Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 102167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
I’m pregnant.
I’m in love with him.
And I’m terrified that telling him the truth will ruin everything.
“Avery,” he says again, his voice firmer now. He closes the space between us, his hands gently pulling mine away from my face. “Look at me. Please, just look at me.”
I do, and the concern etched into his features is my undoing. My breath hitches, and a sob escapes before I can stop it. I am raw and unfolded in front of him, just like I’ve been several times before.
I am fighting for my life, but this time, in an entirely different way. Whereas the island felt like the two of us against the world, this feels like the world and me against Henry.
“Hey, hey,” he murmurs, pulling me into his arms. “It’s okay. Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”
His words only make me cry harder because they’re both exactly what I need to hear and exactly what I’m afraid I don’t deserve.
He strokes my hair, his voice steady and calm. “Ave, focus. I need you to focus for the next ninety seconds, just like you did for me before we hit the water. Tell me whatever it is, and then tread as fast and hard as you need to to stay afloat while I do the rest. I’ve got you. Don’t you know I’ve got you?”
I pull back slightly, just enough to look up at him. His hands stay on my arms, grounding me, and I take a shaky breath. “Henry, I…I don’t even know where to start.”
“Start anywhere,” he says softly. “Just start.”
I look into his eyes, and the love I see there makes my chest ache.
He loves me. I know he does. And he deserves someone who isn’t afraid to shoot it fucking straight. He deserves to have the chance to freak out himself, and there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell he’ll do that if I’m still backsliding down Menty B Mountain.
I look into his eyes and steady my breathing, but he dives in before I can. Sweet Henry, always taking care of me.
“I love you,” he says. “I want to be with you. That’s what tonight was all about—me telling you what I should’ve said before we left the fucking island. There isn’t one thing you could say to me right now to change my mind either.”
The words hit me like a tidal wave, and my breath catches in my throat. He steps closer, his hands moving to cup my face, his thumbs brushing away the tears on my cheeks.
“Henry…” A sob escapes my lips, and I shake my head, tears streaming freely now. “I love you too, so much. More than I’ve ever loved anyone or anything, my designer collection included.” I admit my truth through shaky breaths. “But that’s the whole freaking problem. Because for as much as I love you, I’m about to have to love something more. And if you’re not ready or not—” I shake my head, cutting off my ramble. “I’ll understand, okay?”
He searches my face, his lips parting in preparation to console me again, but I don’t torture him with more blind placations.
Instead, I tell him the truth, and I do it with a steel rod in my spine. In this moment, I am strong, just in case he can’t be.
“I’m pregnant.”
Henry
Avery’s words hang in the air like a fragile thread, the fear in her eyes presenting as misty, unshed tears. She’s afraid how I’ll react, obviously, but I’m not scared of anything.
Not as of one second ago. Not anymore.
“You’re pregnant?” I ask, my voice catching on the emotion welling up in my chest.
She nods, her fingers white from their pressured twist among themselves.
“We’re pregnant?” I repeat, closing the distance between us. “Me and you, we’re having a baby?”
She nods again, her eyes searching mine with a different kind of sheen as hope starts to blossom at my tone, and I don’t make her wait to know for sure.
This is divine intervention—a miracle and a blessing and a physical cue from the universe that the life-changing experience of the island wasn’t temporary and it wasn’t metaphorical. It was guidance.
Toward each other and toward a dream of a fucking life.
Without pause, I pull her into my arms, wrapping her tightly against me. “Avery,” I murmur into her hair, my voice filled with awe and rapidly forming tears. “We’re having a baby.”
“You’re not upset?” she asks, her voice trembling as she pulls back to look at me.
I cup her face gently, my thumbs brushing away the tears on her cheeks. “Why would I be upset? The woman I love more than anything in this world is having my baby.”
For so long, I’ve felt so alone in this world. As a kid, when my mom left. And not that long ago, again, when my father took his last breath.