Page 91 of Wild Pitch
“If you hadn’t found out about the baby, would you still be here?”
“Today? No, I had just found Sky’s pregnancy announcement on Instagram the day we ended things. In my mind, it proved that I was the reason we hadn’t been able to have a baby.”
My tears turned to laughter as something dawned on me. Hope bloomed on his face.
“Do you realize that if you had told me you didn’t think you could get me pregnant, I would have been a lot more relaxed about condom use?—”
“And you would have been pregnant a long time ago.”
“Yeah.”
“I hope you know that if I had even a single doubt about being able to have children, I never would have been satisfiedwith condoms. The failure rate is too high. Do we know what happened with the morning-after pill?”
“It doesn’t work if you’ve already ovulated. But nice effort,” I said, holding back a smirk.
“Have I lost you guys?” he asked, voice thick with the emotion of the afternoon.
“I would never keep you from your child.”
“But what about you?” His face searched mine, falling when I didn’t respond right away.
“I can’t make that promise. I don’t trust you anymore. I don’t trust you to come to me with the important shit. Sexually, I loved submitting to you, but when it comes to our relationship, it needs to be equal. I’m not sure you’re capable of that. Maybe it’s because you don’t value my experience, but I don’t think that’s it. I think you’re so used to being in control that you can’t give up an ounce of it.”
“I deserve that.”
“No, Luc. You don’t deserve for me to hurt you, and that did. I’m sorry, but I needed to say it. We both deserve trust, honesty, and a relationship where we know where we stand. If I took you back today, do you know that I would forever worry that my code for your door would stop working one day? I would worry that the delay in your text response meant you fucking blocked me. Every time I walked in on you in sweatpants, I would think you were breaking up with me. Until these scars heal, I can’t trust you.”
“Something to work toward.”
“Yeah. Maybe.”
When he stepped toward me this time, I didn’t move away. When his arms enveloped me, I inhaled his scent, and fresh tears sprang to my eyes. Both of us cried, and when his hand rested on my belly, he shook even harder.
“How’s Liam?”
“He’s so mad at me, he pisses on my bed at least once a day. Denise took him in for a few days. Fucker was an angel while he was there.”
“God, I love cats.”
CHAPTER 46
LUC
When I left Kylie’s apartment that night, I had an ultrasound photo in my wallet and a promise that she would try to reschedule her next appointment so I could be there.
Me: Can you be at my place in 10?
Jake: Yeah.
Opening the door, I glanced for Liam, and he came to me for the first time since I returned from Florida. When I picked him up, he purred. Okay. Was it progress? Or maybe I smelled like Kylie.
Exactly ten minutes later, the front door beeped as Jake entered the code and unlocked it. I slid a beer down the counter towards him and twisted one open for myself.
“What’s up?”
Opening my wallet, I slipped out the ultrasound photo and passed it to him.
“Yours?”
