Page 18 of A Baby for Christmas
"You have to evaluate whether your past trauma is keeping you from present happiness," she added. "Even if it's too late for you to make up with the omega you mentioned, I'd hate to see you live your whole life in your father'sshadow."
I dragged the flat of my palm down my face. "You might be right. I don't know. I have to think about it." Because she was right about something else too—it was probably too late for me to make up with Robin. And if I couldn't have Robin, did it reallymatter?
12
Ben
Ican't saythat I wasn't surprised when Robin called me the following week. "Hey, can I comeover?"
I glanced at the clock hanging above my kitchen door. 7pm on a Saturday evening. Didn't he have anything better to do? "You know you can always drop by," I said as I threw a newly purchased tennis ball through the door into the living room. My puppy watched it go, but didn't give chase. Lazy thing. Maybe I had finally managed to power him out at the parktoday.
"Thank you," Robin said. "I'll get us something for dinner. Chineseokay?"
"Sure," I agreed, although I wondered why he'd choose to eat Chinese with me rather than hang out withAaron."Omegas are weird," I told my puppy. Cooper laid his paws over his eyes as if he didn't want to hear it. "Okay, I get it. I'll leave you alone,buddy."
When Robin showed up about an hour later, my eyes immediately strayed to his belly rather than the one billion take-out containers he carried. He'd been wearing baggy clothes lately, but tonight, he'd put on something a little more form-fitting, and I got a good look at his babybump.
I tried not to stare too hard, but he noticedanyway.
"I was tired of hiding this," he commented. "The whole town was already talking about me anyway. I can tell." With a sigh, he walked past me and into my kitchen. "It's the way they look at me, you know? Like I've done something scandalous. Something no decent omega would do." He put the take-out containers down with such force I was worried they'd burst open and spill their contents all over my kitchen table the same way Robin's frustration spilled out ofhim.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, standing in the doorway to the kitchen. If working with omegas had taught me anything, it was to keep a safe distance when they were pissed off with theworld.
"The people in this town! They know about my pregnancy. I don't know how, but they do! Someone must have seen me at the doctor'soffice."
My eyes narrowed. Who the hell had told on Robin? "But that doctor's visit was weeks ago," Iargued.
"I know." Robin plopped down on one of my chairs. "But I don't know how else they would have foundout."
"You don't think that kid with thedog..."
"No, not Conner." Robin shook his head. "That family's had enough trouble with rumors to know what trouble they cause. Besides, they never knew anything about a pregnancy. They saw me at your place, that's all—and people haven't made the connection to you,yet."
I rubbed my temples, racking my brain for how else someone might have found out about Robin's special circumstances. "Did you tellAaron?"
"No. Not before he found out from thegossips."
"And you're sure it wasn't him who started the rumors? He might have seen something in your apartmentor—"
"Why would he have done that?" Robin cut me off. "If he'd found something in my apartment, he could have just confronted methen."
I shrugged. "I don't know why bullies do what they do. Maybe he was mad that you were keeping this a secret fromhim."
"No," Robin insisted. "He's changed. This break-up is onme."
I sighed, even as my ears perked at the wordbreak-up. "You always saythat."
"And it's always true. But forget about that. I don't want to talk about it." He dug into the plastic bags with the take-out containers. "Food? I got your favorite. Fried noodles with duck and dumplings on theside."
"You're a treasure." I took seat opposite him and grabbed a pair of chopsticks out of one of the plasticbags.
"I don't know if it's the baby or what, but I'mstaaarving.Speaking of babies," he said, fiddling with a take-out container that smelled distinctly of grease, Chinese spices and fried things, "I have another doctor's appointment next month. I might find out the sex. I’d hoped to find out last time, but the baby was being shy." A smile finally took over his features as he spoke about the life growing insidehim
I couldn't help but smile back. He was so beautiful when hesmiled.
And he's single,my brain supplied. But we had so much history. I couldn't just ask him to be my boyfriend again like that. No, I had to change first. Maybe take Lorene up on her suggestion and find myself a therapist. But would Robin wait forme?
Even the thought of seeing him with yetanotherboyfriend threatened to break my heart intwo.
