We both stop breathing as the door swings open, and I get a full view of her. She’s beautiful, but there is something different about her I can’t place. She’s happier than she was with me, maybe that’s it. I can’t keep my eyes off her body. I scan her body up and down. Over her tight jeans and stomach that is protruding the tiniest bit over her jeans.
I narrow my eyes and look again. There’s a bump. Not a huge bump, but definitely a bump. One that is very noticeable on her usually smooth, rock hard stomach.
My eyes meet Larkyn’s, and her eyes glisten with moisture. She’s about to cry.
“You’re pregnant?” I ask.
She nods, swallowing hard.
“It’s mine, isn’t it?”
She nods.
“Larkyn, I’m so sorry, I was an ass.” A smile creeps up on my face as I realize I’m going to be a dad, and the woman I love is going to be the mother. This is my chance to change things, to make things right.
“No,” she says, as I move toward her.
I stop. “Please let me fix this. We are having a baby together. Let me fix things.”
Her lip trembles, but she doesn’t back down. “There is no together. No us. I’m having a baby, and you can be in this baby’s life or not. I’m not looking for money, or child support, or inheritance. I would love for my child to have a father, so if you would like to be in my baby’s life, then we can get our lawyers together to discuss a custody arrangement. Otherwise, I don’t want to see you again.”
“Larkyn, please let me explain—”
Her eyes aren’t looking at me anymore; they are looking past me.
I glance behind me and see Sebastian standing on the foot of the porch.
“I can go if you two need more time to talk. I’ll do whatever you want me to do, Larkyn,” Sebastian says, ignoring me.
“Come in,” she says, and Sebastian steps inside her home. A man she once hated for almost running her over; she now welcomes in so easily. But me, a man who loves her, she views as a betrayer. I still don’t know what sparked her to fight with me the night she left, but it was clear she wanted out, that’s why she said what she did.
“Please,” I beg, as I bend down on one knee, like that will somehow convince her.
“I’m sorry,” she says, closing the door.
And then I’m alone on her porch.
So instead, I say what I need to say to her, to her front door, and hope she’s listening. “It was all fake. The reason we aren’t together. The fighting. All fake. I love you, Larkyn. I was an ass because that’s what you needed. I would do anything for you, and I thought I was doing the right thing by pushing us away from each other. But I was wrong. We belong together.
“I know you are upset about how I kept pressuring you about what you did with the money. But I’ve known all along what you did with the money. I’ve always known. You didn’t use it to buy this house. And I love you more for it.”
No answer. Not that I was expecting one. I let my hand rest against the door for a second, needing to be as close to her as possible.
And then I walk over to the bench on her porch and sit down on it. I’m not moving from this spot until I see Larkyn again. She needs to know I’m here for her and our baby no matter what. And that starts with actions, then maybe she’ll listen to my words.
19
Larkyn
“Kade is sleeping on your front porch,” Sebastian says, peering through my blinds.
“So?”
Sebastian drops the blind he had lifted up and walks over to the small white couch to sit next to me. I found this couch at a thrift store, and I love it.
“So, don’t you think you should give him another chance?”
“No.”