“It’s better to be safe than sorry, Faith. You should have called me. It’s cold and getting dark. You could trip and fall,” he answered, not looking very happy with her surly attitude. “I was worried.”
“Why?” she said simply. “We’re nothing to each other. We had a one-night stand. I would never think to call you.”
“You’re the mother of my child,” he clipped out angrily.
She shrugged and turned away from him. He was the one who insisted on putting up walls between them. She kept on walking. Adam was not something she wanted to deal with today. She planned on eating and sleeping the night away.
“Let me give you a ride home. You shouldn’t be walking in your condition,” he said out loud. Faith spotted a few people walking down the sidewalk. She stopped and turned back to Adam.
“Shh. People can hear you,” she whispered in a horrified voice.
/> “Are you ashamed?” he whispered back, looking upset with that idea.
“Red Hook is a small town, Adam. What are people going to say when they find out I’m a single mom? They’re going to talk about me behind my back. I have at least a few weeks before I show and have to put up with that nonsense.”
Adam looked grumpy. “No one better say anything to you.”
“They won’t to my face, but I know how it goes. They will wonder who the dad is and the rumors will start,” she said tiredly. She put a hand to her forehead. “Look, Adam, I had a shitty day. I walked to work. My feet and back ache. I just want to go home and sleep.”
“Then let me give you a ride,” he said softly. How could she resist that face? She needed to stay angry so she wouldn’t beg him to love her.
She sighed. She was weak, a doormat with no backbone. “Fine, but don’t let me fall.”
“Never,” he swore. “I’ll drive carefully.”
She hopped on the back of the bike. He put a helmet on her head and gave her a gentle smile. She put her arms around his waist and hung on. It felt good to touch him again even for a short time. Hopefully in time she could get over Adam.
He kept his word and drove slowly through the streets. It didn’t take long to reach her house. It was dark and the loneliness hit her like a ton of bricks. She hopped off, refusing to look at Adam. She didn’t want him to feel pity for her. She handed him his helmet while looking down at her feet. “Thanks, Adam.”
“Is something wrong? You look upset?”
She shook her head. “It’s hormones, that’s all. See you around.”
She looked at her dark, cold house and started up the steps. She took out her keys and went to put the key in the lock. She felt Adam behind her and grab the keys from her. He unlocked the door and opened it. “How about I cook you dinner?”
“All I have is spaghetti. Besides, you said you burn everything,” she reminded him, going in and taking off her sweater. She hung it on the coat rack and Adam hung up his jacket.
“Not spaghetti. You boil some noodles and heat up some sauce. Easy,” he assured her. He turned a lamp on in the living room. He looked at her fireplace. “I can start a fire and you can sit and relax.”
Faith plopped down ungracefully on the couch and yawned. “If you are sure. I don’t want to intrude on your plans.”
“I have no plans, sweetheart. Liam is working and Noah is with Alana,” he said. “I know it gets lonely.”
He got busy building a fire and she took the time to check him out. He was so sexy and she felt sad he didn’t belong to her. She didn’t have the right to compliment him or just go up to him and hug him.
After the fire started, she could feel the warmth. She sighed with comfort, feeling her eyes getting heavy. She hated this weary feeling that seemed to surround her.
“How come you don’t have a tree?” he asked, looking around her bare living room.
“Holidays have never been good times for us,” she explained. “My dad took off and never looked back. My mom drank herself to sleep and forgot she had kids. Trees and Santa were not on her mind. We just saw it as time off school. My employees insisted on decorating the coffee shop for me. Jenny has a small son and really gets excited about Christmas.”
She looked over at him. “How about you? Does it bring too many memories of your parents and fiancée?”
Adam thought about it. “The first year it did. Then Liam insisted Mom wouldn’t have wanted us to mourn forever. Christmas was her favorite holiday and she had so many decorations. That second year after they died, we put up a tree and all the trimmings. It made us feel closer to them, so now we do it all the time. This year Alana came over with Noah and helped us. She made cookies and hot chocolate.”
Faith smiled picturing all that happiness. She wanted that for her baby. “I want that for my child. Happy memories and the knowledge they are loved.”
She looked down at her flat stomach, but she knew he or she was in there and it brought her comfort. “Next year I will do all that stuff. Make new traditions. It will be a small family with just me and Holly, but I will make sure he or she is loved, like I never was.”