Page 116 of The Rules of Dating My One-Night Stand

“I don’t want to. I have no other way to show you I’m thinking of you. Besides, this could be my child, which means I’d haveeveryright to spoil him.”

“You know my family doesn’t know yet! I’ve had to hide everything. It’s stressing me out.”

“Ah. Shit. Okay…I hadn’t been thinking of that.” He sighed. “I’ll have to find another way to spoil you, I guess.” Robert paused. “Speaking of which...”

I squinted. “What?”

“We’re gonna need a bigger place.”

“We?”

“Yes,we. Or at least me…until I can convince you to move in.”

“You live in a mansion. It’s big enough.”

“There’s not enough land, though. I’m thinking of putting my place on the market and getting something with a bigger yard and a massive pool.”

My stomach was in knots. He was movingwaytoo fast here.

“You don’t need that much more space for one child.”

“It wouldn’t be just one. Your brother and sister can live with us, too, because I know you don’t want to leave them.”

The room felt like it was tilting around me. “You don’t know what you’re saying.” I rubbed my temple. “You don’t want to live with two teenagers. You’re practically a teenager yourself—at least the way you act.”

“Well, it’s time I grew up, isn’t it?”

I paced. “How exactly do you plan to conduct your normalshenanigansin a house full of people—people you’d need to be setting an example for, mind you?”

“I’d be done with all that. Once you move in, once I’m a father, that’s it.”

People didn’t change that easily—another thing Vera had taught me. I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, right.”

“I mean it,” he insisted. “I’ve got to grow up sometime, Devyn. And there’s no person worth making that change for more than you.” He exhaled. “I love you.”

I shut my eyes.

Robert had told me he loved me countless times before, and this time felt just as empty as all the others.Owen’sproclamation the other night, however?Thatfelt real. Too real. It had caught me off guard, and I still hadn’t figured out how to process it. All I knew was it meant something. It had meanta lot. And I’d totally screwed up my reaction.

“I do think you believe everything you’re saying right now. But I feel like I know you better than you know yourself. Once this pregnancy is over and reality comes crashing down, you’re going to be overwhelmed. And you’ll run—right back to your old ways.”

“I want a life with you. I want a family. Why can’t you believe me?”

“What if this baby isn’t yours?”

Several seconds went by before he finally said, “Well, then I’ll still want you. And I’ll take care of you and the baby.”

“Why would you do that?”

He raised his voice. “Why do you always question my feelings for you, Dev? I’ve told you time and time again, you’re the one person who sees me for me, the one woman in this world I can trust. You’re the person I want to settle down with.” He paused. “What can I do to prove I’m serious?”

When I remained silent, he hit me with another question.

“What does this other guy have on me?”

“I trust him,” I said immediately.

“That fucking hurts,” he murmured.

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