She shakes her head. “I’m not talking about Lily. I wasn’t going to tell you the truth about the baby.”
She rests her hand on her stomach that looks larger every time she moves. She must be pretty far along, which means she met the father quickly after we broke up.
“I don’t deserve to know about the baby. You lived your life while I was picking up the pieces to mend mine.”
She bites her lip and then the words fall out of her mouth. “The baby is yours.”
I freeze. “What?”
“The baby is yours.”
I jump out of the booth and over to her side climbing into the booth next to her. I get a better look at her stomach and realize that she is about to pop any day now.
“Can you forgive me? I wasn’t going to tell you about the baby even though it’s yours. I wasn’t sure I could take the chance that you wouldn’t hurt this baby too. But after I thought more about it, I knew you would never intentionally hurt this baby. I was hiding the baby from you to get back at you. I had turned heartless and wanted you to feel the pain that I felt.”
I laugh. “I don’t care. I’m just so happy that the baby is mine and not some other asshole’s.” I put my hand on her stomach, feeling the baby kick inside her. Magical is all I think as I feel the baby inside her.
“God, Victoria, I know I’ve made plenty of mistakes in the past, but know that I’m going to love this baby with everything I have.”
“It’s a boy,” she says grinning.
“I’m going to love and protect our son with everything that I have.”
She nods. “I know.”
I hold out the ring to her, not sure where we go from here, except that I love her and I need to be a part of her life.
She takes the ring hesitantly in her hand, then places it on the ring finger of her right hand. “Maybe someday I’ll move it to its proper place on my left hand, but for now I just want to be happy. I want to work hard. I want to take care of this new baby. And I want you to be a part of that.”
I grin and kiss her long and slow.
“I know that you have mixed emotions toward me, but how do you feel about me right here in this moment? Do you still hate me or love me?”
“Why?” I ask.
“Because there is a restroom behind you that I would love to fuck you in.”
She grins. “Love. Definitely love.”
Epilogue
Victoria
I hear Charlie crying as I clasp my bracelet onto my wrist. We were supposed to leave five minutes ago for our dinner date, but it seems that Charlie really doesn’t want us to go.
I walk out of my bedroom and head down the hallway toward Charlie’s room. I guess our dinner date will have to wait a little longer. I make it almost to his room when Carter grabs my hand and pulls me into the hallway closet as he shuts the door behind us. He puts his hand over my mouth and makes a shh sound.
I raise an eyebrow at him and wait for him to remove his hand from my lips.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“We aren’t here remember. We are on our date. We haven’t had a date since Charlie was born six months ago and we aren’t going to get trapped here again. What is the benefit of living with your entire family if you don’t take advantage of the free babysitting?”
“But Charlie—”
“Is fine.”
I listen and I hear Amber and Sailor comforting Charlie down the hallway.