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My eyes flick to the pregnancy tests before landing on his face. “Uh, yeah, I think this should help.”
“Good, you ready to go?” he repeats, already walking toward the front of the store.
I nod, following behind him when my feet stop, my eyes lingering on the tests. “You know what, I think I’m going to use the restroom first, do you mind checking out for me?”
He stops, reaching for the box of medication I hold out for him. “Sure, I’ll wait for you at the front.”
“No!” I smile, trying to compose myself. “I mean, no, go ahead and go to the car, I’ll meet you there.”
Gavino’s brow dips slightly but he doesn’t argue. “Are you sure?”
I try to keep my smile from looking too desperate. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
“Okay.” I can hear the question in his voice but thankfully he doesn’t press me any further, leaving me with a, “Meet you in the car.”
I wait until he’s left the aisle, the sound of his footsteps disappearing before I snatch one of the pregnancy tests off the shelf, tucking it into the waistband of my shorts and covering it with my shirt. Doing a double look around the aisle, I make sure no one saw, walking toward the front. It’s wrong to steal,I know that, but at the moment, I think stealing an eight-dollar test is the least of my potential problems. The box cuts into the skin of my stomach with every step I take toward the door, my heart thumping, nausea roiling as I walk past the store clerk and out the automatic doors.
My breath leaves my lungs in a whoosh, my heartbeat pounding in my ears as I move toward where Gavino is parked. My reflection stares back at me in his dark, tinted window, the panic I feel crawling underneath my skin at least not visible on the outside. Pulling the door open, I slide inside and pretend the box I have wedged in my shorts isn’t stabbing me painfully.
“You all right?”
I smile in Gavino’s direction, taking the bag he hands me before shifting the car into drive.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lie, clicking my seat belt in place as he pulls from the parking lot. “Everything is fine.”
Chapter Six
BEVERLY
The second hand on the clock ticks in slow motion as I sit on my couch, staring at the pregnancy test sitting on the coffee table. I can’t read the lines from here, but I know they are there. The three-minute mark had come and passed five minutes ago. I know I have to read it before ten minutes—I’d read the instruction manual about fifty times just trying to get the nerve up to take it—but I haven’t gathered the courage to look.
My body thrums with unease the longer I sit here, my heart beating roughly against my ribs. My throat burns as I swallow, those passing seconds a noose around my neck. Before the last minute can pass my hand reaches out, snatching the test up off the table. My heart thumps in my ears as I look at it, the lines blurring.
I’m pregnant.
For a moment, a tiny minuscule fraction of a second, my heart thuds with something akin to elation. Because I know without a doubt, this baby is Remy’s.
Remy and I are going to be parents.
But in that same second, it breaks. Shatters, tears so solidly down the center, I lose my breath.
I’m pregnant with Remy’s baby.
Squeezing the test in my palm, I sink to the floor, heart pounding in my ears while I try and fail to keep my resolve. My tears hit the carpet as I bend at the waist with an unrestrained sob. A pain bone deep pangs in my chest as the thought is repeated over and over in my head, bouncing along the walls of my brain.
“Hey! Bev! I brought you some—what the fuck? Bev?”
Julian’s voice echoes in the background, my thoughts too muddled to think past the giant dog that’s wedged himself between me and the floor. I blink, tears falling from my lashes to land into his dark fur as my free hand aimlessly strokes the soft hair on his side.
Julian’s freckled face drops into view, his hands reaching for me, but the dog in my lap growls, and he pulls back with an annoyed frown directed toward it. “Bev, what’s wrong? What’s happened?”
My mouth opens and then closes, my sobs turned to hiccups, and I try and fail to find the words to say. Instead, I pet the dog's head, frowning at the muzzle I didn’t notice before. “Whose dog is this?”
Julian gives me a look like he knows I’m diverting, but he eyes the two of us and answers anyway, “I guess yours.”
“What do you mean?” I ask past a hiccup, trying to force myself to take a deep breath as I undo the buckle of the muzzle just as Julian’s yelling, “Don’t!” It slides off and hits the carpet with a soft thud.
I frown at Julian, running my hand over the dog's ears. “What? Why? He’s fine.”
