Page 46 of Rescuing Tobias

“I’ll hear your reasons for wanting nothing to do with us,” she said, and while he relaxed a fraction, her words hit hard. Because this had nothing to do with not wanting her or their baby and everything to do with trying to protect them.

“Want us to stay?” Becca asked, watching him suspiciously.

“No, but thanks for the offer. I'm a big girl, I think this is something I have to do on my own,” Isabella replied.

“Izzy, you don’t have to doanythingon your own when you have a whole family at your back. But Connor and I will go back upstairs to give you guys some privacy.”

“Don’t be too loud, I don’t have my earphones,” Isabella sassed with a teasing eye roll, making both Becca and Connor laugh.

“We weren't going to dothat,” Becca protested.

“You two arealwaysdoingthat,” Isabella contradicted.

“Notalways,” Becca insisted.

“We pretty much are, moonlight,” Connor told his fiancée as he slipped his arm around her shoulders and guided her toward the stairs.

“They act like newlyweds even though the wedding isn’t until next month,” Isabella said as she watched the happy couple disappear. There was a clear note of wistfulness in her tone, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that she wished she had someone like that by her side.

Did that mean there was still hope for them?

While he wasn't one hundred percent ready to accept the possibility that he could one day become a burden to Isabella and his child, he also knew he couldn’t stay away from them indefinitely. He needed to give this a chance and stop letting his fear dictate his life.

If Isabella was willing to give him a chance.

“Thank you,” he said as he followed her into the living room. She took a cozy-looking armchair, which he assumed was asilent way of telling him that she was listening but wasn't ready to do anything more than that, not even let him sit beside her.

She didn't acknowledge his thanks, merely watched him through a pair of blue eyes that were a lot more closed off than he was used to seeing. There had been anger and mistrust when he first walked into the old school, then there was gratitude when she realized they’d saved her. There had been heat and desire the night they slept together, and uncertainty when she came to tell him she was pregnant.

But there had never been emptiness, and he didn't like it.

Since he was aware that she could cut this off at any time, he didn't want to waste a single second. So, hard as this was, he jumped right into the deep end and prayed he could swim and wouldn't wind up drowning.

“First, I want to start by saying that Ineverwanted nothing to do with either you or the baby.”

Her blonde brows arched, and it was clear she didn't believe it at all.

The healing scrape on her cheek drew his attention, and he spotted similar marks on the palms of her hands. A stark reminder that while he and Rocco’s SEAL team might have saved her life, she wasn't safe. Not until they shut the organ trafficking ring down.

“You're really okay after the other day?” he asked, taking the corner of the sofa closest to her seat.

“I'm okay.”

“And the baby?”

“Is also okay.” Her hand drifted to her stomach as she spoke, and he wondered if she knew her fingers were drawing small circles as though caressing the tiny life growing inside her.

“It really wasn't about not wanting you,” he repeated, needing to make sure that he emphasized that point. It wasn'ttrue now, and it had never been true, he just had to find a way to convince Isabella of that.

“You don’t have to want us,” she said. “I remember that night, and you told me you had nothing to offer, that you weren't looking for anything. You don’t owe me anything, and you had every right to not be excited about the pregnancy. It’s pretty much the opposite of not wanting a relationship.”

“You also said you were only after one night,” he reminded her, not to make her feel bad but just to make his point that they both had their reasons.

“I know. At the time, I think I even believed it too.”

“Now you don’t?” On some level that would make this easier for him, but he also didn't want Isabella to be with him just because she wanted to be in a relationship. He wanted her to want to be with him because the idea of being apart drove her as crazy as it drove him.

“I don’t know what I want right now. But I do know I want to know why it was so easy for you to reject us.”

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