Rylee’s shoulders fell at the sight of the test in his hand.
When she’d taken the test and saw the two lines, it was real. But seeing Xander holding it… made her reality physically shift.
She nodded her head, and with that confirmation, she noticed Xander’s eyes light up in a way she’d never seen before.
His chest started to rise and fall as he peered down at the test, then looked up at her.
A stunned laugh left him next, and there was no denying it. The man was elated.
“Yo! You’re pregnant?” He laughed, bringing his fist to his mouth. “We’re gonna have a baby?!”
Rylee thought her heart had dropped when she saw the test. But his reaction?
That made it crash through the floor.
Because…
She didn’t mean to say what she said next.
It just… slipped out.
Like a secret she’d been holding in her throat that pushed past her lips before she could stop it.
“I don’t know if I’m keeping it.”
It was like a thought… but in sound.
And as it came into her mind and toppled out of her mouth, falling to the hardwood floor like cement, it knocked the smile right off Xander’s lips.
“Wait… what?” Xander blinked twice. “What do you mean?”
Rylee inhaled a breath through her mouth, then let it out through pursed lips.
“I…umm…”
The silence between them was deafening.
Rylee swore she could hear her heart beating in her ears.
“Rylee—”
“Ineverplanned on having three kids.”
Xander closed his eyes and squeezed them tight.
“I’m still grieving,” she added. “And Ifinallyfeel like I can love you for real.”
Xander blinked a few more times in response.
“And… and now I have to think about…this.”
“Think about what?” he asked, low. “What…whatis there to think about?”
Rylee didn’t respond. She couldn’t.
Even if she tried, her tongue felt like it weighed one hundred pounds in her mouth.
“Okay, aight.”
