“A lot?” He frowned. “Didn’t you just find out today?”
She expelled a quick breath. “Yeah. You know. The hours have felt like days.”
He nodded.
“The thing is,” she rushed out, “my mom got pregnant with me young. Like, really young. Fifteen. She tried to abort me. Had the procedure and everything, which obviously didn’t take. I don’t know why she even told me that, it’s kind of a screwed-up thing to say to your own kid. But the point is, she had me against her will, and she’s spent my whole life acting like it. Like the fact that I’m even here is basically one giant mistake.”
“I know what that’s like,” he said hoarsely. “I’m pretty sure my dad wishes I didn’t exist.”
Tansy’s forehead pleated. “That sucks. And I never want this kid to feel like that. My mom could’ve done it so differently, but she just... didn’t. I would, though. Iwill.”
Nick’s breathing shortened. Another spark flitted into existence, joining the light of that faraway star. “I respect that. And, yeah. I’m not my dad. I’d do pretty much anything to not be him.”
She set the ice cream on the bench. “Most guys would run away from this, you know.”
“Most guys are assholes.”
“True.” She laughed. “God damn, is that true.”
“I’m probably an asshole, too,” Nick said, “but I’m not going to abandon you. You didn’t force me into bed with you. I made a choice. Which means I’ll love this kid like that’s my only job in life, if you’ll let me.”
Her eyes sheened over. “Wow. She did say you were different. She wasn’t kidding.”
His muscles tightened until his bones threatened to pop out of alignment. No part of him wanted to ask whoshewas. “So, now what?”
“I don’t know,” Tansy said.
He cleared his throat. “Do we get married?”
Her face didn’t change. But her voice shook when she said, “I guess so.”
“Okay. Should I... propose?”
“If you want.”
He looked around. He had no ring, nothing to commemorate the decision with. Just a half-eaten, half-melted cup of strawberry ice cream and a few scraggly dandelions that sprouted around the legs of the bench. But he could work with that. He plucked one of the yellow flowers, then split the stem with a fingernail and threaded the bottom back through. He dropped to one knee before Tansy and cinched the makeshift ring around her finger.
“Tansy, will you—”
“Nick?”
His world ground to a halt. That voice. Even shrill and disbelieving, it skimmed across his soul like music. Which didn’t make any sense, because Aubrey couldn’t possibly be here. He was imagining things.
“Nick,” she cried again.
A rush of feeling clogged his throat. He looked up. His angel. She stood ten feet away, paler than winter.
A clenched hand trembled at her side. “What’re you doing?”
He stared, wondering why she’d come back from New York.
“I’ve been calling your house all day.” Pained rage leached from her voice. “Trying to find you, only your dad keeps hanging up on me. And why exactly are you down on one knee right now?”
Nick looked to Tansy, then back to Aubrey, his heart doing a slow, confused pirouette straight into the ground. “Um. I’m... proposing.”
He’d never seen anyone get shot before, except in movies. This was like that, except worse. So much worse. His answer impacted her like a bullet, jerking her back a step. One hand flew to her sternum and pressed so hard it shook. “You’re what?”
Tansy cleared her throat. “Yeah. I’m pregnant. It’s his.”
