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little noises that were annoying the ever-loving fuck out of me, and I decided to be a nice guy. Since my place was closer, we went there to get dry. That was it. Nothing more.” I kissed the corner of her mouth when she started to ask another question. “Maybe it was a ploy on her end, to get me alone and in my shower. Don’t know, don’t care. But I swear to you, Amara. Nothing would have happened if you hadn’t shown up. She could have paraded around my apartment butt-ass naked, and I still wouldn’t have touched her.”
“But she’s so beautiful,” she whispered with a wobble in her sweet voice.
“Maybe. I didn’t really notice,” I told her honestly. “All I see is you.”
“Cash…”
I pressed my forehead to hers. I was winning. I could sense her inner struggle and knew she was about to give in. I just had to be patient. Let her come to me. “I’m nothing without you, Amara.”
“Cash.” She inhaled sharply. “I’m pregnant.”
My blood turned to ice at those words, but I laughed them off as I lifted my head to look down at her. “That’s not funny, Dreamer.”
Her face was set in tight lines, but her eyes were begging me. Begging for what? “I’m not joking. It was in my blood work when I was admitted to the hospital. I’m pregnant. They did a scan to see how far along I am. It… It happened sometime the week we met. Possibly that same weekend at the festival.”
The panic I’d felt as I ran to Amara’s apartment earlier was nothing compared to what I felt at that moment. Pregnant? She was pregnant. I was going to be a father. Fuck. I wasn’t ready for that. I barely had my own life figured out. What the hell was I going to do with a kid?
I stood there, staring at her but not seeing a damn thing. My life was flashing before my eyes. I wasn’t father material. I hated my old man, and I was pretty sure he didn’t have a single warm feeling for me. Kids had never entered my head, and right then, I was praying that Amara was only playing some sick joke to get back at me.
“Wh-what are you going to do?”
Her face paled. “What do you mean, what am I going to do?”
“Are you going to keep it or…?” I broke off when she turned her back on me with a heartbreaking sob. “It’s a legitimate question, Amara.”
She laughed dryly. “Yeah, it is.” She turned around to face me, her eyes damp but blank as she met my gaze. “And it’s a legitimate response for me to tell you to go fuck yourself, Cash Graves, or whoever the fuck you really are.”
I scrubbed my hands over my face, unsure of what to do or say. Which meant I was saying all the wrong things, apparently. Proof of which when I opened my mouth again. “You’re keeping the baby?”
“Of course, I’m keeping the baby!”
“What will you do? Will you raise it yourself? Do you want me to help?” Each word out of my mouth made her body jerk in reaction, and I mentally told myself to shut the hell up, but I couldn’t seem to keep my damn mouth closed. “Do you expect me to help you raise this kid?”
Two fat tears spilled from her eyes, but she shook her head. “No, Cash. I don’t expect anything out of you. Go, live your life. This baby and I will be just fine without you around.”
“No!” The panic was trying to consume me now. “I didn’t mean any of that shit. This just surprised the hell out of me. I didn’t know what to think or say or do.” But she wasn’t listening. She was back to straightening her clothes in her cases, her back to me. There was a new tension in her, and I knew if I touched her now, she would shatter.
She glanced at me over her shoulder. “Good thing I’m leaving, then. It will give you plenty of time to think.”
“Amara, don’t go. Just give me a minute to digest what you said. A baby is life-changing.”
“Oh, I’m well aware of that. But a baby is not something that can be pushed aside until its parents figure out what they’re going to do about its existence.” She turned to face me, touching her hands to her stomach protectively as she lifted her chin and stared me down. “You need to take the time I’m away to figure out what you want, Cash. Because I come as a package deal now. If you don’t want to be in your child’s life, then don’t expect to be in mine.”
Chapter 19
Amara
I gazed around at the wooded area where the driver had just left me. There were no signs of life, not even a road to point me in the right direction. When I asked the driver where I was supposed to go, he merely shrugged his shoulders and said he had no idea. No one had informed him of anything, apparently. So now I was alone in the middle of nowhere Tennessee with nothing more than my phone for protection.
The distant sound of an engine had my head swiveling around in that direction. Several minutes later, a caged ATV came out of the woods behind me. The driver pulled to a stop a few feet from me and got out, taking off her helmet as she did so.
A cascade of long, auburn hair fell to her back, and I was suddenly assaulted by the bluest eyes I’d ever seen in my life. I knew who she was from having seen her face in the tabloids over the years and random social media photos. With her tall, willowy body and beautiful face, she could have made a career in modeling or acting. Instead, she stayed out of the spotlight as much as possible, keeping to the shadows in the craziness of her father’s and ex-boyfriend’s lives.
Tossing the helmet into the driver’s seat, Kin Montez walked toward me with her hand extended. “Amara?”
I nodded. “Yeah, hi, Kin… I can call you Kin, right? Emmie said that’s what you go by, but…”
She snorted. “Relax. I would be totally pissed if you called me McKinley. The only person who ever does that is my step-monster, and if you suddenly turn into her, we’re going to have problems.” She glanced at my two cases. “Good. I see you’ve packed for the long haul. Not really sure when I’m going to be up to facing the real world again.”
