Page 14 of There I Find Rest

Chapter 6

“You don’t owe me anyapologies.” Kim took a breath, and her hand seemed to tighten around her middle as she turned back toward Davis. “It was my fault just as much as yours. I... I don’t typically do things like that. I...just wasn’t thinking, or maybe I wanted revenge. I don’t know. I was being stupid. Sorry.”

He stood straight, but her words hurt. There was no concession to any kind of feelings for him. It was all regret. She called her actions stupid.

He tried not to dwell on it, didn’t want to nitpick her words apart. Didn’t want to read more than what was there. Tried to remind himself that the way he acted in his circumstances was more important than the circumstances themselves. Whatever happened, he was here with Kim. He needed to be a man of character. Someone she might possibly be interested in doing more than co-parenting with.

“Are you going to allow me to help raise her?” He phrased the question like that, because he wanted to demand his parental rights. Demand that he was going to get their child, but she hadn’t even had to tell him about her. He would never have known. Wouldn’t have guessed. Except...now that they lived close together and he would have seen that she was pregnant, couldn’t believe he missed it to begin with, and he would have wondered if he was the father.

“Did you only tell me because I was going to figure it out?”

“No!” she said immediately, her brows lifting, her eyes open and honest. “I... I honestly knew I needed to and planned to eventually, but so much has been happening. The divorce, the bad decisions, my daughter, losing my mom, having no place to land. Finding out that...” Whatever she was going to say, she cut off abruptly. “I really was going to tell you. I knew I needed to, I just hadn’t gotten my life straightened out enough to figure out how. Or what, or even what that would look like.”

“We have three months. Right?”

She nodded.

Unless the baby came early.

“Is everything all right?” His words were soft, with as much caring and gentleness as he could put in them. Wanting her to know that he was truly concerned, that he truly did care.

“My age puts me at high risk.” Her cheeks pinkened a little. Like it was uncomfortable to think of herself as anything but young. He certainly knew the feeling. He was looking hard at forty. Twenty years ago, forty had seemed like over the hill and through the woods with one foot in the grave. But now, he didn’t feel like that at all when he thought about his age.

“But the doctors have said that everything has been perfect. I’ll... I’ll continue going to the hospital in Blueberry Beach. It’s not that far away, just thirty minutes. And hopefully everything will continue to go well.”

“How have you been feeling?” He had a million questions he wanted to ask. So many things he wanted to know. Had she had an ultrasound? Were there pictures of his baby? What was she going to name her? And he had questions about Kim too. What did she want from him? What was she expecting? What would be best for her? He hadn’t been there to feel the baby move, to share the excitement of finding out about a new life. Although, it probably wasn’t exciting to her. It was probably...devastating.

“We can make this a good thing, right?”

“I wasn’t even sure I was going to keep her.” She sounded like she was admitting something she didn’t want to.

“I will. Please. Let me.”

Her lips flattened, but maybe there was a little bit of relief in her gaze as well. “I guess you don’t have to worry about where your next meal is coming from.”

“Neither do you. I promise. You don’t have to worry about anything that has to do with money.”

She shook her head. “That was part of the reason I hesitated to tell you. I didn’t want anyone to say that I was after you for money. I don’t want a dime.”

He admired her spirit. And he didn’t blame her. Not really. She didn’t have much of anything left. When that happened, a person had a tendency to pull the things that they did have tightly around them and hold them fast as though fending off the rest of the world. But he had time to break through the wall she’d constructed around herself. Or maybe, he had time to chip away at it, carefully removing pieces until she allowed him to stand before her without the wall between them.

He liked the picture that presented, because he liked the idea of wooing her, of gently courting her, of treating her the way she deserved to be treated.

Todd certainly hadn’t done that. It had made Davis angry more than once when he’d seen the way Todd neglected and disregarded his wife.

She deserved so much more.

“Yes. Whatever I do, I want you to be involved too. I guess I just don’t know what that is. And if you don’t mind giving me some time.”

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