Page 67 of Baby By my Best Friend's Daddy

I sighed. “Yeah, she has that effect on people. I care about her too.”

“A lot?”

I frowned. “What kind of a question is that?”

“Would you do anything for her?”

“I would doanythingfor her. She’s become my everything, Celine. I know it’s cliché for an old man like me to talk about soulmates and true love. That shit should be reserved for people who are younger, with their whole lives ahead of them. The thing is, Rebecca makes me feel like I’m young again, like we have a whole future together. She makes me want to be better.”

Celine nodded. “Yeah, me too. I mean, what the fuck is up with that? I’m happy being who I am until I’m around her, and I feel like I should up my game because she’s all saintly.”

I nodded and chuckled softly. “Something like that.”

“Exactly like that…” She tilted her head. “She’s pregnant.”

I froze. Celine stopped walking when she realized I’d stopped. She turned to me.

“What?”

“You heard me,” she said. “She’s pregnant.”

“Mine?”

Celine rolled her eyes. “Who the fuck’s do you think it is? Of course, it’s yours. Don’t you dare ask her that. It’s offensive.”

“Right, right,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger. “I was just… shit. Is that why she’s not talking to me?”

“She doesn’t want to tie you down. Brad’s twenty-eight, Landon. To start over with a new baby, a new family now… she doesn’t want to be the person to do that to you, to trap you when you’re at the point where you can do whatever you want.”

“I want her!” I shouted. “That’s all I want. I want to be with her and love her and grow old with her all over again.”

“She doesn’t think she’s enough for you.”

“She’s more than enough,” I said, incredulous. “How can she think that? She’severything.”

“Tell her that,” Celine said.

“She doesn’t want to talk to me.”

“She needs you more than she’ll ever admit,” Celine said.

My ears rang, and my head spun. My heart hammered against my chest, and I clenched and unclenched my hands, trying to process what Celine had just told me.

“I’m going to keep going,” she said. “I’m going to fuck up my run time if I stand here gossiping much longer.”

She bounced on the balls of her feet.

“Good luck.”

She turned around and jogged away from me.

“Thanks,” I said, but she was long gone.

I stood in the middle of the path, still trying to wrap my mind around what I’d just heard, when everything clicked into place. I had to get Rebecca back. I had to tell her I loved her.

I needed her in my life, and I wouldn’t let her slip through my fingers. I hadn’t fought for Catherine, but we hadn’t been right for each other. Rebecca and I were perfect together.

I’d been a fool not to stalk her, to go to her house, her hospital, anywhere she was to win her back. I was going to fix that right now.

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