Page 7 of Accidentally Falling
I hadn’t stopped thinking about that question since the night she came for whiskey and then came for an entirely different reason. On the one hand, my track record for dating was pretty barren and Arden James had become a fixture in Blackstone Falls.
Her professional work with the newspaper made her feel like a part of everyone’s family, her words uniting the town and sparking the kind of pride you can only find in places like this.
Wholesome.
Welcome.
With more than our fair share of quirkiness and more fanfare than you could ever imagine.
And then there are her family and friends. Arden’s connections to Blackstone Falls are like an intricately spun web, while I only have my bar and Deacon.
It’s incomparable.
Intimidating.
But I still can’t ignore the way my whole body seems to relax when she’s near—today the only exception, but that just feels like my equilibrium is off.
Like things betweenusare off.
And I guess they are.
Because I do want the girl. I want her more than I could have ever imagined. I barely know her, but none of that seems to matter when she makes mefeel.
Too bad this isn’t what she wants.
I’m not what she wants.
Pulling out my phone, I tap a text out to my brother.
JUDE: Sorren give us a timeframe?
DEACON: Few weeks
JUDE: Keep me posted
DEACON: What happened?
JUDE: Nothing
DEACON: Don’t fuck with me
JUDE: I’m not—just realizing you were right
DEACON: Yeah, I don’t buy that for a second
JUDE: You wanted me to get a dog now I want a dog—take the win and move the hell on
DEACON: (gif of man knocking his head against a table)
Yeah,same.
ARDEN
The last timeI bought a pregnancy test was before I moved to Blackstone Falls. It’d come in a package of two and when the one came back negative, I packed the other away.
It went back into a box of miscellaneous things I didn’t want to deal with, like travel shampoo and those little packages of tissues that I never want to buy but always appreciate when I find them in my purse. Taking a breath, I pull the box from the back of the linen closet and open the lid.
The pink plastic wrapper is bright and easy to spot, but that doesn’t make me reach for it any faster, because in my gut I already know what the test will tell me. The fact that it never occurred to me until Lana said something is irrelevant.
