Page 50 of Easy On Me

Saying them should be easy. He’d repeated them after that moment following my OB appointment, the two of us in a shop surrounded by baby clothes. And not just in bed, but when we parted ways, when he came home, at random moments of our daily lives.

I believed him.

Still, they stuck, a lump in my throat blocking them.

“You okay?” Concern glinting in his blue eyes, he frowned.

I nodded.

I couldn’t say it yet, but maybe soon. He’d understand. He did understand. He never rushed me, simply stood beside me, supported me. Loved me, the way I loved him. I forced a breath into my lungs.

We had time.

And I could show him.

Chapter Fifteen

Jase

“Jase.”

I jerked up so fast, I banged my head on the underside of the 9RT. Pain radiated through my skull. Son of a bitch.

And what the fuck?

Elizabeth?

Touching the knot on the back of my head, I eased out from under the tractor and turned. Elizabeth stood, barefoot in the mud, jeans rolled up above her ankles. Her BMW waited on the other side of the gate, a good five hundred yards away.

What the . . .?

Unease crawled through my chest. Scowling, I planted my hands at my belt. “What are you doing here?”

“I need to talk to you.” Desperation carving lines into her face, she stepped toward me, feet squelching in the thick, wet clay. Black mascara smudged a dark circle beneath both eyes, and she licked her upper lip in a back and forth motion.

I knew that nervous gesture. She was anything but put together, standing in the middle of this field, twisting the hem of her loose silk blouse. How had she even found me? Unless she’d driven around the county looking for my service truck. Air Defense Warning Red screamed through my brain, and I stiffened.

“We got nothing to talk about.” I half-turned, leaning for the wrench I’d dropped in the red clay goo.

“I’m pregnant.” Her harsh voice, roughened by desperation, broke over me. “You’re the father.”

I jolted, the wrench hitting the ground again. Fury fired through me – we were done and she was here fucking with me in the middle of John Yager’s field. Like it was my turn or something after Hannah, whose entire life had altered because of Elizabeth’s behavior.

“It’s been months.” I bit off the words, turning to glare. “You were on the shot.”

“I stopped because I was gaining weight.”

“What?”

“I didn’t want to be heavier for the wedding.”

Her and her fucking bullshit.

“It’s been months.” The memory of Thomasville rose, her and some other guy, him buying her shit while she promised she was worth it. “You’ve been seeing someone else.”

“I thought it was his.” Raw emotion scratched the words like she was swallowing glass. Humiliation gave her eyes an agonized look to them. I clenched my jaw. “The sonogram . . . the timing was off. And the DNA test . . . it’s not him.”

I stilled. The acidic smell of wet clay filled my nose, and behind me, the humming rumble of another John Deere in the adjacent field tried to soothe the alarm running electricity through my body.