“What about taking things slow? Seriously, Patrick, I thought you were smarter than that.”
He frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean? And, I’ve waited my entire life to be with her. How much slower can I go?”
“She literally just broke up with Lance. He’s still blowing up her phone. Why would you get involved in that?”
“They’re over.”
“I hope so, but she’s not over their relationship. He messed her up.”
“I know. We talked about it. She told me everything.”
“Oh, really?”
He got defensive. “Yes. Don’t act like you’re the only person she confides in. We spent the whole night talking.” When she gave him a skeptical look, he added, “In between other things.”
“Then you know.”
He paused, backtracking and trying to figure out exactly what she was talking about. He believed Julie told him everything. What made Jo automatically assume she’d be more informed than him?
“I know everything you know, so stop acting like you have a better grip on the situation than me!”
Jo fisted her hands at her hips and leveled him with an unimpressed stare. “Then she told you she’s pregnant?”
Chapter 14
Someone could have knocked him over with a feather. Chills raced under his skin, slipping over the surface of his blood as if it had frozen to a sheet of ice. He couldn’t breathe. His lungs tightened, until it truly felt like he was drowning.
“What?” he wheezed.
“I knew you didn’t know. She’s pregnant with Lance’s baby. So, knowing my sister and the hold this guy has on her, chances are, she’ll take him back.”
His legs gave out and he dropped to sit on the edge of his bed. “Why didn’t she tell me?”
Jo sat beside him. “She’s confused and scared. I know, in your head, the last day was like a dream come true, but to her, it wasn’t about you. It was about her. I think you helped her, but you…” Jo squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry, Pat.”
He couldn’t figure out which way was up and which way was down. “I need to see Julie.”
“Pat, you need to give her time to figure this out. She has to make the decision on her own.”
“She doesn’t trust her decision-making right now!”
“All the more reason to let her figure it out. Give her space. You and I both know she’s able to decide for herself what she wants.”
But what if she wanted Lance? What if she wanted to go back, not for her, but for the child’s sake?
“Two days ago, you were so certain she was done with him.”
Regret reflected in her eyes. “I didn’t know about the baby then. I’m so sorry.”
He frowned. “She made sure we were safe.”
“Because she wanted to make sure you didn’t think she was trying to manipulate you in any way. It’s early. Lance doesn’t even know yet.”
“Does she plan on telling him?”
Jo’s brows lifted. “You know her as well as anyone. Julie’s always been honest to a fault.”
Yet, she didn’t tell Pat she was pregnant. Maybe she was still processing. “I don’t think this pregnancy was planned.”
“Agreed. And I hate the idea of her sleeping with someone who was also making her miserable—makes me want to cut off his nuts, the selfish prick.”
Maybe, Pat thought, Julie couldn’t bear that truth either and that was why she was so set on being with him. Was he just an eraser for her, someone to rewrite her last time with Lance? He wanted to be more than that, he wanted to believe they shared something personal, and that she wouldn’t use him that way. But he just didn’t know. He was in shock.
He rubbed his chest, where an ache had formed. He’d heard the saying that it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, but having suffered that loss, he wasn’t sure that saying held true.
His entire life he secretly pined for her and dreamed of one day having her. He was finally starting to accept that he’d missed his chance, until the other night when he found everything he wanted, literally, sitting right in his lap.
Having Julie, even if only for a day, was the highlight of his life. It was the truest euphoria he’d ever known. But losing her… It would be a greater hell than anything he’d ever suffered.
His head hung low as a sense of defeat washed over him. He couldn’t interfere with a family when children were involved. But what if Lance only got worse. What if his gaslighting and manipulation grew into physical abuse, abuse that reached the child?
Lance was a malignant narcissist, and Pat truly believed there was no changing him. Julie had read a few books, but maybe if he could convince her to speak to a professional, she would feel more confident in her choices.
He hadn’t realized he’d reached for his phone, but as he stared down at it in his palm, a text message already open for Julie, he didn’t have a clue what to write.