Her face balled in anger, and she slammed her hands on her hips. “That’s how you’re behaving toward me now?” She sounded incredulous.
I inhaled deeply and took a step back. Both of my parents had taught me the importance of being respectful to a woman, but she was pissing me off.
“I need to speak with you,” she said again when I didn’t answer her.
With a shake of my head, I said, “There’s nothing for us to talk about. Unless there’s a paperwork issue. Which there isn’t, since you could’ve addressed that matter inside.” I turned on my heels and started to head for my bike in the parking lot.
I had more important matters on my mind, like trying to decide if I would get Savannah the Rocky Road ice cream or the vanilla bean. She loved both, and she wasn’t a fan of cones. She preferred her ice cream in a cup.
Aiden, on the other hand, was a mint chocolate chip kinda guy. And he, like me, preferred our two scoops in a delicious waffle cone.
“Ace, this is important,” Tricia hissed from behind me. She ran up ahead of me to circle me, getting in my damn way.
“There’s nothing of relevance that we need to discuss.”
She pushed out a heavy breath through her nose. “Oh, yeah?”
I nodded.
“I’m pregnant,” she said in a loud whisper, her eyes darting around the parking lot as if ensuring that no one else overheard her.
I rocked back onto my heels before taking a step backward. Slowly, I panned down the length of her body. I didn’t notice anything different about her, but as my gaze reached her abdomen for the first time, I noticed it was a tad more distended than I recalled.
My hands squeezed at my sides into fists. Those two words filled my head, and I heard them over and over.
“How far along are you?” I asked, still staring at her belly.
“Almost sixteen weeks,” she declared as if proving something. Sixteen weeks would mean she’d gotten pregnant around a month or so before Savannah returned.
“And why the hell are you telling me?” I cocked my head sideways and glared at her.
Her lips fell apart. “Because.” She looked around again and stepped forward.
I stepped back again, maintaining the space between us.
“It’s yours.”
My mind rushed with the memories of the first time a woman told me she was pregnant with my child. I was eighteen, and that woman was my wife. I remembered the look of fear on Savannah’s face.
The way she bit her bottom lip as she handed me the positive pregnancy test.
We were less than a couple of months out of high school, still trying to figure out how to manage going to college and starting our careers as a young married couple. Then we had a pregnancy to contend with.
All of those fears had mounted, but they didn’t compare to the joy I’d felt back then. I knew Savannah was my forever and that, eventually, we’d have a family together. Getting pregnant with AJ had been by mistake, but it was no accident, as far as I was concerned.
I wanted him more than anything.
As I peered up into Tricia’s face, I felt the exact opposite of what I’d felt with Savannah.
White hot rage consumed me. It took every bit of strength in my being not to step forward and throttle her. To prevent myself from even risking going there, I took another step back and shook my head.
“You’re fucking sick,” I said through gritted teeth. “Whoever that baby belongs to, you’d better go tell him and stay the fuck away from me.”
I brushed past her and started for my motorcycle again. But Tricia pulled me again by the arm.
“Ace, this is your baby.”
I snatched it away from her. “Keep your hands to yourself.”
