I nod, suddenly feeling a little awkward as silence settles between us.
“I’m sorry I haven’t been around,” he suddenly says, the deep rasp of his voice ensuring he has all my attention.
“It’s okay. I know you’re busy.”
“I wasn’t,” he confesses. “Well, not really.”
“Okaaay.”
He sinks deeper into his soft couch and stares straight ahead.
“All of this has been a lot to take on,” he starts. “I wasn’t in a good place after how our final game ended. I…I have this habit of believing that everything is my fault, and I let it eat at me until it explodes.”
I don’t say anything for fear that he’ll stop talking. I’m desperate to know more about this man, and if he’s willing to open himself up to me, even just a little bit, then I’ll take it.
“I thought I was doing okay, but then you dropped that bomb about an engagement and a ring and I just…I couldn’t process that on top of everything, and I checked out. I’m sorry.”
My instincts beg me to scooch closer and offer him my silent support. But after what he’s just said, I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do. Maybe I should be pulling away, not getting closer. “You have nothing to apologize for. I know all of this is a lot to take on.”
“But then, this morning when you didn’t thank me for your coffee like you always do, I panicked. What if you’d come to your senses and didn’t want me around anymore? What if you realized that you’d be better off without me?”
“No,” I say, giving in and moving closer.
My knee presses against his solid thigh as my hand wraps around his thick bicep.
He immediately looks over. There are dark shadows in his eyes, ones that I wish I could banish. But the kind of pain I can see swimming in them isn’t the kind that others can fix. Only Everett can deal with those issues. Sure, those around him can help, but ultimately, it’s on him.
“I never once thought that. We might not have planned this, but we made a baby together.” I press my free hand to my stomach. “We’re in this together. And I would never cut you off. Our baby needs you. I need you.”
Silence falls, and the air between us crackles as our eye contact holds.
Everything I felt that night comes rushing back to me as heat floods my core.
I swallow thickly, my tongue sneaking out to wet my bottom lip, and Everett’s eyes drop to watch.
His throat tics, and his bicep tenses as if he’s physically holding himself back.
My breathing increases, and my chest begins to heave.
Kiss me. Please.
My body is screaming for it. For his touch. For everything I know he’s able to give me. Everything I’m failing to give myself right now.
I swear, he leans in and closes the space between us. I’m fucking sure of it.
But just when I’m convinced he’s going to do something, his cell pings in his lap. He jumps to his feet so fast it almost gives me whiplash.
“It’s my sister,” he says in a rush. “She…” His brows pinch as he stares at his cell. “She wants me to tell you to look at your cell.”
“Me?”
He looks up, his expression tight and his lips pursed in frustration.
“Is there anyone else here?”
“I…um…I’ll go get it,” I say before scrambling from the couch.
46
