Unspoken Rules (Rules 2)

This one is not funny, Universe.

I know I need to confront him if we want this relationship to survive the day. It’s one thing that he might have a kid, but going behind my back to contact his first everything? I don’t think I can take it.

I inhale when Haze turns the corner and walks into the room with nothing but sweatpants on. I watch the water slowly cascade down his pecs. Of course, he has to look like that when I’m about to go off on him.

What? Just because I’m mad doesn’t mean I’m blind.

I make sure to keep my eyes off his body. He smiles at the sight of me sitting on the bed in one of his many black T-shirts. I wasn’t comfortable sleeping naked last night, so he tossed it to me before we passed out. It goes without saying that it’s too big for me, which resulted in him constantly laughing and asking me how many villages I can fit in there.

The smile is slapped off his face when he lowers his eyes to my hand and sees what I’m holding: his phone.

Instantly, he understands.

He knows that I know.

“I was going to tell you,” he says.

I appreciate that he’s not playing dumb.

He walks toward me and sits on the edge of the bed, holding out his hand in my direction to get his phone back. I give it to him, and he reads the unanswered messages on his locked screen.

He completely ignores Bianca’s miserable attempts at getting his attention—like he’s wired to ignore her, like it comes naturally to him—and he scrolls down to the real problem.

“I swear I would’ve told you as soon as I saw her reply. Nothing was official. She hadn’t texted me back yet.” He unlocks his phone and pulls up the text conversation.

It’s true. He’s only sent her one message, and she’s just replied now. His message basically reads somewhere along the lines of “Vic gave me your new number. Said you live in the next town over now. We need to talk. I’d like it if we could meet tomorrow at such place and such time.”

I look up at Haze and ignore all the questions crushing me. He takes my hand. I don’t remove it, but I don’t welcome his touch either.

“So that’s where you were yesterday? You were with Vic?”

“Yeah.” He brushes my palm with his finger. “I just can’t live with the questions anymore. I asked him if he’d heard from her, and he said that she reached out to him a few months ago. He was the only one who knew that she was back. He didn’t want to tell me unless I brought it up.”

“He didn’t want to tell you that the possible mother of your child was back in town?” I arch an eyebrow. “What a good friend.”

“He is a good friend, Winter. He did it for me. I made him promise to never talk about it.”

He made his best friend promise not to bring up this painful period again. Makes me wonder how many other things his friends can’t bring up; how many wounds Haze Adams refuses to open.

“What does this mean?” is all I can bring myself to say.

I’m confident that he can see the doubt in my eyes, and the way he smiles sadly tells me that he can’t provide me with the comfort I need.

“I don’t know.” He sighs. “I’ll know tonight. I didn’t want her to tell me anything over the phone.”

I articulate what he truly meant. “You mean you didn’t want her to tell you that you have a kid over the phone.”

He rubs at the back of his neck, obviously as uncomfortable with the idea as I am. “Yes.”

The fact that this is even an option stirs up a bunch of unexpected emotions in me. Yesterday, it seemed like a distant memory and a problem destined to remain unresolved, but today, it’s here.

Today… it’s real.

“Listen, for all we know she had the abortion and she’s going to laugh at me for wondering all these years.” He squeezes my hand.

“Vic doesn’t know if she had the kid?”

“She didn’t say. She hadn’t talked to him in so long. I guess that’s not something you casually slide into small talk. He said that she was in a rush, too.”