Wrapping her fingers tightly around Rylan’s tags, she brought her fist to her belly. “Everything will be okay.”
She’d begun saying that phrase out loud every day, at least once, since Rylan had made her the promise that he continued to give her. She believed it no matter which one of them spoke the words, but she still wanted the vocal affirmation and direct contact with the life growing inside her.
It helped squash the odd stray negative thought, especially the ones that sounded suspiciously like Stuart. Either his voice or the words, some of her doubts were reminiscent of a toxic man and relationship she needed to put behind her, needed to put firmly in the past. She needed to wipe the slate clean and not have a dark cloud hanging over her or the future.
Rylan had been wonderful, before and after they’d discovered their surprise, and she couldn’t fault him on anything. The man seemed to be able to read her like a book and always said the right thing, or did the right thing, or backed off when she needed space.
He was a goddamn mind reader.
It was why she was home alone right now. He’d been talking about which room he thought would be best for the baby’s nursery, and Mazey was ashamed to admit she’d panicked a little.
Okay, a lot.
But in her defense, it had brought back memories of Stuart picking out her apartment in LA. Telling her which one to buy.
Of course, Rylan hadn’ttoldher which room. He hadaskedwhich room she thought would work best. And like a skittish twit, she’d made an excuse to leave.
Something about laundry and ironing her uniform.
She couldn’t even recall what she’d said to him as she’d dashed out of his house.
One thing was undeniable. She owed him an apology. Now.
Searching for her phone, she walked through her two-bedroom house and wanted to kick herself. Her walk through only reinforced the fact that she couldn’t stay here with a baby even if she didn’t move in with Rylan. Her second bedroom would barely fit a crib and change table, and she wanted a rocking chair and a dresser.
There was a set she’d seen online. She hadn’t shown Rylan, but she knew it was what she wanted for their baby. She also knew which room in his house it should go in.
The room next to his master suite.
Squeezing her eyes closed, she let a gusty breath out through her nose.
She was such an idiot. He didn’t deserve the way she’d cut him off and run away.
She’d asked for honesty, and he’d given it, but she’d kept how she was feeling to herself. He’d been so forthcoming with his emotions, and he was entitled to the same from her.
If she wanted respect and openness from him, then she had to give it in return.
Now.
“The bathroom!”
She had been desperate to go when she’d come home and knew she had her phone in her hand when she’d opened the front door because Alyssa had texted her about a possible shift swap.
She hadn’t answered her friend and wouldn’t. Not until she sorted things out with Rylan.
Spying her phone on the back of the toilet, she shook her head and scooped it up. There were several notifications of missed messages and calls. The messages were all from Alyssa, as well as one of the calls. The other two calls were from Rylan. She debated listening to the voice mails before deciding to go to the source and return his call.
It rang five times before he picked up. “Hey,” he gasped, clearly out of breath.
“Sorry. Am I interrupting?” Stuart had always—No!None of that.
“No, no. I left my phone inside, and I was out the back. Had to run.” He sucked in a deep breath and chuckled. “I think I need to up my fitness training. What I’m doing obviously isn’t cutting it.”
Mazey thought whatever he was doing now did a great job of keeping Rylan in shape, his body was a perfect specimen of male anatomy, but that probably wasn’t what he meant or wanted to hear. “Okay, well, I wanted to return . . . No, actually, I was going to call you. I need to apologize for earlier.”
“For what? You didn’t do anything wrong, Maz.” His words sounded genuine enough, but she still felt as though she’d slighted him in some way.
“No. Not really, but I wasn’t wholly honest with you about why I needed to leave. I did need to do laundry, but that isn’t why I left in such a rush.”
