All he’s ever done is support me.
So surely I’m safe to trust him?
26
PIPER
It’spositive with a big fat capital P.
Oh, joy.
Caleb is focused on those two pink lines and nothing more.
“Okay…” he begins. He’s trying to keep his voice level, but I hear the uncertainty playing underneath. “We can’t really act shocked. Animals in heat have less sex than us, and we never had a proper conversation about birth control.”
I set the test aside and look at Caleb, searching his eyes for a hint that everything’s gonna work out. But why am I looking to him for reassurance when I’m having a déjà vu? There was no reassurance the first time I got pregnant, because he left before I found out. I was in the dark about Ellie, about all of it.
All I was left with was a positive pregnancy test and a broken heart.
I want to trust him, and I’m itching to fall right back into how we were, but how can I when I was devastated the first time around?Confiding in him would be a huge disservice to myself, and all that I had to go through. Alone.
“You look pissed.” Caleb narrows his eyes. “I’ll throw up my hands and admit it—Iamto blame for this.”
I don’t have the energy to talk, or to think about what me being pregnant could mean for us. All I can think about is how I felt back then.
The pain I felt all of those years ago comes flooding back.
Caleb is the only person who can save my heart.
Who can make it feel complete again.
I stare at the pregnancy test and feel the pain ebb through me, stabbing with enough force to kill the baby.
A piece of Caleb will be with me forever.
Which means I can never forget him.
And I don’t know how to feel about that.
“Do you want to keep it?”
“Huh?” I’m jolted from my thoughts.
Caleb is there, watching me, a pleading look in his eye as he waits for me to answer the question I don’t know how to answer. I was never supposed to see or hear from him again. And he’s got me knocked up. Again.
I swallow my grief for now, knowing that he doesn’t know a thing about the past or Sonny. “That’s a big question, and I don’t like how you’re putting me on the spot.”
There’s a hopeful look growing in his eyes, which I don’t like.
“I could be convicted, Caleb. I already have enough to worry about with Sonny. Two kids would be too much for me to handle, in every aspect of life, financially and mentally. Not to mention the fact that there’s a possibility I could be giving birth in a prison cell with my ankles chained.”
“You’re jumping to the very worst-case scenario, and that will not be happening under my watch.”
“You’re not the government,” I tell him. “A lot of things could happen, regardless if you’re watching or not.”
Mind, he is Caleb Rourke, and would probably win a fight with the government if it came down to a test of physical strength.
“That’s right, I’m not the government. All I’m saying is that you’re not alone in this anymore if you decide you want to keep it.”
