“But you asked her to marry you?”
It was my turn to be surprised, but honesty was my best defense.
“I was grasping at straws. It was nothing but my ego wanting to win the girl. If she’d said yes, then everything everyone was saying wasn’t true.”
“From her point of view, you didn’t care. You’d moved on within days of you breaking up because, in her words, the fact that you didn’t want kids was a deal breaker.”
I choked on a laugh. “I was nineteen. Of course, I didn’t want kids. Hell, I realized after I asked her to marry me that I didn’t want that either.”
“You didn’t love her?”
“I loved her in the way that a naïve boy loves the first girl to blow his mind. But we weren’t right for each other. She’s more suited to Jeff. They’re happily married with three kids and I’m happy for them.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“What?” I asked.
“Kids? What are your thoughts about kids now?”
“Maybe someday.” I couldn’t read her expression, so I pushed forward. “I do have another proposition for you.” I waited a beat before continuing and dug up sand and released it slowly out of my hand to keep busy as to not reach for her. “The airlines are still trying to recover. Meanwhile, charter flights are booming. Even if you don’t want to work on things with me, we could use a flight attendant on staff.”
“Work on us?” she asked, astonished not by my job offer.
“Yes. I wasn’t going to ask you how you felt about me, but fuck it. Have you been seeing anyone else?”
“No. You?” she asked. I shook my head. “Are you hooking up with anyone?”
I lifted my hand. “Just me and this guy.”
Her jaw dropped. “No one, for five months?”
“There’s no one else for me.”
A tear slipped from her eye and I closed the distance between us to wipe it from her face.
“Don’t cry,” I begged.
“You don’t understand,” she sobbed.
“I understand love is when two people don’t give up but fight for each other. Are you willing to fight with me?”
“I.” She hesitated. “I love you too, but there’s something I need to tell you.”
I didn’t understand why she was getting to her feet until she stood there.
“How far along?” I asked, remaining calm as I stared at her rounded belly.
“I planned to tell you.”
“How far along?” I repeated because I didn’t trust myself from saying something stupid.
“About five months.” She spoke so quietly if the wave hadn’t broken a second before I might not have heard her.
I got to my feet, wondering if I should leave because fighting with her couldn’t be good for the baby.
“When were you going to tell me? After the baby was born, when he or she took their first steps, or maybe never?”
She raised her hands like she wanted me to calm down. Again, I thought about leaving, but dammit, I deserved answers.
“Grant.” She tried and failed to stop my tirade because I was on a fucking roll.
“When did you know? Is that why you left? Don’t you think I had a right to know what was going on with you and why you left? You said nothing.”
“You have a right to be angry.”
“You’re right. I do and I am,” I spat, trying to reconcile the woman I loved and the one who’d lied to me for months.
“Now it’s your turn to hear me,” she demanded. “I thought I might be pregnant before I left. But what was I supposed to do? Ask for a ride to the small-town pharmacy and get a test so everyone in town would know?”
“Yes,” I yelled.
“Well, I didn’t. I was confused and scared.”
“You didn’t trust me enough to be with me.”
“It’s not that. I trust you, but if it was positive, I would have had to come home and seen my doctor anyway.”
“Which I would have come with you.”
“I know,” she yelled back. “But I didn’t know what I felt, how I felt, or what the hell I was going to do. Plus, what Cara said about you not wanting kids messed with my mind. I didn’t want to force your hand. I thought I was doing us both a favor by figuring it out first.”
“Meanwhile, I missed every appointment.”
“You wouldn’t have been able to go anyway with everything that’s happening. You missed nothing,” she screamed.
I took in a deep breath because arguing wasn’t solving anything.
“Am I to assume you’re keeping it, or do I have a say?” I asked with no bite behind it.
“Of course, you have a say. And yes, I’m keeping the baby and I was going to tell you.” She fiddled with her phone, and moments later held up the screen for me to see. “I was coming this weekend to tell you. I even rented a car. I just thought that texting you or speaking to you over the phone wasn’t the way.”