Page 46 of Make it a Double

“You’ve got to quit saying that. I didn’t kidnap you. I just sequestered you in a location where we could have a very important conversation and feed you,” I said, following her up the stairs until we were standing in the bedroom. “And the bean, apparently.” I turned away to grab a couple of shirts and a pair of boxers from the dresser.

That was when I remembered I had something else that might make her more comfortable. I wasn’t even sure they’d still fit, but it was worth a shot.

“What else would you call it?”

“Literally anything else. I don’t want our kid going around telling people I held their mother against my will,” I joked, stopping short as I turned to see Sawyer’s face.

What I thought had been a funny way to break the ice on the conversation we needed to have, apparently, had been the wrong thing to say. Tears quickly formed along her lash line, spilling over like an overflowing dam. “Listen, Beckett⁠—”

Clothes forgotten on the bed, I crossed the room in three strides and pulled her into my chest. Her arms hung limply at her side for only a moment before she tightly wrapped them around me and cried. Nothing in my life had ever prepared me for this. Not the attraction to a girl I had no business showing interest in, or the surprise pregnancy announcement, or having someone cry in my arms. I was desperate not to fuck this up before it’d even begun, but I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for Sawyer to carry this heavy knowledge around like she had.

There were a million questions I wanted to ask her, and so many things we needed to discuss, but right now I just wanted to make her tears stop. They were breaking my heart.

“Don’t. You have nothing to apologize for. Do you hear me, Sawyer? Absolutely nothing.” She squeezed me tighter. I pulled back, bringing my hands up to cup her face. My thumb swept across the red splotches and mascara trailing down her cheeks. “The only thing I hate is that you’ve been doing this alone.”

“Yeah, it sucked,” she murmured.

I laughed, smoothing one hand down her back as her tears began to dry up. Time ceased to exist as we stood locked in an embrace. This was what I missed. How her presence alone seemed to comfort me. We’d both been through the wringer over the past hour, and yet neither of us made a move to leave. We lingered. Soaking up every ounce of peace we could find.

It was only when she sniffed dramatically and dry heaved that I remembered what we’d come up here to do in the first place.

“Right. You probably want that shower,” I said, stepping back to give her space. My hands itched to touch her again, but I stuck them in my pockets instead of giving in to my instinct. Sawyer clocked the movement.

“That’d be great. I don’t know how much longer I can handle the stench of my embarrassment,” she mumbled, staring down at the stains on both of our clothes.

“I’m just going to change, and then I’ll get started on dinner. Shouldn’t be longer than thirty or so minutes. Before I forget…” I said, turning to grab the clothes. The flash of pink fabric on top had her cheeks heating as she snatched them from my grasp.

“Oh my god. Are these my panties?”

I smirked, nodding at the bundle of clothes. “You left them behind that morning.”

“So you kept them?” Her voice shot up an octave as she stared at me, expectantly waiting for me to apologize or explain myself. Unfortunately, she wasn’t going to like the answer I gave.

“I knew I was going to see you again. Seemed rude to toss them.”

Okay, so I had no idea if I was going to see her again, but I wanted to. I even considered using them as a bargaining chip for her contact information, but blackmailing someone into a relationship by threatening not to return their panties didn’t seem like the way to go.

I was never going to beat the kidnapping allegations as it was, so I decided to keep that information to myself.

There was so much more Sawyer wanted to say. Her mouth twitched, fingers burrowed between the bundle of clothing in her hands as she shifted on her feet. Instead, she seemed to have thought better about it. “Do you have a pair of shorts I can borrow so I’m not parading around in my underwear?”

That was a sight I’d love nothing more than to see, but I didn’t want to upset the fragile peace we reached. Wordlessly, I walked over, snatched a pair of shorts from the dresser, and handed them to her. “They’ve got a drawstring, so you should be able to tighten them up. If that doesn’t work, feel free to grab a pair of my boxers. Top drawer on the left.”

Some jealous, territorial part of me preened at the thought of her wearing my clothes again. Maybe everything was happening all too fast, but the leisurely cruise option had already set sail, and we were left with nothing more than a speedboat headed out into choppy waters. All we could do now was see where our adventure was headed.

With a huff, she padded toward the bathroom to turn on the shower. I waited until I heard the door click shut before scrubbing my hands over my face. It was my first moment alone since Sawyer had blurted out the news, and I could feel the panic threatening to take hold now that she was gone. What the fuck was happening? Two hours ago, I felt like a completely different person. One who’d been hopeful about a dinner date with the woman he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about for the past six months. Now, I was standing in my bedroom wearing a vomit-stained shirt while that same woman took a shower only a few feet away.

Oh, and she was pregnant with my child.

I didn’t have time to think about that when I still needed to change clothes and prepare dinner. I made quick work of my shirt, throwing it into a pile that was immediately going into the laundry. Come to think of it, I should’ve asked Sawyer before she got into the shower if I could wash hers as well.

I turned and took one long, lingering look at the door before I found myself standing in front of it. I heard the sound of running water and Sawyer’s soft hum of contentment. My forehead came to rest against the wood as I bunched my fists at my side.

I should not, under any circumstances, knock on the door.

I should wait until Sawyer got done and then collected her clothes.

I didn’t need to make sure she was finding everything okay. She was a grown-ass woman.