Page 50 of Breathless

“Are you sure?” he said. “Because right now I’m wondering if anything about you is true.”

She gasped. “I wouldn’t lie about something like this, and you know it.”

“Then why doesn’t the father know?”

“Because I wasn’t ready, okay!” she cried, her eyes brimming with tears. “I was trying to tell him before he left, even though I still have no idea what I’m going to do. And you’re not helping by treating me like a criminal.”

“What you’re going to do. God.” He pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes. “Doesn’t Wyatt get any say in it? Does he even matter to you at all? Do I?”

The answer he was waiting for never came, and he opened his eyes to find her staring at him with an expression he couldn’t define.

“Why did you come back here?” he asked numbly. “Did you just want to play Florence Nightingale for a while, maybe have that threesome you always dreamed of, before you flew away again?”

Tears streaked down her cheeks, and she opened her mouth, but no sound emerged before she closed it again.

Well, guess he had his answer after all.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

“Yeah, me too.”

“I’ll go.”

He pressed his palms to his eyes again. The deep well of hurt inside him wanted to hit back and say, Yes, go, Fiona, and this time don’t come back.

But he loved her. Hurting her was never something he wanted to do. “No, don’t go. Neither one of us had enough sleep last night, and we’re both too upset to think straight right now. We need to cool off before we decide where to go from here, okay?”

Her “okay” was so thick, he could hardly make it out.

Thoreau sighed. “I think it’s my turn to take a shower, and you need to eat something,” he added, his gaze dropping to her stomach. “You’ve got to keep your strength up.”

She nodded stiffly. “I will.”

“Good.” He started to walk out but then he heard her sniffle and stopped. “You know, Wyatt’s not the only one in this house who loves you, Fiona,” he said without turning around. “I don’t know how many ways I can show you, tell you before you finally believe it.”

Her quiet sob broke his heart all over again. But he needed a minute to cool down before he said more things he knew he’d regret.

Taking a deep breath, he walked down the hall to the bathroom, forcing himself to close the door quietly behind him.

The plan was fucked.

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