She held his gaze.“No.I’m telling you we both made choices we’ve come to regret.”
“You regret Billie?”
“Never.”
“Then what?”
The sound of rain filled the room, the steady drumming from the roof, the drip-drip off the porch covering.In the distance, he heard the rumble of thunder.
“I should have said no.Even though we were engaged, I wasn’t ready to be your lover.I should have told you.”She turned away and gripped the windowsill.“Aren’t you curious, Adam, about how I came to be pregnant?After all, you’re the one who decided it was time for us to go all the way, so you took me to the doctor and waited while I was fitted for a diaphragm.You’re the one who drove me to the next town, because I was too shy to get the prescription filled here in Orchard.”
He didn’t like the way the conversation had shifted.This was supposed to be about whatshe’ddone.She’s the one who’d lied.Who’d had Billie.He had to focus on that.Instead the past intruded.
“I don’t care about any of this,” he said.
“I didn’t use it.”She spoke quietly.
“What?”
“The diaphragm.I couldn’t.”
“That’s the most ridiculous—”
“I was embarrassed.”
He turned away and swore.
“That doesn’t change anything, Adam.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
She shook her head.“I couldn’t talk to you about anything.”
“Then what the hell were you doing marrying me?”
“I didn’t, did I?”
That one hit below the belt.He struggled to regroup his thoughts.“I’m not the villain in this piece.You’re the one who kept the secrets.”
“Only one.”
“Oh, yeah, just the fact that you were having my child.Is that why you ran?Because you found out you were pregnant?”
“No.”
He raked one hand through his hair.He couldn’t deal with this.Too much information in too short a time.He felt like exploding or lashing out or—“When?”he asked.“When did you figure it out?”
“When I got to San Francisco.”She continued to stare at the windowsill.Lightning ripped across the sky.The brief flash lit up the room.Three seconds later, a boom shook the house.
“Why didn’t you come home then?I would have—”
“Would have what?Married me?After I ran out on you?What was there to come home to?This town, where everyone would know I was a pregnant teenager?You didn’t want a baby, Adam.Why else would you have gone to all that trouble with the birth control?We’d never talked about kids.”
“Of course I wanted children.Maybe not right away, but that doesn’t give you the right to choose for me.Do you think I would have abandoned you?”
She leaned her forehead against the windowsill.“No.”
He hadn’t expected that to be her answer.He glanced at her, then began to pace the length of the parlor.The marble floors gleamed as he strode across them.He reached the fireplace and turned to face her.
