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Grant glances toward her, and color starts creeping up his neck. “Could you keep your voice down?”
“Why?” I take a step closer. “Does the story sound shittier when strangers can hear it?”
His jaw tightens. “You’re making a scene.”
“You started it.”
Beside me, Ellie lets out a sharp, humorless laugh. “Please keep going, Grant. Every time you open your mouth, you somehow make yourself sound worse.”
Grant shoots her an irritated look, but Ellie doesn’t so much as blink. She’s still planted close enough to me that our arms are touching, her half-empty matcha hanging forgotten at her side while she watches him like she’s waiting to see if he’s stupid enough to grab me again.
I bump my elbow lightly against hers. “Don’t get arrested. He’s not worth it.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.”
The way she says it does very little to reassure me.
Grant ignores her and points toward my stomach. “If there’s a chance that baby is mine, I’m getting a paternity test.”
CHAPTER 27
GOLDIE
My anger’s replaced by fear so fast it leaves me a little dizzy.
A paternity test.
The test itself isn’t what scares me. It’s what happens if the results show the father is Grant.
He wouldn’t just be the asshole I used to date anymore. He could have a permanent place in my child’s life whether I wanted him there or not.
And no doubt he sees the horror of that idea playing out all over my face.
Some of the hardness leaves Grant’s expression. “Would it really be that bad?”
I stare at him.
“You were ready to have my baby a few months ago, Goldie. We were going to start a family.”
For one completely insane second, I can’t believe he’s standing here saying this to me like the part where he blew up our entire relationship is some minor detail we could maybe work around.
“And then I found you fucking another woman in our bed.”
His mouth tightens. “I know what I did.”
“Do you? Because you’re talking like we took a little break and accidentally lost touch.”
Ellie shifts beside me, but I barely register it because Grant is still looking at me with this weird almost-hopeful expression that makes my skin crawl.
“I’m just saying that if this baby is mine, maybe it doesn’t have to turn into some huge fight.”
I stare at him. “Don’t do that.”
His eyebrows pull together. “Do what?”
“Stand there and act like this somehow gives you a way back into my life. You cheated on me, Grant. And even before that, looking back, things weren’t great. Finding out there’s a chance you could be the biological father doesn’t undo any of that.”
A small thump presses against the inside of my belly, startling me enough that my breath catches. I feel it under my palm, and the panic that’s been buzzing under my skin gets worse.
