Page 38 of Break Me Gently

Whoa. Where did that thought come from? We were not ready for parenthood.

She lifted her phone with her free hand, and her head snapped toward me.

“What did you do?” she gasped, sitting upright.

“Relax. Isabella is hardly on social media.”

“That’s beside the point,” she cried, scrolling rapidly now. “Oh god. Look at all these comments.”

“Would you rather have had Alisha narrate for us?”

Her head snapped up. Lips pursed as she briefly considered the options.

“Bah. I suppose not.”

It was good to know Amber didn’t overreact. Because now everyone knew she was mine. Especially that little dickwad Nolan.

Luke would find out, but he wouldn’t want to upset Isabella.

I put my arm around Amber.

❧ ❧ ❧

I parked two streets over out of habit, even though half the neighbourhood had probably already seen the post. Old instincts died hard.

Amber practically vibrated beside me the whole walk back, hood up, hands shoved in her pockets, grinning like she’d gotten away with something. Maybe she had. Maybe we both had. We’d done this before, but today was different.

The house sat dark when we reached it. No porch light. No blue flicker of the telly through the front room curtains.

“Mum said she’d be back by six,” Amber said, frowning at her phone.

I checked the driveway. Empty.

No Luke either.

Something loosened in my chest that I didn’t examine too closely.

“Guess we’ve got the place to ourselves,” I said, already reaching for her hand.

She let me pull her up the path, key already in her other hand. The door clicked open onto silence—proper silence, the kind that told you a house was actually empty, not just quiet.

“Should we be worried?” she asked, flicking on the hallway light.

“About what? Isabella having a life?” I toed my shoes off. “Relax. Text her.”

Amber tapped out a message while I locked the door behind us. My phone buzzed in my pocket a second later. Not hers. Mine.

Twenty-three notifications and climbing.

Right. The post.

I silenced it and followed her upstairs, already thinking about exactly how I wanted her once we got behind a closed door with no risk of anyone walking in.

We didn’t bother with the pretence of separate rooms. Not tonight.

❧ ❧ ❧

Two hours later, I was half-asleep with Amber sprawled across my chest, her breath warm against my collarbone, when I heard it.