He made her happy.
“I want the same for you.” And if Kristi did that for him, then Brooke had to accept it.
She appreciated that he didn’t dive into all that had torn them apart or mention Kristi, so she didn’t either.
Cody let out a weary sigh. “Waiting to see you again is killing me.”
I know how that feels.
“Cody.” She couldn’t keep her sadness and desperation to have him back out of her voice.
“I know. Not fair. I just…need you to know none of this is easy for me. I think about you all the time.”
“I can’t stop thinking about you either. But…” Everything standing between them hadn’t changed.
“Yeah. I know.” It felt like he silently ended that statement with,It wasn’t meant to be.“I’m glad I got a chance to talk to you. I needed to hear your voice and know that you’re okay.”
Am I?
Not really.Not since the morning after they slept together.
Never again. Because a piece of her would always be with him.
“See you later, Brooke.”
“See you later, Cody.” She ended the call and burst into tears.
Mindy Sue wrapped her in a hug. “It’s okay. You’ll see him soon. You can tell him everything, and you’ll work it out.”
Their other friends had gone ahead back to the dorms.
Brooke met Mindy Sue’s concerned gaze. “I know we’ll figure it out. It just won’t be what I hoped it would be.”
“Call him back, tell him about the baby, and it could be what you want.”
She huffed out her frustration. “I can’t do that to him.”
Mindy Sue raised a brow. “How about doing it for your daughter?”
She shook her head. “Pushing a marriage on him he doesn’t want will only make things worse. I don’t want him to resent me. I don’t want our daughter to see that I make her father unhappy.”
“You and Cody love each other. It won’t be that way.”
“He loveshermore.”
Mindy Sue dropped it and hooked her arm through Brooke’s. They walked the busy sidewalk back toward the dorm in silence. What was there to say? They’d hashed this out a dozen different ways only to come to the same conclusion each time. Cody wanted to be with Kristi.
If he wanted Brooke back, he would have said so tonight.
That he didn’t made her stomach clench and her heart break all over again.
But thoughts of Cody disappeared the second they got to their dorm room door and Brooke spotted the gift tied to the knob. “He was here.”
Mindy Sue swore.
Of coursehe’druin her birthday.
Chapter Thirty-Six
