Page 16 of Accidentally Falling

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JUDE: I’m sorry you got outed the way you did today—the guys won’t say anything

ARDEN: I appreciate that. Truly.

ARDEN: We’ll pick this up later, I’m falling asleep already

JUDE: Sweet dreams, Tennessee

9

ARDEN

Even though Jude assured me none of the guys at Vetted Paws would say anything, I can’t take the chance that Ellison will find out from someone other than me. It should be easy. There aren’t even that many words to say—Ellison, I’m pregnant.

See? Just three.

But those three words are a reminder that even though Ellison’s life wasn’t perfect, she knew her father—our father—and he didn’t leave her mother to raise a baby alone.

He didn’t know about you.

The truth doesn’t make the reality any easier.

I’d wanted something different for myself. A loving husband and a room in our house we knew would become the nursery. I wanted to do it right.

But all those unresolved issues reared their ugly heads when my mother and father decided that they’d give their love a second chance. Evan waited till his divorce from Ellison’s mother was final before he asked Mom out on a date, but that simple act started a wildfire of emotions inside me I couldn’t explain.

I want my mother to be happy, but the worry that he’s going to break her into irrevocable pieces is too much to bear.

Jude had given me something so much better than the whiskey hangover I’d mentally prepared myself for, but that had come at a cost too.

A baby.

His baby.

Which brings me right back to where I started.

JUDE: When can I see you?

ARDEN: I don’t know

JUDE: Tonight?

JUDE: I thought we could talk

ARDEN: Maybe

JUDE: It’s kind of important, Tennessee

ARDEN: I know it is but I’m working up the nerve to tell my sister

ARDEN: I need to do that today

JUDE: I thought you said she was going to be excited

ARDEN: She is

JUDE: But you’re not

ARDEN: It’s complicated

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