“Maybe I just prefer eating ice cream with others.”
That breeze kicked up once more as they passed by the alley between the pharmacy and the old shoe store that was its neighbor. The same kid who’d waited on them had obviously been put on closing duty, and he carried two big black bags in his hand to the curb, the distinct scent of the aging garbage filling the air.
“Maybe we’ll—” He broke off as a dire look came over her face, the color instantly draining from her cheeks. “Sera?”
But she’d already bolted, heading straight for a city garbage can at the corner. The distinct sounds of misery rose up into the night air as she lost the remnants of her meal, and he made it just in time to hold her shoulders when a second, wracking jolt ripped through her.
“Oh God!” Her choked sob ripped at his heart, but it was the distinct words that followed that robbed him of breath. “I thought I was past this.”
Chapter 4
Gavin sat on her couch, his gaze unseeing as he stared at the TV she’d flipped on as a matter of habit when they walked in. She’d wanted to say something deeper, or perhaps even an apology, but had opted instead for pointing at the remote control and letting him know he could put on what he wanted and that she’d be right back.
The strong whiff of garbage as they left the restaurant had hit her, its effect swift and immediate. And although she and Gavin needed to talk, her first order of business was to brush her teeth and give herself a moment to freshen up in the bathroom.
But now the time had come to tell him the truth.
She’d spent the past few months since discovering her pregnancy thinking of scenario after scenario of how she’d tell him about the baby.
Now at the moment of truth her mind was a complete blank.
“The Nets have been playing well this year.”
“Hmm?” He glanced up from the basketball game playing out on the screen.
“Um, never mind.” She snagged the remote, muting the TV, before taking a seat on the opposite end of the couch. “So I think we need to talk.”
His expression suggested an incredulous sort of agreement she imagined along the lines of you think? But his words managed a rather different tone.
“How long have you known?”
“About two months.”
“All this time...” His voice faded off, his expression oddly blank.
“I wanted to tell you, Gavin. Truly, I did. But I couldn’t find you, and then I didn’t know how to find you. You’d moved from your apartment, so there was no way of knowing where you’d gone.”
“That’s an excuse?”
“Well, actually, yes. It’s the truth.”
“You knew my name.”
“Your first name. And that you were a cop. You do realize just how big the NYPD is.”
He didn’t look convinced. In fact, her argument seemed to ignite something inside of him. “Or maybe you didn’t want to find me.”
“Excuse me?”
“You walked out in the middle of the afternoon, while I was sleeping. You never had any intention of coming back.”
Whatever she’d imagined, no matter how many times she’d played through her mind telling him the news of the baby, this wall of anger wasn’t it. “You keep tossing that in my face. What are you really upset about? The fact that I’m pregnant or the fact that your pride is injured because I walked out the door?”
“You’re pregnant! I had a right to know.”
“I’m not disputing that fact. Our cutesy let’s-pretend-we-don’t-have-anything-but-this-moment act was heady at the time, but rather inconvenient when I tried to find you after. And you moving only made that worse.”
He stood at that, his hands clenched at his sides as he paced back and forth. She wanted to go to him—wanted to comfort him in the same way she’d wanted to be comforted the day she’d discovered the life-altering news—but something kept her rooted to the couch.
His ire? While it was intense, she had zero fear of him.
So what was it? Why was she suddenly itching for a fight? One that would finally—hopefully?—assuage the anger she’d carried for the past three months. “You can stand there and act as self-righteous as you’d like, but it’s not like you worked all that hard to come find me, either.”
“I had no idea how to find you.”
“Neither did I!”
He stilled at that, mid-pace, and stared at her. And in that moment, she saw all the excitement and confusion and raw emotion that she felt herself. “A baby?”
“Yes.”
“But we were careful.”
“I know. Or I think I know. There might have been that one time. Right around dawn.”
His dark gaze clouded with memories, and she knew the moment he took firm hold of that one. “But we—”
“We made a valiant effort, but threw caution to the wind on that one.”
