Page 84 of Unwritten Rules

“Don’t worry, baby. Everything will turn out alright.”

Where the fuck did I hear those words before?

And fuck this shit, because running out into the night, in the middle of nowhere, without a phone or a plan, was not my finest hour.

I stand as close to a low hedge growing alongside the road as I can manage, cursing my stupid wedge heels for sticking in the muck beneath my feet. A dark SUV pulls up beside me and stops, the passenger side window rolling down to unveil the flamed-haired woman from before.

Vivienne, I think?

“Come on, Mila. I’ll drive you home.”

I narrow my eyes at her. “Why would you want to do that?”

A small, sad smile appears on her picture-perfect unmade face. “I know a woman in need when I see one.”

* * *

“I’m due in two weeks. Did Nate mention?”

I shake my head sharply, sitting ramrod straight in the passenger seat, having had little option but to take what she offered me.

“It’s our second baby. Another girl.”

I purse my lips together and smile tightly, unwilling to make small talk even though this woman has been nothing but pleasant to me since I hesitantly slipped into the passenger seat beside her.

We’re only a stone’s throw from Henry’s place, and I think I’m home-free as we sit in silence.

Until Vivienne speaks again as she turns into the long driveway that leads to my longed-for sanctuary.

“My partner, Domenico, wanted a boy, you know. I can’t fault him for it. The heart wants what the heart wants, after all.”

She side-eyes me before returning her attention to the lined driveway speeding past. “Funny thing, the human heart. Our minds can fight it, our will can overpower it – for a time. Even our words can push it away. But still, the heart wants what it wants without rhyme or reason. Have you ever been in love, Mila?”

I shake my head, forcibly shoving all thoughts of Nate from my conscious mind.

Unrequited love doesn’t count.

She pulls up the hand brake, turning to face me as we idle in the driveway.

“Has Nate told you much about his upbringing?”

The urge to leave the confines of the car is overwhelming, but the need to know what she has to say next is stronger.

“I know he was forced to go deer hunting many times. It – it still bothers him.”

I don’t elaborate on what his father made him do on that first hunt. My heart aches for an innocence ruined, remembering when Nate had told me.

* * *

“Can I put my feet on your lap, please?”

Nate turns and deadpans. “You’d swear it was your birthday or something!”

It is. My birthday, that is. I’ve just returned from pizza and bowling with Eliza to find Nate on my mother’s couch with a large wrapped gift on his lap.

“May I open my gift now?” I settle my stockinged feet on his left thigh as he drops his present to me onto my lap.

“Okay, but first…” All signs of playfulness have disappeared from his face as he continues. “I want to tell you the story behind my gift.”