Page 55 of Juniper Hill (The Edens 2)

Memphis gasped. “Knox.”

Gianna had dropped a bomb on my life and everything had exploded. After a long day, I’d come home, dead on my feet, and found Gianna on the couch. Jadon had been asleep. I’d sat beside her, instantly knowing something was wrong. And then she’d looked at me with tears in her eyes. She’d apologized first.

Then she’d taken my son. She’d changed my life.

“She cheated. At the beginning of our relationship, she slept with a guy she knew from college. She suspected Jadon might not be mine but chose not to say anything. She told me she’d hoped I was the father. But then he was born and . . . she wanted the truth.”

Memphis’s hand closed over mine. “I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” I whispered. “I haven’t talked about Gianna in a long time.”

“I get that. It’s painful to dredge up the past.”

“Is that why you don’t talk about yours?”

“Yes.” It was only one word, but there was a plea for me not to ask. Not yet.

“I would have stayed in San Francisco,” I told her. “Been there for Jadon. But Gianna and I were done, and she made the decision that if we weren’t going to stay together, it was better to call it quits. She moved out. And I . . .”

“Came home.”

“Yeah. I came home.”

“How long ago was this?”

“Five years.”

“Have you spoken to her?”

I shook my head. “There’s nothing to say. And I needed to leave that behind.”

Memphis studied the carpet for a long moment, my story heavy in the air. “Then where does that leave us?”

“I was hoping you had that answer.”

Her chocolate eyes met mine. “I don’t have a lot of answers these days.”

“Getting attached to you is risky. Getting attached to him is . . .” I swallowed hard. “It’s petrifying.”

“If it hurts. If it’s petrifying . . .” A crease formed between her eyebrows. “Why did you come to the loft? Why do you keep coming?”

I lifted a shoulder. “I can’t seem to stop.”

“Do you want to?”

I lifted my hand, tucking that stubborn lock of hair away once more. “No.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

MEMPHIS

Knox’s story kept spinning in my head, like a book or movie I couldn’t stop replaying.

He’d gone through a pregnancy. He’d watched the birth of his child. He’d been a father. Then in an instant, his baby had been gone, ripped from his life.

I ached for him. I raged for him. In the hours since I’d been home, my emotions had been riding a rollercoaster.

Knox and I had sat in the hotel room earlier, shrouded in silence until finally he’d brushed his lips to mine in a chaste kiss and left without another word.