Page 106 of Accidentally in Love

How could things get so messed up in the span of a few hours? I thought Avery and I were happy. I thought we were finally on the same page. If she thought I still had feelings for Kath, I didn’t know what to think. I had loved Avery secretly for years and never felt like I was good enough for her, and now she was proving it.

I looked up at the sound of the creaky bottom step of our staircase and saw Avery standing over the couch.

“What?” I snapped.

“Come back to bed.”

“No.”

“Please, Nolan.”

“Why? So we can get into another useless fucking fight where you tell me I’m not good enough for you? So you can ask me for another divorce?”

She sighed and put a hand on her stomach. “I’m sorry. I want to say this is my hormones making me an asshole, but it’s my own insecurities coming to the surface. I don’t want a divorce.” She held up her left hand, showing me the wedding band and my mother’s emerald ring on her finger. “You put these rings on my finger, and I don’t want to take them off, ever. I’m sorry for being a dick tonight. I never wanted you to feel like you weren’t enough for me. You’re my everything.”

“Obviously not if you think so little of me,” I muttered.

“I’m sorry. Can you blame me for thinking that you wouldn’t want to marry me if I wasn’t carrying your baby?”

I sat up on the couch. “Why do you think that?”

She bit her lip. “Your ex is gorgeous, and I’m not.”

“What the fuck does that mean? You’re gorgeous as hell. You’re my fucking wife, not her! Whatever my ex looks like has nothing to do with how much I love you. I don’t want another divorce.”

“I don’t want a divorce either!” she shrieked at me.

“Then why the fuck are we fighting right now?” I yelled back.

She reared back at my raised voice, and I rubbed a hand down my face. I thought of my next words carefully. I wasn’t sure why she was so convinced I would leave if she lost the baby. Maybe the baby pushed me to finally act on my feelings for her, but they had been there all along. I sat back in silence, never telling her how I felt for years, and I wasn’t about to lose her because she thought I still loved my ex. I stopped loving Kath a long time ago, way before Avery was ever in the picture.

When I looked at her again, I felt a pain in my chest at seeing her face still stained from all the tears she shed tonight. “Come back to bed, please,” she begged. “I’m sorry. I’m so scared of losing Norah, of losing you. I need my husband beside me tonight. Please, Nolan?”

“Fine,” I muttered.

I followed her back up the steps and into our bedroom. I got into bed with her and put a protective hand on her belly. I was just as scared as she was of losing Norah, but even if god forbid something happened to the baby, that didn’t mean I would leave Avery.

I held my wife until she fell asleep, but I knew this was far from over. I made so many mistakes in my first marriage; I didn’t want history to repeat itself with Avery. I wasn’t sure how I could convince her I loved her, with or without the baby. I just knew I had to try. I wasn’t losing Avery. And I wasn’t getting another divorce.

Chapter Twenty-Five

AVERY

It had been a week since Nolan and I had that fight after we thought we would lose Norah. We weren’t exactly on speaking terms right now, and it was totally my fault. I let my insecurities and fear of losing the baby ruin the good thing we had, and now our marriage was in shambles.

What did I do instead of trying to fix it? Hideout at my dad’s house watching the hockey game with him.

“You okay?” Dad asked.

“Metzy looks off tonight, right?” I asked instead, trying to redirect his attention back to the game.

“Avery…” my dad said in a warning tone.

It wasn’t weird for my sister or me to come over and watch the Bulldogs game with my dad, but since I had been so busy with baby stuff lately, my dad thought it was odd when I showed up unannounced tonight. He immediately thought something was wrong, but I had been brushing him off all night.

“No,” I admitted and took a sip of my water.

“What’s wrong?”