Blocks from the bus stop, he only had a few minutes to say what he wanted to say. “Brooke. I know you’re upset. I’m sorry I hurt you. Please give me a chance to explain.”
She let out a soft sigh and stared at her lap. “I understand. You thought things with Kristi were over until she showed up the morning after you and I had sex and told you she’s pregnant. You put a diamond skating rink on her finger, so that she can show it off to her snotty friends. She’s got the invitations already on order, a catalogue full of dresses to choose from, ideas for the flowers, the cake, the food, the tux, everything. You’ll stand beside her and promise to love, honor, and cherish her for the rest of your life.” She turned to him. “I will be at school.”
He stopped the car in front of the local hardware store. The bus was already waiting at the curb. “You won’t come. Even as my friend. You can’t put aside one night after all the years we’ve had together and come and be by my side on my wedding day?” He was a jerk for asking it of her, but he couldn’t help himself. He needed her there. By his side. Like always.
She stared blankly out the window at the bus ready to take her back to school and away from him. “Do you love her?”
He didn’t want to talk about Kristi. He wanted to talk about them. “We’re going to be a family.”
“Do you love her?”
Cody tried to rein in his frustration. “You just don’t like her.” He couldn’t blame her. He’d slipped that ring on Kristi’s finger and she acted like she owned him. She’d made Brooke feel uncomfortable in her own home.
She should have told him sooner that she was pregnant instead of ignoring it for two fucking weeks. If she’d taken the test sooner, none of this would be happening right now.
But then I wouldn’t have discovered a love so sweet and perfect like I found in Brook’s arms.
And then I lost it.
We lost it.
Brooke hurt just as much as he did, and he hated it, because it was his fault.
Brooke continued to stare out the window and not look at him. “I won’t tell you I like her and come to the wedding and smile for my friend when he’s making the biggest mistake of his life. Don’t you think I’d be there if I could look at you with her and see you happy for the rest of your life? Maybe before we made love all night, I’d have stood there and smiled and wished you well, and then been there to pick up the pieces with you when it all turns to shit.”
He believed that one hundred percent.
She finally met his gaze. “I can’t do that when I look at you and see that night and know you chose her after what we shared. It might have been my first time, but even I could feel how special it was between us.”
So, so special.
Remarkable.
“She’s having my baby.” He couldn’t help the misery in his voice when he said that because it meant losing her. Happinesswould come eventually, but right now, he hurt too much to find the joy in his impending fatherhood.
He’d grown up without his mother. She’d left when he was six. He barely remembered her. She’d been a young bride to his older father, and she’d hated ranch life and his father’s oftentimes cold heart. She had a new family. He had a brother and sister he’d never met. They’d be about Brooke’s age now.
He’d never abandon his child or let him grow up passed between two parents.
Brooke had been raised by her mother after her father abandoned her and left Susanne for a younger woman and never looked back.
They had that in common.
Brooke sighed. “And because there’s a baby on the way, I’m trying to be an adult about this. That’s why I congratulated you both and wished you well, despite the fact you don’t have to marry her to have a happy kid. But I get it. You want your child to have what we only had when your dad married my mom. You’re right, for a little while, we were a happy family, and your child deserves that. That’s why I’m getting on that bus.” She turned her whole body, facing him head-on. “Be happy, Cody. It’s all I’ve ever wanted for you. I just thought I'd be the person who made you happy.
“You’ve shared a year of your life with Kristi. You share friends and interests and lifestyles. If the circumstances were different—well, they’re not. I’m just a college student, and there are years that separate our life experiences. When you were in college, I was worrying about how to put on makeup to cover my pimples and if the boys would make fun of my braces and flat chest.”
The corner of his mouth turned up. There wasn’t much to dispute about their past. They’d always been in different places in their lives.
But it was different now. She was all grown up. She was starting to spread her wings, and he’d thought he’d be a part of that.
Not anymore.
Cody stared out the window, wishing this wasn’t his life. She was right. Kristi and he had a lot in common and shared a common life. If he hadn’t lost his head, they probably would have continued their relationship and maybe he’d have finally decided to ask her to marry him.
If you excluded Brooke, he and Kristi had only sped up the timeframe for what seemed inevitable. That’s if you excluded Brooke, and he hated that the circumstances called for him to do that now that he knew how much she meant to him.
Only one thing would make him exclude Brooke from his life. “You’re right. I want my child raised by both his parents.”
