Jesus, we don’t need to get into details.
Pacey’s fists clench at his sides, and he turns toward me. “Are you telling me he’s the father?”
The pause that she takes to answer that question is so fucking torturous. I’m pretty sure I know the answer, but confirmation would be great, on the slightest chance that somehow, someway she was oddly impregnated by Posey, who is still shaking over by the window.
This time, Penny looks at me and says, “Yes, Hornsby is the father.”
I don’t even see it coming, I don’t have enough wherewithal to even process what’s happening, before a pain so severe ricochets through my jaw, and I’m tossed to the ground. Penny lets out a shrill cry at the same time I’m cloaked in two hundred pounds of pure muscle.
“Pacey, don’t.”
I look up just in time to see Lawes cock his arm back, only to be pulled off me and pushed to the ground by Posey.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Posey says, being a human shield for me while I gather my wits. Remind me to buy him two tons worth of bologna after this.
“I told you to stay away from her,” Pacey says as he heaves with rage. “I toldyouspecifically, I warned you because I knew something like this would happen. I knew you wouldn’t be able to keep your hands off her.”
When I sit up, I touch the side of my sore jaw as I say, “You say that as if I’m getting women pregnant all around the city. And it wasn’t like I made her have sex with me. It was consensual.”
“It better have been consensual,” Pacey seethes.
“It was,” I say, getting to my feet and standing tall. “And it wasn’t planned. It just happened that one night. I haven’t seen her since. I swear.”
“Great, glad to hear that my sister is disposable like every other girl you’ve been with.”
Shit, that didn’t sound good.
“Not that I didn’t want to do it again with her,” I say. “We just agreed to one night.”
“Do not fucking talk about having sex with my sister ever again.” Pacey turns to Penny and asks, “Are you keeping the baby?”
When my eyes connect with Penny, she says, “Yes. I am. But I don’t expect anything from Hornsby. I just thought—”
“The fuck you’re not,” Pacey says while moving in closer. “This is not your problem to deal with alone. He’s just as much a part of this as you.”
“Yeah, I can, uh, help,” I say awkwardly because who the fuck tells someone they’re pregnant like this? With their brother and . . . a random teammate? Why did she do it like this?
Better yet, why the fuck did she get pregnant? We used protection. We took all the precautions that we were supposed to. Yes, I might have fucked her really damn hard because being inside her felt like heaven, but that doesn’t mean I’d get her pregnant, does it?
And pregnant, she’s fucking pregnant . . . like, she’s carrying my baby.
A baby.
There is going to be a baby in my life.
Holy shit, I’m going to be a dad.
Slowly, I sink back into my chair and grip my hair tightly as all of this finally pierces through my thick skull.
Penny is pregnant, and I’m the father. I’m going to be in charge of another human.
There is no way in hell I’m ready for that.
That’s commitment.
That’s the type of responsibility I don’t think I ever wanted to take on.
“You know, before we make promises that we might not be able to keep, why don’t we just all take this information in, and then we can talk later,” Penny says softly.
