“But really,” I say, taking her hand in mine. “No matter what, I got you.” She gives me a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “We don’t have to worry about this yet,” I say because the pure torture on her face is killing me. I hate it, and I don’t want her to burden herself with this yet. “We have months before we have to figure out what to do.”
“But we’ll figure it out together, correct?”
She brings her eyes to meet mine, and I reach up, cupping her jaw. “Of course, Ally. And no matter what, we’ll be together.”
“Really?”
“Really. I’m not letting you go that easy. Think you can ghost me? Please.”
She grins. “I would do no such thing.”
“We’re good,” I promise, cupping her ankle. She exhales the breath she must have been holding before she leans in to capture my mouth with hers. Our kisses turn urgent, but just as I’m about to slide my hands between her legs, my phone sounds, and then Ally’s does the same. Almost at the same time. We look at each other, surprised, before reaching for them on the table.
“It’s Aiden.”
“It’s Shelli.”
We say it at the same time, and she gets off me as I answer the ringing. “What’s up?”
“Dude, Posey just went back for surgery. She had an ectopic pregnancy.”
It all happens so quickly. His words. My heart dropping to my stomach as fear fills the spot where my heart just was. I hear Ally cry out in surprise as I assume Shelli is telling her the same thing. “I’m with Ally—”
“Okay. Take care of her. We were worried how she would handle this.”
The phone goes dead, and I throw it down, going right to Ally. I wrap my arms around her as she cries, holding me, while she and Shelli talk. I love Posey, and hearing that she had an ectopic pregnancy scares the shit out of me. But what is going through Ally’s head scares me even more. I’m aware that makes me a shitty dude, but Ally doesn’t cope well when she hears about people losing babies. It brings back the worst memories from her childhood, and my heart aches for her.
Ally’s sobs rip through her as she begs Shelli to keep her in the loop. When she hangs up, I take her phone and wrap her up tighter in my arms. Her body shakes within my embrace, and I try to hold her closer, to make her feel safe. I kiss her temple, her cheek, before I kiss her jaw. “It’s okay. She’ll be fine.”
She swallows thickly as she nods, wrapping her arms around my neck. “I’m scared.”
“I know,” I reassure her, kissing her once more.
“Shelli says she’ll be okay, that they even believe she’ll still be able to have children.”
“Good. See? It’s okay. It just sucks. Did they plan this?”
She shakes her head against my cheek, her hair getting caught in my beard. “No, not that I know of. She never told me she was pregnant.”
“She didn’t tell me either. She must not have known. Plus, if she’d told Shelli, we’d have known.”
“For sure,” she agrees, and I kiss her again.
“Babe, Posey is strong as fuck. She’ll be fine.”
Her watery gaze meets mine, and it’s like a punch to the throat. “It scares the shit out of me.”
“I get it, Ally. I do.”
Her voice shakes. “I hate that I can’t just be worried for my best friend. That I automatically start thinking of when my mom lost Jamie.” It hurts. The pain in her eyes, her tears, everything, it hurts me. “There was so much blood when I found her, and it’s like I have PTSD from it.”
I was younger when Harper lost Jamie and I don’t remember it all, but Ally does. She was there when it all happened. Her mom was three days late to deliver her baby brother, and no one knows what quite happened, but she started hemorrhaging and passed out while everyone thought she was napping. To this day, it still haunts Ally because she thinks if she’d found her mom faster, she would have been able to save her brother. She had a ton of therapy when she was younger, and it helped. But once Claire kept losing baby after baby, it brought back all those fears. And now this.
“Ally, baby, I promise. It’s okay. Posey will be fine. And look at Claire. They’re living the dream now.”
She swallows hard, her whole body making the motion before she meets my gaze. “It scares me.”
“I know—”