I hand back the menu that was on the table. “I’ll have the pumpkin soup, please.”
“And you?” The waitress turns to Anton.
“Make it two,” he says, not taking his eyes off me.
I get the feeling Anton doesn’t care what he’s having.
“I’m glad you’re eating,” he says. “Apparently, morning sickness can actually last all pregnancy for some.”
“Look at you…” I haven’t even bought a book for myself yet. “When you said you were all in, I didn’t think you’d get that far in seven hours.”
“Downloaded an audiobook when I stopped for gas.”
My eyes sting again, and I look down at my lap and smooth nonexistent wrinkles out of my slacks.
“Impressive,” my voice cracks slightly, but I pull it together, glancing up again when my heart settles.
His gaze is so steady, it gives me a sense of balance, too. I smile. He returns it with a furrowed brow.
“Anton, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner…”
“Don’t be sorry about anything.” He folds his hands on the table, and a flash of memory from when they were on my skin bursts through my mind.
“I’ve had a lot of hours to think.” He chooses every word carefully. “I want to be around. Not in spirit. In person. For you and the baby.”
The words aren’t rehearsed, but they seem to have been with him a long time.
“This might not be what you planned at this stage of your life,” he continues, eyes locked on mine, “But somehow, it feels like the best thing that could’ve happened to me.” He’s dead serious. “Nothing about this scares me.”
His words breathe life into me.
Seven hours ago, I flipped this man’s life upside down, and he showed up anyway. He drove here immediately, stepped straight into the storm—not just to do the right thing as a baby daddy, but for me.
“I’m not gonna lie, it wasn’t the plan…” Being on the same page is calming beyond measure. “But it feels right for me, too. We have a lot to figure out…”
His shoulders relax slightly. “We do…”
“But I thought I could transfer to Echo Valley?” I test the idea. “For now. I’ll be on desk duty anyway, and it will give us time to settle into our friendship, figure out how we parent together…”
He interrupts. “You’d transfer to Echo Valley?”
It’s the first time tonight something hasn’t seemed to sit right with him. I thought he’d like the proposal?
He scratches his eyebrow. “I was going to offer to move here…”
“You were?” I’m surprised. “You hate big cities.”
He gazes at me earnestly. “You worked hard to get on the LAPD.”
For a moment, I actually reconsider. He would uproot himself for me. Leave the only real family he’s built—Ava, the Mendezes—without hesitation.
That kind of loyalty steals the air from my lungs.
And suddenly I understand something that scares me a little. I matter to him—enough that I need to be careful what I ask for.
Emotion pricks at my seams again, catching me off guard as it does these days.
“That means a lot”—I smile— “but if I can transfer, it makes more sense for me to head up there. Echo Valley is the safer bet…for now.”
