AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I stopped in the doorway, breathless. “Don’t you dare,” I said, glaring at Cooney. But he took my anger the wrong way and must’ve thought I’d done something to Kenzie. I saw the protectiveness rise up in him.
“If she wants to go to the airport, you’re going to let her,” Cooney said.
“I’m going to talk to her,” I said. “You can all stand here and listen. I don’t really give a shit. But I’m not about to let her leave without hearing what I have to say. This is a misunderstanding, and once I’ve explained it, she can choose to go if she still wants to.”
I was hardly thinking straight, but I knew there was no way I was letting her leave until we had a chance to talk. I waited while Cooney gave Kenzie a look, as if he wanted to know if she was okay with that. She folded her arms, glaring, but nodded. “He can talk,” she said.
“I lied to my agent because I knew he’d read anything I sent him within hours. I also knew if I told him it was from some pretty young writer, he’d blow me off and assume I was just trying to get laid. But I lied because I know once he reads it, he’s going to want to sell it. I lied to get you an agent, Kenzie. My agent.”
For a few seconds, I couldn’t tell if she believed me or not. She finally lifted her eyes up and to the right, pursing her lips. “If that was true, it’d be really sweet.”
We’d made quite the commotion, and Astaire came down from the stairs, joining Reggie to watch our little moment in silence.
“Yes, it would,” I agreed. “Except I was doing it because I wanted you to have a reason to leave. I’m tired of fighting my feelings for you. I thought if I got you the deal you deserve, you’d realize you could go off on your own and stop thinking about me. Maybe if you had something else to focus on, you’d leave.” And now I’m learning you’re fucking pregnant.
“Why do you want me to leave?” she asked.
“Because being around you is exhausting. It’s an uphill battle I’m never going to win. Every day I lose a little more ground. Maybe you do fix my writer’s block, but I don’t write when I’m happy. I don’t write when I’m miserable. I only write when I’m in some fucking limbo between the two. You make me too happy, and I refuse to drag you down with me just so I can write. Okay? So leave if you still want to. I’ll pass your information to my agent and tell him the truth. I’ll make sure he gives you the deal you deserve once you finish the book. But I need to know… Are you really pregnant?”
Astaire gasped and Cooney’s eyebrows shot up. I could see he was gradually coming to the conclusion that I hadn’t hit her or something to cause her to go running like that. Now he just looked amused.
“Yes,” she said. “I found out when your friend Dr. Willows ran all those tests on me. I was waiting for the right time to tell you and it never came.”
“Fuck,” I breathed. I’d been standing near an armchair, and I practically collapsed into it. My head was spinning, and my stomach felt warm and empty at the same time.
“Does that change anything?” she asked.
Her voice sounded like it was coming through wet cotton. “Last time someone told me they were pregnant with my baby, it was a lie to manipulate me,” I said.
Astaire gasped again. “Full circle,” she whispered. “This is like a Korean drama I watched once. The guy—”
“Shh,” Reggie hissed. “It’s just starting to get good.”
“Patricia?” Kenzie asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “I told her I was leaving and she told me she was pregnant. I stuck around two more months before I realized she was lying. She used the time to cheat on me and make arrangements so everyone I knew hated my guts. When she was done, she broke things off and had a good laugh about it with her friends.”
“I’m sorry that happened, Sebastian.” Kenzie looked like she meant it. I could see the pain on her face on my behalf. Her empathy shook something loose in me and I felt like I was drifting—to where, I wasn’t sure.
“You’re sure about this?” I asked. At some point I’d gotten up from the chair and stepped closer to her. My hand was hovering inches from her belly.
“You can call Dr. Willows if you don’t believe me.” She looked down at my hand and smiled. “Go ahead. You can touch it.”
I put my hand there and realized her belly was just slightly rounded and just slightly hard. I guess I’d been too busy enjoying the rest of her to notice before, but I didn’t think I’d know what I was looking at if she hadn’t told me herself. “You’re sure it’s ours?”
