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“What does that mean, what you could?”
Thankfully, I had told James all about Allie the week before. When I told him I’d been keeping his secrets from her, he literally hit me upside the head with the Time magazine he’d been reading. “Why the hell would you do that? If you love her, that’s enough for me. I trust her already. Figure out why she broke up with you, fix it, and bring her home to meet me already.”
Since I was able to tell her the whole story, I laid it all out about James and his situation. First, that the heart attack story had seriously downplayed the reality of what had happened to him. Then all the stuff about the Montagues and the Andersons. And finally, how James seeing Marcella’s emails had led to him finally having his daughter’s name.
“She stayed with me because she couldn’t stay at James’s and putting her up in a hotel would’ve been ignorant. I would’ve had her stay in the guesthouse, but with someone stalking Morgan and busting up her car right in this neighborhood, I didn’t feel comfortable.”
Allie’s head reared back. “Oh, my God… about that. Holy shit, Vaughn. They found out yesterday Kerri was the one behind all that.”
That brought me up short. “What?”
“Yeah, it was her. When the police showed up at her uncle’s, she confessed. She was pissed that they messed things up for her. She had this whole plan about how if the media covered her like they did Amanda Bynes and Britney Spears during their breakdowns, the public would root for her, and she’d be beating back jobs.”
“Jesus. Here I thought my neighborhood was safer.”
“It is now,” she said. “Donald talked to Gage and Morgan. They’re not pressing charges because they don’t want to give that nut publicity, but in exchange, she’s no longer allowed in your development.”
I started to say something but abruptly stopped when Allie’s lower lip started to wobble. Two tears trailed down her cheeks as she looked at me in horror.
“I… ffff—feel so… so bad! I was thinking horrible things about Mila and that p-poor girl!” she wailed. “She’s stuck with Kerri as a sister. How can you even look at me right now?”
I was startled by her response but figured the weeks of thinking I’d been cheating on her had really fucked with her. Pulling her closer and then into my arms, I hugged her to me. “Hey, baby, no. Don’t cry. It’s going to be okay.”
She sniffled against my chest and shook her head. “I’m an asshole. I should’ve answered your calls or texts. I even threw away all the popcorn you sent last week without ever taking a bite, and I really wanted to eat it.”
“I’ll get you more,” I promised. “If you’ll stop crying, we can go get it sooner rather than later.”
After a minute or so, she said, “I’m good without popcorn today.” Pulling back, she reached out to the box of tissues on the coffee table and wiped at her face. Even with puffy eyes, she was beautiful.
When she set the wadded-up tissue down on the table, I took her hands in mine. “You okay now?”
She nibbled at her lip and nodded. “Sorry about that. I’m not normally a crier, but in the past three days, about a dozen things have set me off.”
“No more tears,” I told her.
“You might have to put up with them for a while,” she muttered.
I figured maybe she needed time to feel totally secure with me again. “I’ll prove myself to you in any way that you want,” I assured her. “I promise you, Allie, that I will never cheat. You’re my entire world, woman. I thought it was obvious where I was coming from where you’re concerned, but clearly, I was wrong. I love you, baby.”
She stared up at me in surprise for long enough that I started to panic. Holy fuck, had I called it wrong? I’d been so sure that she loved me too, but her lack of response was making me rethink that.
“Um, Vaughn?”
“Yeah?” I asked hesitantly, hoping she wasn’t going to tell me she didn’t feel the same.
“I’m pregnant.”25AllieI probably should’ve figured out a better way to share the news of my pregnancy with Vaughn than just blurting it out like that. But now that I knew he loved me, I couldn’t hold it back for another moment.
His dark gaze dropped to my stomach, searching for any hint of the bombshell I’d just dropped on him. “You’re pregnant?”
“Yes, I just took a test this morning.” My hand moved to cover my belly. “I was in the bathroom, staring at the two pink lines that mean I’m pregnant, when you knocked on the door.”
His head jerked back up to my face. “The test’s still in there?”
I nodded, and he snagged my hand to lead me through the condo, into my bedroom, and back to the bathroom. The little white stick was right where I’d left it on the counter, and Vaughn held utterly still while he stared down at the two pinks lines that would change our lives forever.
