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He grabbed a pen from the black cup on the counter and jotted down a note on a yellow tablet. “Sure thing.”
“Thanks,” she said, turning around to the door. She spotted a small shelf with a few random items for sale. “This is new,” she said, walking toward it.
“Yeah,” he said. “AnnaBeth is wanting to try some things to really make sure our guests have the best experience. We thought maybe having a few essentials here for sale would prevent them from having to run across town.”
“It’s a really good idea,” Blythe told him honestly, eyeing the pink bottle as her stomach rolled again. “Could I buy a bottle of Pepto?”
“Of course,” he said, rushing forward and taking it off the shelf in front of her.
“Let me run to my room and grab some cash.”
He shook his head. “I’m under strict instructions not to charge you for anything.”
“Why not?” she asked. “We’re not paying for our room, the least we could do is pay you for this.” She gestured toward the bottle.
He handed it to her. “She said you need to be reminded how much this town cares about you.” He paused. “Or something like that.”
At his words, her eyes lined with tears.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes,” she said sadly, though she knew she wasn’t. She glanced back at the shelf, seeing the box of tampons on the shelf.Shoot.No wonder she’d been so moody and exhausted. It was her time.
She glanced at the board on the wall announcing that the date was the eleventh.I’m late.
Tuesday ran around the corner of the counter. “Daddy!” she cried, handing him the reindeer and raising her arms to be picked up.
“It’s okay, Tue. I didn’t leave you.”
Suddenly, Blythe put her hands to her stomach, her eyes drifting across the shelf for the one item she now worried she may need. They didn’t have it.
The rental car pulled into the parking lot, and she watched it through the window with a sinking feeling.What the hell am I going to do?
Chapter Thirty-Three
“What are you talking about?” Finn asked, sitting in the desk chair in their room. Blythe paced the floor in front of him, running her hands through her hair as she tried to piece it all together in her mind. Terrified didn’t even begin to cover how she felt. She swallowed again, her throat too dry.
“I…um—” Before she could say any more, cool tears collected in her eyes and she began to shake with sobs. How could this be happening? How could they possibly face this? She covered her eyes with her palms, jumping slightly when she felt his arms around her. He pulled her into his chest and she moved her hands, breathing in his warm, familiar scent.
He kissed her head. “I know,” he whispered. “It’s okay.”
She pulled away from his chest. “What do you mean you know?”
“I know what you’re going to say,” he whispered, his expression unreadable.
“How could you know?”
“Because I know you, Blythe.” He kissed her cheek. “I knew it the second we came here.”
“Wha—what are you talking about?” she asked, her head cocked to the side.
“You can’t leave Darlington,” he said matter-of-factly.
She started to shake her head but stopped. Was he wrong? Was she going to be able to drive away tomorrow with the possibility of never returning? What choice did she have? She had nothing here—no job, no family, no home, no Finn. She thought back to the words Blake had told her. At least she had AnnaBeth. She supposed a few others in town still cared about her. But who was she kidding? She was about to be a single mother in a town with a limited male population. And she loved Finn. She was incredibly in love with Finn, and he belonged in New York. She knew how much he loved it. She could see it in his eyes when he talked about it.
No one from New York could survive in Darlington. They’d die of boredom, if not heatstroke. She couldn’t lose him…but after the bombshell she was about to drop, would she have a choice?
“I…that isn’t what I was going to say. I do love Darlington, more than I realized, in fact. But I love you more. I want to be wherever you are.”
