“You left,” he said, as though that would explain everything. The roughness in his voice stole the air from her lungs. He wasn’t angry. Instead, he sounded wounded, and that was somehow worse.
Dani looked away immediately. “I thought it would make things easier for you.”
A bitter laugh escaped him. “Baby girl, there was nothing easy about you disappearing on me.” Emotion climbed thickly into her throat. Jonnas tipped her face back toward him gently. “Do you have any idea what it felt like walking into that apartment and finding you gone?”
Fresh guilt crashed over her instantly. “I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
“I know.” That quiet understanding nearly undid her again, because he believed her. Even now, after she ran from him.
Dani swallowed hard. “I just needed space to think.”
“And what did you decide?” he asked. The question settled heavily between them. Dani stared at him silently because the truth was terrifying. She’d spent the entire drive here trying to convince herself that leaving was the right thing to do. She told herself that protecting him mattered more than her feelings, and that eventually he’d resent her for what this scandal could cost him. But then he showed up, soaked from the rain, looking half out of his mind because she’d left, and suddenly none of her logic felt stable anymore.
“I decided I love you,” she whispered finally. Jonnas closed his eyes briefly, as if the words physically hit him.
Then his forehead dropped against hers with a rough exhale. “Thank Christ.”
Tears filled her eyes again immediately. “I don’t know how this happened so fast.”
“I don’t care how fast it happened,” he growled.
“You should,” she insisted.
“No.” His hands tightened gently against her face. “You know what I should care about?” His voice roughened. “The fact that the woman I love thought she had to run away alone while carrying my child.” The raw emotion in his voice shattered something inside her.
Dani covered his hands with hers shakily. “I was scared.”
“I know,” he said.
“No.” Her voice cracked. “I’m scared that one day you’ll wake up and realize that loving me cost you everything.”
For the first time since arriving at the cabin, real anger flashed across his face. “Do you really think so little of me?”
The question hit hard enough to make her flinch. “No.”
“Then stop deciding for me what’s worth sacrificing,” he said. Silence crashed between them, and Jonnas exhaled slowly before stepping back just enough to peel his soaked shirt over his head. Dani’s breath caught automatically, because of course, this man looked devastating standing in the middle of her grandmother’s tiny cabin kitchen, dripping rainwater down his chest.
Jonnas tossed the shirt onto a nearby chair before looking back at her, and immediately his expression softened again. “I like it when you look at me that way, baby girl,” he murmured quietly.
Dani blinked. “What look?” she asked, trying to keep up. Her mind was stuck in the gutter with him standing in front of her, half-naked.
“That look.” He stepped closer slowly. “The one where you’re trying not to fall apart, and turned on at the same time.”
A weak laugh escaped her. “I think I’ve cried every day since finding out I’m pregnant. And can you blame me, looking at you that way when you're standing there shirtless?”
“You’ve had a stressful couple of weeks.”
“That’s one way to put it,” she breathed.
Jonnas brushed his fingers carefully through her hair. “You know what I think?”
“What do you think?” she asked, hoping that they were thinking the same thing.
“I think you’ve spent your whole life believing love is conditional.” The truth of it hit so hard she physically froze, because yes, she had. She had learned that love lasted until you became inconvenient. Jonnas saw the exact moment realization hit her, and something heartbreaking flickered across his face.
“Baby girl,” he said softly, “I need you to understand something.”
Her throat tightened. “Okay.”
