in the bathroom for what feels like hours before I suck up the courage to pee on the damn stick. And then I sit, staring at the little space, waiting for those lines. It feels like forever until they start to form. I double-check the box to make sure I’m reading it correctly. Two lines means I’m pregnant.

Two lines.

Two thin pink lines appear, and my heart stops.

I hurriedly grab another test from the box, hurrying to squeeze out what pee I have left in me, telling myself there’s no way, it has to be a false positive. I can’t be pregnant, I just…

But sure enough, the second test is the same. Two bold-faced pink lines.

There is no denying the truth.

I’m pregnant.

Tears fall from my face as I process the information. I’m pregnant and I have no clue who the father is, except that it’snotBrett. And I only know it’s not because we hadn’t had sex since before he left for his last game, the one before he came home and cheated on me.

Which means that this baby can only belong to one of his brothers. It could be any of theirs.

Freddie’s.

Rush’s.

Tommy’s.

The thought of Tommy and the night we made love resurfaces in my brain. He told me then he was prepared if somethinghappened.

If I got pregnant.

Would he feel the same way now after what I did to them? After how I treated them and left them that night?

And what would Rush say? Would he be like Tommy and embrace a child? Or would he find a way to say this baby can’t be his?

And Freddie…

I think of Freddie and his heart, his need to provide. Would he open his heart to a child? My child? And me? Or would he cast me aside and say I’m not worth it? Would he let us go?

I stare at those pink lines.

So many nights I prayed Brett would change his mind. That he would tell me he was ready for this. For a family, with me.

But life has a strange way of giving you what you want, I guess.

I know there’s no questioning that this is fate. This is everything I’ve wanted.

Abby knocks on the door, and a moment later steps inside. I look up at her and the tears start to fall. I barely get the words out. She rushes to me, pulling me into her arms.

“We’re going to get through this,” she says, and I have to believe her.

Because for the first time in my life, I don’t know what to do.

EPILOGUE