I was practically vibrating with the pain of her soft touch. “I almost died. And no one would have known because I’d pushed everyone away. I don’t want to do that anymore. I won’t be like my father. I won’t abandon my kid. And I won’t abandon you.”
“Comes back to the baby.” She let her hand fall.
“The baby is only part of it. This house is part of it. The damn cat is part of it. But it all comes back to you, Dahlia. You’re the one thing that makes it all come together.”
Her eyes filled. “And what if I’m not pregnant? What if I’m just late because of stress?”
I drew her hand back onto my naked chest and covered it. “I want you. I don’t know much about love, but when you’re not around, I feel like something is missing. When I think about you, there’s a spark of something inside of me I didn’t know was possible.”
“I don’t know, Nolan.”
“Just give me a chance. That’s all I ask.”
She nodded. “Let’s take it one step at a time. First up is a pregnancy test.”
“One step at a time sounds good to me.”
She was still frowning when she lifted her hand from me.
I just had to make sure I was worthy of giving me a chance.
Everything that mattered was on the line. Everything.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Talk about a day going sideways.
Ghost advice had started this mess and now I was in Nolan’s truck driving to a drug store on the edge of Crescent Cove.
I rested my hand over my middle. A baby.
Now that Harriette had given me the heads up, so many things made sense. I’d just assumed I was tired because of the workload and my obsessing over Harriette’s journal. I’d re-read the one she’d first given me again and again, and each time, the end left me shattered.
She’d sounded so alone.
Because she’d pushed her husband away.
I glanced over at Nolan. The first thing I’d wanted to do too.
He’d pushed me away every single time, and now he wanted me to give him a chance. I was officially crazy to even consider it. Sure, we had astounding sex, but was there really anything more to it?
But when he’d let me touch his scars, so many pieces fell together. He literally thought he deserved to have been hurt. That it was punishment for getting himself out of a bad situation.
That wasn’t it at all.
It was an accident, that was all.
But the idea of him alone—without anyone there for him while he’d been on the verge of dying—scraped me raw.
Maybe the real reason he hadn’t bled out on the floor was to give him a second chance.
Was it for me? For this baby?
Or was I just wrapped up in the lore of the house and all that loneliness?
Which echoed my own life. That I just had work and a cat—not even a cat right now—and part of me wanted more.
He parked the car, dragging me out of my chaotic thoughts.
I opened the door and was surprised when he got out with me. “You don’t have to go in.”
“I do. We’re in this together.”
I really wasn’t sure what to do with this pro-togetherness version of Nolan. I was so used to him closing off. How long would this last? A week? Nine months?
Ugh.
I was making myself crazy.
I grabbed my purse and slammed the door.
He walked beside me and caught my hand, lacing our fingers. At my frown, he tightened his hold. “You’re not alone in this, Hellcat. Whatever comes, all right?”
“You are so confusing.”
“That makes two of us. You baffle me every damn day.”
