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Jimmy doesn’t seem at all repentant. How about you, Pretty Pru? Are you ready to repent for your sins?
Ice cold hit Gabe’s veins followed by the heat of anger. Burning hot rage because someone was holding something over PJ. And, dammit, she’d been hiding this threat from him the entire time. That needed to change. Now.
Gabe stood, took her hand and pulled PJ over to the living room and settled them onto the couch. Then he faced her. She looked about ready to cry, but he also saw that look of determination beneath the tears that welled in her eyes – like she was gearing up her defenses. He pushed one of her russet curls behind her ear.
“Please, Pru. Let me help. Even if it’s just to listen,” he said and rubbed a thumb over her cheek where a tear had fallen. “I know you don’t want to go to your parents, but you have to have someone on your side through this.”
She shook her head. “If I tell you, it will change the way you look at me, how you think about me,” she whispered, and he watched as she struggled to control the shaking of her chin, to keep the tears from falling.
“Oh, babe,” he leaned his forehead against hers and threaded his fingers through her hair. “Nothing you tell me will ever change the way I see you, or how much I care about you. I promise.”
She curled in toward him and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close until she almost sat in his lap. It took a long time, but when she began to talk, the words tumbled out of her as if she’d waited years to tell someone her story.
“I didn’t spend eight months in rehab,” she said against his chest, and Gabe had to make a conscious effort not to stiffen. “I spent two months in rehab. When I checked in, I was two months pregnant.”
Well, hell. It was a lot harder not to stiffen for that one, but he steadied his breathing and kept holding her, all the while planning Jimmy Mondo’s death in gruesome and excruciating detail in his head.
He’d need to talk to Chad about how to hide a body—he was pretty sure Chad knew that sort of thing. It was good to have friends who would help you bury the bodies.
“Where were you the rest of the time?” he asked. It was widely believed PJ had spent eight months in rehab back when she was fifteen.
“I stayed with my aunt and uncle and my parents. The only time I ever left the house was to go to the doctor.”
“And, the baby?” he asked, having a feeling he knew the answer already.
“My cousin, Matthew––” she started, and Gabe finished for her.
“Isn’t your cousin.”
“No,” she said, still not looking up at him.
Gabe tilted her chin to him, bringing her eyes up so he could see them, then dried her tears. He leaned in slowly and kissed her gently on the lips. Such a small kiss, but it seared right through him, just as any contact with her did.
He kissed the tip of her nose, her eyelids and then her lips again before pulling her back down into his arms. She laid her head on his chest and he held her.
“Do you believe you did the right thing? For him? For you?” he asked her.
She pulled back and looked at him. “Yes, I do.”
“Do you regret the decision?” he asked.
“Not one bit,” she said. “He’s loved,trulyloved by my Aunt Susie and Uncle Brian. And he has a good life. Just look at the life Jill and Andrew will give those twins. Those babies will be cherished and loved every minute of their lives. I knew my baby would have that when I decided I wasn’t the one who should raise him.”
“Then, you did the right thing, Pru. And nobody has the right to tell you otherwise.”
“Do you really think I did the right thing? I mean, not because I think it’s right. I mean, doyouthink it was right?” she asked.
“Yes, I really do.”
She lay in his arms, no longer crying, and he held her, feeling her chest rise and fall with each breath until he felt her breaths even out. She fell asleep there, and he held her for a long time, knowing she needed to sleep. She needed to recharge if they were going to deal with this.
Gabe thought about the times he’d seen pictures of her with her cousin, Matthew. She was close to him. That much was clear. He wondered if the boy knew. Maybe he didn’t even know he was adopted. If he did, had he ever suspected PJ was his birth mother?
Gabe would call Chad as soon as she woke up and get him started trying to track down whoever had her journal, and held this twisted grudge against Pru for her decision to put the baby up for adoption. Because lying here with her in his arms, Gabe realized, he was through trying to resist PJ, through trying to convince himself this wasn’t the right time for whatever was happening between them.
Yes. It might be the very worst possible time for her to start a relationship, but he didn’t care. She’d been alone long enough. And, he had a feeling she’d punished herself long enough for the decisions she’d made as a fifteen-year-old. It was time PJ allowed herself to be happy. And he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to be a part of that.
Chapter 12
