Page 103 of Wild Pitch
“I hope you understand the stakes here. You weren’t the one with her when you ended things without explanation. And now, what? You love her, and we all need to forgive and forget?”
I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. “I’ll take anything you throw at me. But I’m not leaving again.”
“Because of the baby.”
It was a statement, not a question. She was wrong, and it was going to take more than words to get her to believe me.
“Because of Kylie.”
“Trust me, Luc. I want to believe you. Kylie deserves to be happy. What she doesn’t need is an asshole pumping her full of lies only to break her heart. You say you love her…”
“I do.”
“Did you love her when you broke her heart?”
“I’ve always loved her and never would have hurt her if I thought there was a way around it.”
Lily frowned. And then she let me have it.
“Ugh. I know what your ex did, and that was shit, Luc. I can see how it threw off your decisions, but you shouldn’t have made those without Kylie. It’s like you didn’t trust her to make her own decisions.”
That was exactly my mistake. I hated being on the receiving end of Lily’s fury, but she was saying everything a good friend should be in this moment.
“Do you know what it was like watching my wife sob every month when she failed to get pregnant? Or what it was like, believing it wasmyfault that she couldn’t? Yeah, today we know that the award-winning actress was acting a part, but I was responsible for her pain. Ineverwanted that for Kylie—and did I trust her to make that decision? Not really. I didn’t want her to make a decision that worked for her in the short term, only to regret it ten years from now.”
“This is your last chance, Luc. If I need to help her escape from you again, we’re burning the place down behind us. And I don’t care if you survive.”
“Lily,” Kylie said from the hallway, “Are you threatening to burn Luc’s house down?”
Lily shrugged.
“He’s got plenty of ways to avoid that outcome.”
Kylie shook her head and smirked, handing me her overnight bag to carry. She kissed my cheek, trying to lighten the mood.
“Aren’t I lucky to have her on my side?”
“Oh, yeah. Arson is great.”
“Don’t worry, she’d slash your tires first. She’s too afraid a fire would take out an innocent victim.”
“It’s okay. I think we’ve come to an understanding, right, Luc?”
I nodded. As much as I hated being the focus of Lily’s ire, I was glad Kylie had someone like her on her side.
“Let’s go, Ky. Liam is going to starve. Denise wasn’t around today to feed him.”
When we got into the car, Kylie texted furiously.
“Looks like Lily needs to be filled in on what happened?”
“Yeah, we blindsided her. She’s not unsupportive, just cautious and wants to be sure I know what I’m getting into.”
I slid into a parking spot and grabbed Kylie’s bag from the back seat. I watched her stumble as she approached the door; she usually would have entered the code and gone inside.
“Go ahead,” I said.
She looked at me, took a deep breath, and punched in her code. When the light blinked green, she squeezed her eyes closed and paused before heading inside.
