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He didn’t have a chance to finish. Billie pushed away from him and ran from the room leaving the two men staring after her in silence.
After a while, she returned, though her face was flush and voice tremulous. “I’m going to lay down for a bit.” She moved back when Logan would have touched. “I don’t want to spread germs.”
Logan cocked his head to the side. “Honey, we’ve been spreading all sorts of shit for months now.” He crossed over, bent, and kissed her forehead. “Go lay down.”
She nodded. “Shane?”
“Yeah.”
“Bobbi loves you. I’m sure she was just tired.”
“Yeah,” he said watching her disappear, suddenly aware that Logan was looking at him strangely.
“What?” he barked.
Logan shrugged and went back to building the biggest, baddest, omelette in the county. “Just get it over with Gallagher.”
“Get what over with?”
Logan’s chuckled once more. “You want me to make the appointment or have you got it covered?”
Okay, his buddy was losing it. “Appointment?”
“Yeah. I hear my Dad’s running a special on neutering but it’s this weekend only. Since you’re no good for anyone else so you may as well get it done.”
Shane pushed off from the table and finished his coffee. “Fuck you, Forest.”
Logan’s laughter followed Shane right out the door and he swore he heard him even when he made it back to the safety of his place. Once inside, he fed Pia and after that went down to his shop to work out with his weights. Less than an hour later he grabbed his brushes stood before the portrait he’d begun the day before and got to work.
Several hours passed and it was nearly three when Shane tossed his brushes aside. He’d spent the entire morning and afternoon painting, listening to The Stones, and not once had Bobbi called or even texted him.
Was he wrong to be pissed off?
Not the way he saw it. Something had changed over the last few days and he was having none of it. Not when he’d finally landed in a place that he knew was right for him. A place that was right for him and Bobbi.
He headed up to his loft and into the shower because if he didn’t get his ass in gear, he was going to be late. And Shane had no intention of being late because he was going to have a conversation with Bobbi tonight. He was going to explain fully the scope of his feelings. He was going to find out what the hell had her running scared and, and it if was the last thing he did, he was going to fix it.
End of story.
After his shower he was in the bedroom pulling on a pair of clean jeans when Pia came ripping into the bedroom, growling and tossing one of her toys into the air. He smiled and patted her head, and she jumped onto the bed and immediately went to work on her treasure.
Shane shrugged into a long sleeved blue Henley and had just shoved his wallet into the back of his jeans when Pia tossed her damn toy at his feet.
“Christ, you’re feeling good, aren’t you girl?”
He bent down to retrieve it and froze, his eyes widening in disbelief. What the hell?
As Shane reached for the white stick, the feeling of dread that had been dogging him all morning and afternoon intensified. He glanced over at Pia, who looked at him with her big eyes and wide open face, and then back down at his hand.
Down at the Early Alert stick.
Down at the Early Alert stick that indicated a positive pregnancy.
“Holy Christ,” he said hoarsely. Is this what was upsetting Bobbi? She was pregnant? He groaned and sat on the edge of the bed, staring down at a little piece of plastic that changed lives all the time. And he felt as if the past had reached up and grabbed him by the throat. How had they come to this? Again?
They weren’t goddamn kids anymore. They were adults.
His first reaction—the one that had gotten him into trouble over and over again—was to give in to his anger. To feed from it and let it fuel him until he marched over to the Barker’s and confronted Bobbi. He hated secrets and she damn well knew it.
