Page 87 of Double Daddies
Who’s Your Daddy?
Dinah McLeod
Chapter One
Cami
“I’m pregnant.” My eyes are shining with unshed tears.
“Cami.” My name is a gasp on Ben’s lips. He reaches for me, his blue-gray eyes glowing.
I hesitate for a second, wondering if it’s right to let him think I’m handing him a gift just to have to snatch it away. Knowing what I say next will change everything.
I decide to be selfish. I let him pull me into his arms, taking in a deep inhalation, immersing myself in his earthy, manly scent. I rest my head on his chest, soothed by the familiar rhythm of his heartbeat. I have loved Benton Ross for nearly a decade. We were best friends through college, brought together by our freakishly tall, oddly soft-spoken psych professor. Then approximately a year ago, I worked up the courage to admit to having feelings that ran deeper.
I was so nervous. Nervous until I saw the hope shining at me through eyes I could drown in. I couldstilldrown in those eyes, and even though I know I need to give him the bad news, I tip my head back and let myself fall into those familiar blue-gray orbs.
“When did you find out? How far?—”
His excited barrage of questions brings me spiraling back to the present. Sighing reluctantly, I force myself to pull away and look him in the eye. “Ben… wait.” A sudden lump in my throat makes it hard to speak.
“What? What is it?”
He looks so elated, so enamored with me, that knowing what I’m about to do to him—what I’ve already done—feels like a punch in the gut. But I have to. Ben and I have always been honest with each other. It’s one of the hallmarks of our relationship. I know what I have to do.
“Ben.” His name comes out in a hoarse whisper. I clear my throat and force myself to speak up. “The thing is… as much as I hope… as much as I want…”
“Cami?” His brow furrows. “What’s going on?”
I suck in a shaky breath. “I have to be honest with you. You remember, um, that six weeks ago we were… on a break.”
The exhilarated light in his eyes dims. Ben nods.
But, of course he does—it was his idea. As the first man I’ve ever loved, the only man I believed I’d ever love, Ben wanted me to be sure about us, our relationship, before we took the inevitable next step.
The one thing neither of us planned on was that I would fall for another guy.
Ben
“Cami?” My throat is so tight I can hardly speak, but I manage to croak out her name. I wish I was wearing my Fitbit to track zone minutes because my heart is beating incredibly fast. I don’t know where she’s going with this, though I have mysuspicions. I just want her to spit it out, whateveritis, so we can deal with it.
“I… you remember I met… someone.”
The words hit me like a gut punch. Not because it’s new information, but because ever since we reconciled, I’d pushed her admission to the back of my mind, determined to pretend it and the break had never happened. It had been a stupid idea anyway, one that I hated myself for insisting on in the first place.
“You… you said… you didn’t want t-to hear about it.”
This is killing her. I can see by the pained look on her face and the way her eyes are shining with unshed tears. Tears that, two minutes ago, I’d assumed were happy ones. Despite the churning in my gut, I find her hand and grasp it. I want her to know that whatever she says next, I’m down for her, and I always will be. Whatever she needs.
“I remember,” I say, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. I have the distinct feeling I’m about to hear about it now, whether I want to or not.
“I…” Her voice is thick with tears. “I think it might… might be… his.” She has been breathing hard but when she manages the last word, she bursts into tears.
My heart feels crushed, but I pull her to me, holding her tightly with one arm around her waist and rubbing her back with my free hand. “Shh. Cami, stop. Come on, honey, it’s okay.”
She sobs harder, and the sound of her despair hurts worse than the news she’s just delivered.
“I… I’m s… sosorry.” She continues to cry, heaving against me.
