My heart splinters into a thousand pieces.
"I always thought..." He's not looking at me now. His gaze is fixed on the canopy above us, on something far away, something I can't see. "I always thought I'd like to have a daughter. Like her. A second chance to..."
He looks at me.
“You asked me about the catch earlier, and it’s that.”
I shake my head. What exactly is he saying?
"I will never have children here."
Children.
He will never have children here.
Which means...wewill never have children here.
And so...I try.
I really do try to make myself care about this. To remind myself that this will affect our future both.
But...I can’t.
Because right now, all I can think about is his sadness.
All I can make myself care about is finding a way to make his heart stop aching, and that’s how I find myself shifting up until I can press my lips to his jaw. His cheek. The corner of his eye where I can feel the tension gathered like a storm.
"I'm sorry," I whisper. "I'm so sorry."
“You should be angry with me.”
“Should I?”
“Do you not want a child in the future?”
“I don’t know. But we can always adopt, can’t we?”
“You’re truly fine with that?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
Silence.
And then...
“I should’ve told you from the start. I’m sorry.”
"It wouldn't change a thing even if you did."
"Why?"
Because I’m in love with you.
“Bailey?”
"Oh, um, I think I—" I fake a yawn so exaggerated it's almost cartoonish. "—so sleepy! Wow. Very tired. Long day. Court sessions and murder investigations and—"
"Bailey."
