Falling for Trouble

She had yet to speak, but her face showed a torrent of emotions. He heard her swallow but pushed on before she could say anything.

“Despite all this, you have always stuck by my side, loving me and giving me strength when no one else would. I’ve done a lot of things that have warranted you to turn your back on me, but I’ve come here tonight to tell you that if you’ll give me another chance, I want to be the man you turn to as more than just a friend. I’m so in love with you, Sophia.”

God, telling her that he was in love with her, that he wanted her to choose him and not Hunter, was far harder than he thought it would be, especially since she had yet to say anything. He played this exact conversation over and over again in his head, but doing it in the flesh was like a fucking nightmare.

The silence that stretched between them was suffocating, but he gave her time, because he knew she needed it. He watched as she picked up her mug and took a slow sip. The smell of chamomile permeated his senses, and the slender column of her throat worked as she swallowed. When the bottom of the cup met the table again, she kept her hands around it.

“Sophia.” She lifted her eyes to him. He could do this. “Sophia, I—”

“I’m pregnant.”21When those two words left her mouth, everything around Sophia seemed to still. Abe blinked several times and slowly leaned back in his chair. He had poured his heart to her, said the exact thing she longed to hear, and now everything shifted because of her revelation.

If she couldn’t see his chest rise and fall, she would have thought he stopped breathing. “Abe? Please, say something.” She couldn’t stand his silence. His eyes dropped to her belly, and she covered it with her hands even though the table blocked his view. “Say something, Abe.”

For several long, tense moments, he did nothing but stare at her. When he did exhale, she thought they could finally discuss this. His hands slammed down on the table so hard she jumped and cried out.

He stood so fast his chair skidded back and hit the wall.

“Christ, Sophia. What the fuck do you want me to say?” He started pacing the length of the kitchen like a caged animal. He looked feral and intense. All she wanted to do was tell him the baby was his, but he seemed far too worked up. It didn’t matter what she said right now. Abe wouldn’t listen to reason.

“I—”

He stopped and placed his palms on the table, leaning forward so his face was close to hers. “It’s Hunter’s, isn’t it?” He sounded so… pained. She didn’t have time to answer, couldn’t have even formed words, if she were being honest.

“What?” Finally, she said that one word. Her voice was small, the shock of how this conversation was transpiring too much to even comprehend. She certainly hadn’t thought about telling him this way, and not tonight, but when she had seen him through the kitchen window, striding up to her door, she knew it had to be a sign.

Sophia had been afraid to say anything until now, trying to wrap her head around how she’d even get the words out, replaying this moment in her mind like a broken record. She hadn’t even told Abe the biggest part yet.

That he was the father.

He clearly read her silence wrong as he kicked his seat and it skidded across the floor. Sophia stood and put some distance between them. He looked bigger, his muscles more pronounced, his anger and pain clear. The shirt he wore stretched across his wide shoulders, emphasizing his raw power. He turned his back to her and dropped his head in his hands. His shoulders shook slightly, and when he turned back around, she was stunned to see tears in his eyes.

“Sophia.” The way he said her name was a broken gasp from his lips. He sat in one of the empty seats and let his head fall in his hands again. “Fuck, Soph,” he whispered hoarsely. She sat down beside him and with tentative movements reached across the table and gripped his forearm.

His head lifted, and he looked at her. The pain she saw in his face rocked her to her core.

“Abe—”

“I always thought it would be me.”

His words didn’t make any sense, and she tightened her hold on him. “You always thought what would be you?”

He laughed humorless. Abe looked out the kitchen window and stayed like that for several long moments. When he finally turned back to her, there was a deep and fierce need in his eyes, one that confused her. “I thought the baby you would someday carry would be mine.”