I swallowed, grinding my teeth together hard.
Her arms dropped. “You got what you wanted, Kaleb. You’re just like your father.”
It hit a nerve, and I inhaled slowly, feeling my nostrils flare. I ground my teeth together.
“You want to be alone, fine. I’ll have my stuff out by tomorrow.” She turned, storming away. I could hear her grab her keys, and the front door slammed shut. I looked at the shattered glass and felt my shoulders relax.
I ran a hand over my face, knowing I had reacted wrong. I knew I shouldn’t have yelled. She was right.
Chapter 21 - Nora
I heard a knock on the door and looked up. Jade peeked into the spare room I was taking, holding a cup of coffee. “Morning, how did you sleep?”
I slept terribly. I kept seeing Kaleb’s expression, and I cried until I had nothing left. But there was no changing the fact that I was pregnant. We couldn’t unring that bell.
“I’m fine. I’m sorry that I came here and ruined you guys’ night.” When I arrived, I found Brandon and Jade were getting ready to go out for date night. Jade instantly canceled it, offering me the spare bedroom and a shoulder to cry on. But I didn’t talk. I just told her I wanted silence.
I could hear her yelling at Kaleb through the walls. She was screaming at him to get his shit together. I tried to drown it out, but it was hard.
“You didn’t ruin anything,” she said, stepping into the room. She walked over and sat down on the bed. “I can put two and two together to know you and Kaleb fought.”
“I told him. Or well he found out, and I had to tell him.”
Jade nodded. “I see, and he reacted?”
I nodded. “We argued.” I took the coffee and had a sip.
“He will come around to the idea.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
Jade shook her head. “It’s not possible that he won’t.”
I clung to the mug, staring into it. I suddenly wished things were simpler. I wished I could turn back time to when we weren’t in this.
“Everything is going to be okay.”
I chewed on my cheek because I had been repeating those words to myself since I told her. I kept saying that no matter what, I would figure things out, even if I had to do them alone. But I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to be alone raising a child. I didn’t want to have to tell them when they were older that our relationship was fake, and somehow, along the way, it got messy. How we made a mistake. How their father thought this entire thing was a mistake.
I wiped at my eyes and felt Jade wrap her arms around my shoulder. “You’re going to make me murder my brother, you know that.”
I sniffled, half laughing as I looked at her. “He’s right, though. This was all a mistake. We shouldn’t have done this. If we just stuck to the rules, we wouldn’t be here.”
Jade gave me a sympathetic look. “That’s not true.”
“No, it is,” I countered. “If I had said no, we wouldn’t be here.”
Jade didn’t seem to know what to say to that. She just leaned against me, and I sniffled, rubbing at my eyes again.
I left for work an hour later, needing to get myself busy. With the extra animals in the shelter, Mike needed any extra help.
I started taking the dogs out and cleaning their kennels. While the dogs were outside, I started filling the dogs’ food containers. I went and changed the cat’s litter while Mike started taking the dogs for a walk. I was filling the cat’s food containers when I heard Mike getting back. He had Rose and Lily with him, both wagging their tails eagerly as he opened their cages, putting them back.
“They look happy,” I said as I shut the door to the cat’s area.
“They are full of energy. Damn near took me out on the way back.”
I laughed, looking at the dogs. They looked happy and nothing like how they looked when we first got them. They were covered in dirt and frightened with wide eyes. I remembered holding them close, feeling their bodies shake with fear. Looking at them now, you wouldn’t even know that was something in their past.
