Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 107803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
I was about to reply when she lifted a hand.
“You’re not buying me a house, Caden. If that was what you were going to suggest.”
“I wasn’t going to suggest that.” It was a lie. I was absolutely going to suggest it. I wasn’t sure how I’d afford it, but I would have figured it out.
Lilibeth started pacing once again, then she stopped, spun around, and looked at me. “What about Emeline’s old place? I could maybe move in and rent it from her or your parents or whoever owns it.”
“I’m not comfortable with you being there all alone.”
“Why not?” she asked.
It was a good fucking question, and one I didn’t have an answer to. I should want her living anywhere other than my house. Lord knows it would be hard as hell to sleep with Lilibeth under my roof every night and not touch her. But something deep inside wanted her with me. This woman was going to have my baby.
Holy shit. My baby.
“I don’t want to miss out on things.”
It was the first thing that came to mind—and I realized it was true.
“What do you mean?”
I held my hands out, beseeching. “If you’re staying with me, we can set up the baby’s room together, and when the baby kicks for the first time, I’ll hopefully be there to feel it. If you’re living somewhere else…I won’t get to experience any of that.”
Her head tilted. “You’re taking this a lot better than I thought you would. I totally freaked out when the doctor told me I was pregnant.”
Laughing, I pushed a hand through my hair. “Don’t worry. I’ll freak out the moment I’m alone. Right now, I’m…I’m not really sure what I am. Shocked?”
Her tongue swept over her lips. “I don’t know about us living together, Caden.”
I held up both hands. “I promise you, nothing will happen. Friends only.”
With a nod so slight, I would have missed it if I hadn’t been staring at her so hard, she said, “Okay.”
Bending down to look into her eyes, I smiled. “Okay, you’ll move in?”
“If you promise it won’t make things weird. I do think it would be nice to have you there with me for whatever happens. But…God, I don’t know…I’m still trying to process this myself. Maybe we should take a step back and think about all of this.”
I took her hand and drew her to me. Cupping her face, I looked into her beautiful hazel eyes. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
Tears filled her eyes, and she tried to blink them away. “We used a condom every time. How did this happen?”
“I’m not sure,” I answered honestly. “I don’t think any of them broke, but I have to be honest, I wasn’t paying attention when I removed them.”
She exhaled. “Thank you, Caden.”
“For what?” I asked with a laugh.
“For not freaking out on me, or blaming me, or…” Her words faded away.
“We’re in this together from now on.”
She smiled, and for a moment, it nearly took my breath away.
“Holy shit, Caden. We’re going to have a baby. A baby.”
I exhaled. “A baby.”
“It figures. I wait almost thirty years to have sex and I get knocked up the first damn time.”
I threw my head back and let out a roar of laughter. There was one thing I was sure of: this was going to be one hell of an experience.
When my laughter faded away, Lilibeth’s expression turned serious. I could see she was scared. “What do we do now?”
“We take one day at a time. First thing, go to the doctor tomorrow. Then let’s plan on getting you moved into my place.”
She bit down on her lower lip and nodded. “You’re really sure about me moving in?”
“I’m sure.”
A single tear slipped free and rolled down her cheek. “I’m scared, Caden.”
Drawing her to me, I held her tightly. Kissing her head, I closed my eyes and said, “I’m scared, too, Lili.”
Scared wasn’t the right word. I was fucking terrified.
Lilibeth
Caden reached for my hand and gave it a light squeeze. I was honestly surprised by how calm he was. At least, he seemed to be…except for his leg, which was bouncing.
“How do you feel?”
Trying to smile, I replied, “Better. Still a bit queasy, but the crackers helped.”
Earlier in the car, I’d started to feel sick, and Caden instantly produced a sleeve of crackers from the back seat of his truck.
“By the way, why did you have crackers in your truck?”
It was his turn to smile, and I tried to ignore the way it made my stomach flutter. “I remembered when my mom was pregnant with Emeline, she used to eat crackers all the time. Don’t ask me why or how I remembered that, because I was pretty young. But I grabbed them on my way out of the house this morning.”
Oh, dear Lord. This man is going to make it so very hard not to fall madly in love with him.