“Mhm,” she mumbled. “Thanks for this.” It seemed to take her a visible amount of effort to swallow before she asked, “Do you want a bite?”
I shook my head.
No, I badly needed her to eat that whole damn sandwich. And then, if it were up to me, I’d make her another sandwich and watch her eat that, too.
“Do you want anything to drink?” she asked next, and I shook my head again.
But it reminded me of the reason we’d come into the kitchen in the first place. She’d needed a glass of water, and she hadn’t gotten that for herself yet.
I moved to get a cup and filled it with more ice than water.
“Here,” I said, my voice gruff as I set it beside the sandwich plate.
“Oh, thanks.”
She sounded surprised, like the notion of me caring for her was shocking, and the look she gave me could only be described as wary.
“Why don’t you…sit down,” she suggested. “So we can talk about why I’m here.”
Fuck, she was making mesogoddamn nervous.
“Is this a sitting-down type of conversation, Eleanor?”
“Yeah, Sawyer.” Her voice was soft. Meanwhile, her gaze pierced straight through me. “I think it is.”
“You know I’m not good at sitting.”
I sounded like I was begging her, and maybe I was.
“I know, I know.” She nodded, looking pained. Sympathetic. Like she wanted to comfort me, but didn’t know how. Not anymore. “Iknow, Sul, but I’m just—I’m trying to figure out how to?—”
“Please, for the love of God, just spit it out, El.” I couldn’t handle this anymore. “You’re fucking killing me. And scaring me.” I shoved my hands into my pockets, worried she’d notice the slight shake to them. “I can tell something is going on, and I need to know what the hell it is.”
“Okay.” She put her sandwich down and then wiped her hands on her shorts. “Okay.”
Her eyes dropped to the floor, and then when they flicked up to me again, I just knew the next words out of her mouth were going to change my entire, miserable life.
“It’s just…well, I’m pregnant.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ellie
BEING BACK IN THIS house was, for lack of a better word, a mindfuck.
It existed in some sort of time bubble, as if plucked from my memories. Sure, it felt a little sparse compared to the last time I’d been here, considering Anne had moved some of the furnishings to her new home. But she’d left a lot behind, too. Almost like she hadn’t quite been able to give the picture of this place up. Like she wanted to believe that there was still a reality where she lived here with her husband and five children and, occasionally, the neighbor girl who lived across the street.
Emotion swelled in my chest, and then it was brimming in my lower lashes, gathering there.
God, how I’d missed this place.
From the dog scratches on the back door to the rosebushes out front, it was everything I’d remembered it to be. And even though I didn’t know what would happen next, even though there was a man standing across from me who half hated me—or maybefullyhated me, considering the sudden dead look in his eyes—I was glad I was here.
It feltrightthat I was here.
“I’m sorry…what?”
It seemed to physically pain Sully to get those words out of his mouth. They were the first ones he’d spoken in what seemed like an hour. He’d gone still after I’d told him I was pregnant—likestatue-level still—which was admittedly terrifying, considering Sully and who he was.
