Andheput me in this inescapable position.
I’m only this mad at Leo because it gives me something else to concentrate all my fear and rage on, something less confusing and terrifying. Intellectually, the reasonable part of me knows this is not his fault. Not a hundred percent, anyway; as the cliche goes, it takes two to tango. But right now, I’m squashing my reasonable side because the shock is still too fresh. I can face the horror I’m going to feel at my own stupidity when I have to think about this properly once I’ve calmed down, and under the circumstances I think that’s outrageously understandable.
Motherfucker.Quite literally, as of now.
The threat of tears prickles my eyes, but I will not cry just yet. I can do that later. Right now, I need to scream at someone, and only one person will do.
I speed up as I round the corner to the parlour, where my work life and my personal life crashed into each other andcaused an explosion from which neither Leo nor I will emerge unscathed now. I always knew I should never spit on my own doorstep, and my bone deep lifelong instinct has been proven spectacularly right. But, even now, I’m not sure I can bring myself to truly regret it all. Ithasbeen wonderful. And right.
Except now, the rug has been pulledyet again, just when I was starting to feel safe, and I hate not knowing what to do.
My skirt tries to pull a Marilyn Monroe as it catches another gust of warm breeze, but I push it down impatiently and stomp harder. My face must look like thunder, because passers by step hurriedly out of my path, eager to get out of the way of the psycho bitch with murder in her eyes.
I can see Wishbone’s glass door five feet away from me, and I’m so angry I can hardly see. My brain is overflowing with sentences I want to yell at Leo bastard-features Mills that I can’t pick just one.
So I shove the door open, making the bell ring loudly, and lucky me: there he is right now, laughing with a client as he takes a payment. Emily’s not around. Nor is Eli. Nor is Dean. Probably just as well.
Leo’s eyes light up as I walk in, before he flinches and ducks as I throw the pregnancy test at his stupid fucking head. It bounces off the wall behind him, clattering to the floor where all my life plans have been scattered.
“Hey, Wonderdick,” I snarl, almost spitting with rage, “guess what?!”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Leo
“Whoah!” I laugh, “What’s up, Red?” My smile starts to fade when I see her panting in front of me, fire spitting from her eyes and then fading as the anger that brought her here starts to disintegrate. The expression that’s left behind is one I’ve never seen before, and abruptly it feels like I’m teetering on the edge of a cliff, about to plummet.
Sadie is a live wire. I’ve always known this and valued the way she says exactly what she thinks, in a way that stays true to how she’s really feeling in the moment. But this is something completely different.
She looks at my client, Holly, and flushes with embarrassment, opening her mouth to speak before the words die on her lips. Spinning one eighty, she storms out in much the same way she flew in.
Looking for whatever it was she threw at me, I find it a couple of feet to my right. It’s long, plastic, and white with a blue cap. It kind of looks like a thermometer, or a…
Hang on.
My heart skips several beats and my chest becomes tight as I pick it up and turn it over.
And on the digital screen are the words that shove me off that cliff, sending the air rushing around my ears.
She’s pregnant.
My Sadie is pregnant.
Withmybaby.
These dopey thoughts tumble through my head like bowling pins getting knocked down one by one.
She’s having our baby.I’m going to be a father.
“Never mind, it’s on me,” I tell Holly before running out of the parlour door, ignoring her protests that she has to pay mesomething. I don’t need Holly to pay me. I need Sadie, I need to hold her and keep her safe, keep thembothsafe in my arms.
Bothof them.
There’s aboth.
Delirious joy like nothing I’ve ever experienced before almost puts me on my knees as I see her speed walking a few yards away, her ponytail swinging this way and that. “Sadie!” I call at her. She freezes, but doesn’t turn around. Don’t tell me she’s nervous about my reaction?! I run over to her, determined to make damn sure she’s not left in any doubt that this is the greatest moment of my life. A daughter, or a son, with her red hair and razor sharp brain, and my…last name, maybe, if she likes, I don’t give a shit if they carry hers instead. I’ll take whatever she’s got and name them Jellybean McMonkey if that’s what she wants; they’ll still be loved with everything in me.
I throw my arms around her, barely able to speak clearly but trying anyway, kissing every inch of her face that I can get to and telling her how amazing she is, how fantastic this news is, and how much I adore her and the little peanut growing inside her.
