“What an asshole!” I shrieked.
“It’s not a big deal. I mean, it’s crappy that he lied, but we weren’t committed to each other or in love. It wasn’t serious, so it’s not as if I could have expected anything else. I was stupid to have thought it could be anything at all. Lesson learned.”
Allie could pretend to be unaffected until the cows came home, but I knew her well enough to see beyond the façade. Maybe she hadn’t been all the way in love with Vaughn yet, but there was no doubt in my mind that she’d been falling. That he’d gotten past her laser-like focus on her writing and the nerves about having her first script becoming a movie said a lot about how Allie had been feeling about him. To have him go from being so interested in her that he had her move into his freaking house for a week to having someone else there was more than disappointing. This was particularly true considering that Allie was late.
I knew that the situation called for me to be blunt. “You need to take a pregnancy test.”
“I’ll pick one up soon,” she agreed.
I didn’t like soon because it was too open-ended but decided not to press the issue. She was understandably anxious, and I didn’t want to add to it. My job as her best friend was to let her know in no uncertain terms that she had support.
“If you’re pregnant I’ll be there every step of the way,” I vowed. “We can raise the baby together.”
She snorted. “So my baby would have two mommies and a Gage? I bet Mr. I don’t want children would love that.”
“If he didn’t understand my commitment to you, I wouldn’t want to be with him anyway. Besides, it wouldn’t affect him since he wouldn’t be living with us. Obviously, I’d still be with him, but he wouldn’t be in the house for late-night feedings or diaper changing.”
Allie arched a brow. “You know you don’t have to pack it up and move out of Gage’s if I’m pregnant, right?”
“Of course I wouldn’t have to,” I agreed. “Besides, it’s a moot point. Now that Kerri has been caught and there’s no more threat to me, I’ll be moving back to the condo. Although if you’re pregnant, we should probably upgrade to a house…”
“Morgan!” she snapped, startling me. “Are you out of your mind?”
“What? I’m just saying that having a house with a yard would be smart if there’s a baby on the way. The condo is only a two-bedroom, and there’s no outdoor space. A baby will need outdoor time, and if we’re going to be outside anyway, we should get a dog. And obviously, if there’s a dog, we need a yard. It’s just common sense.”
She looked at me like I was eleven eggs short of a dozen. “I mean this in the nicest way possible. Morgy, you are nuts. First, I don’t want a dog right now. Second, and far more importantly, Gage Ryan is not going to sit with his thumb up his ass while you roll your suitcases out of his house and into our condo.”
I didn’t think she was right about that. “As amazing as he’s been about having me there, it was a spur of the moment decision for him. I haven’t lost sight of the fact that it was never meant to be permanent.”
“I don’t think that’s true. I mean, maybe at the start there was no guarantee that it would be permanent, but I think you’re well past the point of living apart at this point.”
I did my best to ignore the way my stomach fluttered at her words. I wanted to believe that Gage and I were in it for the long haul, but in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help thinking about how vocal he’d been about never getting married and not having children. He’d stayed single and unattached for a reason. I didn’t think a little over three months of dating me—one of those months being long distance— could have changed him that much.
“We’re perfect together, and I love being with him, but I don’t want to have unrealistic expectations. He’s an amazing man and an incredible boyfriend, but since he’s never told me he loves me, I’m almost afraid to think too hard about what kind of longevity we might have.”
Allie frowned. “Hey. Just because he hasn’t said the words doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel it. I mean, I know you love him, and I further know that you haven’t told him that. Just because he hasn’t said the words doesn’t mean the feelings aren’t there.”
I figured only time would tell, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I was hoping for a miracle.“How was Allie?”
Gage posed the question when he took his lips from mine after kissing me until I damn near melted into a puddle on his kitchen floor.