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I stared at the wordlovefor several minutes, trying to fathom the meaning behind it. Had he only written that because he’d thought it was what I would want to see right now, or had there been another reason?
Was it possible he’d meant it?
I had no idea. The only thing I knew for sure was that curiosity was officially getting the better part of me here. He was offering an explanation, and I wanted to hear it. I wanted to know why everything had changed between us the moment we’d left our little island and if anything that had happened there had ever been real.
When the nurse returned, she had an expectant look on her face.
“You’re supposed to tell the guy who sent these flowers whether I’ll see him or not, right?” I asked.
She nodded. “It’s pretty romantic.”
“I’ll see him,” I said. “But if I tell him I want him to go, then he has to go, right?”
“Yes. Whatever you ask for, we’ll make sure it happens.”
“Okay. I’ll speak to him, then.”
The nurse nodded. “I’ll go and get him for you.”
She left the room. Jake must have been waiting right outside for my answer because he knocked on the door not a minute later.
“Come in,” I called.
The door opened, and Jake eased his way into the room, looking more cautious and hesitant than I had ever seen him.
Immediately, my heart broke a little for him. He had been so worried about this…
But I knew I needed to stay strong. It was tempting to tell him everything would be fine, to let him back into my life without batting an eye, but I didn’t want to let myself get hurt again as I had before. I needed him to convince me that things would be different.
“Olivia,” he said quietly.
“Hey, Jake.”
“I didn’t know if you were going to tell me or not,” he said. “About the pregnancy, I mean.”
“There would have been no way of keeping it from you. You live with my brother.”
“So you would have wanted to keep it from me, then?”
“No, that’s not what I’m trying to say.” I was doing this all wrong. “I mean, you wouldn’t have stayed in the dark about it. I wasn’t even considering trying to hide it from you; that wouldn’t have made any sense.”
“Maybe not.” He sighed, pulled up the chair beside my bed, and sank into it. “I was still worried that you might not want me to know.”
“And that’s why you decided to come talk to me?”
“No,” he said. “That’s why Ididn’tcome to talk to you right away. I thought you might be upset about the fact that I’d found out. Maybe you’d be angry with me for overhearing or offended that you didn’t get to tell me yourself… I don’t know. I wasn’t sure what you would want, so I was going to let you take the lead.”
“But you changed your mind.”
“I went to look at the new babies,” he admitted. “I spoke to a mother there. She said you’d want to hear from me. She said whatever plans you might want to make from here, you’d at least want to know that I was prepared to stand by you and the baby.”
“You are?”
“Of course I am.”
“I don’t want you to just… stand by me. Because you think it’s your responsibility or something. If you don’t want to be involved—“
“But Idowant to be involved,“ he said earnestly. “We’re talking about my kid, right? I want to be in the baby’s life. And… I want to be inyourlife, Olivia.”
