Hope leaned her head back against the wall and thought through her options, but the truth was that she couldn’t make a decision without Gus. As much as she didn’t want to tell him, she knew she had to.
‘Hope?’
She heard the door close as Gus called out. Hope wanted to stand and quickly check her appearance, to act as if nothing was wrong, but suddenly she couldn’t pull herself up off the floor.
‘Hope?’ Gus’s voice was full of alarm as he found her on the floor, his expression showing every bit of his concern. ‘What’s happened? Do I need to call the doctor?’
She reached for him and he dropped to the floor beside her as the words she needed to say clogged in her throat.
‘Hope—’
‘Gus,’ she whispered, holding his fingers tight in hers. ‘I’m…’ The words wouldn’t come.
His eyes searched hers and she made herself say it before she completely lost her nerve. Blurted out the words before she could overthink them.
‘Gus, I’m pregnant.’
She was greeted with silence. Gus looked away, not letting her see his reaction, and pain burned like fire in her chest. This was worse than the nausea, worse than her worries; this was pure fear, that he was going to hate her for what she’d just told him.
‘Say something,’ she whispered, urgently, needing to hear his voice. ‘Please, Gus. Just?—’
‘We’re having a baby?’ he asked, as if he’d only just heard what she’d told him.
‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘We’re having a baby.’
His eyes met hers. ‘We’re having a baby,’ he whispered again.
Hope nodded, hardly able to believe the words herself, wishing she knew what he was thinking when his blue eyes were so difficult to read. But she knew how he felt—it had been just as much of a shock to her, too.
They stared at each other for a long moment, Hope wishing he’d say more, and Gus looking as if he’d been stunned into silence, before he wrapped his arms tightly around her and held her to his chest.
‘I don’t know what to say,’ she mumbled against his chest. ‘I don’t want you to feel trapped, I don’t?—’
‘Shhh,’ he said, stroking his fingers down her back and then rubbing in big circles. ‘You could never make me feel trapped, Hope. Haven’t I told you a hundred times that I love you? Haven’t I already told you that nothing would make me happier than having you as my wife one day?’
She nodded, still tucked into him as her heart began to pound just a little slower.
‘But—’
‘There’s no but,’ he said, taking her hand and lifting it to his lips. ‘There is just you and me, and the life we’ve created growing inside you. It’s as simple as that.’
Gus was saying everything she needed to hear, but Hope’s heart was still racing, her mouth still dry as she tried to find the right words and failed. She could barely comprehend the fact that she was expecting, that in a matter of months she would be a mother and everything about their life would change.
They sat like that for what felt like forever, before Hope broke the silence.
‘Gus, why did you come home?’ she asked, leaning back a little so she could study his face. It was getting cold on the floor, and she burrowed closer to him. But when she saw the way hisexpression changed, she felt ice cold all over again. ‘Why aren’t you at work?’
He hadn’t come home to see if she was feeling better. It was written all over his face.
‘I came home to tell you that we have a problem,’ he said, his thumb tracing a gentle circle against her skin.
Hope froze. What kind of problem would bring him home in the middle of the day?
But when she saw the way his throat bobbed as she studied him, felt his body stiffen, she knew. She knew there was only one reason that he would look so pained, that he would be so worried.
‘They know, don’t they?’ she whispered, closing her eyes as she tried not to panic. ‘How did they find out?’
Gus shrugged. ‘I don’t know, but my father confronted me this morning. His face was like thunder and he threatened to report me, and he demanded to know where our distillery is.’
