I love my sister, even when she teases me mercilessly. She’s been nothing but supportive of me being with Fury, but she’s convinced King’s going to absolutely lose his shit over the relationship. I know he’s not going to be happy, because this goes against what he’s told us to do, but I can’t understand why he wouldn’t want me dating a guy he’s welcomed into his club.
Holly and Fury join me in the kitchen and the butterflies I felt when he knocked on the door disappear.
Something’s wrong.
Oh God, he’s told King already.
That has to be it because the look on his face is pure torment.
We watch each other silently as Holly says, “I’m gonna grab my shit and get out of here. Leave you two to get onto eating all that meat.”
Once she’s left us, I move to him, searching his eyes. “You told King.”
His forehead creases for a moment before he shakes his head. “No. But there is something.”
My heart jumps into my throat. It’s beating so damn fast in there that I have trouble breathing. “What?”
He remains silent for too many seconds. Moments in which I consider a million horrible things that might have happened to him. But in no way do I think of the bombshell he drops.
“I found out today that I’m going to be a father.”
“Oh.” My heart beats faster in my throat.
“Yeah, that about covers it. Fucking, oh.”
I don’t know how to take that. Is he pissed off with this news? “You’re not happy about it?”
He scrubs a hand over his face, eyes still crowded with torment. “It was a shock. And having a child with a woman I don’t love or even really know is not how I would have preferred this to go down.” He pauses. “Fuck, Zara, I don’t even know that I planned to ever have children.”
“Who’s the mother?” It’s the question I don’t really want to ask, because I have a jealous streak a mile wide. It hasn’t flared with Fury yet, but I’m feeling it deeply now.
“Lynette.”
I’ve seen her around the clubhouse and I’m not a fan. Well, I wasn’t before I knew Fury slept with her, but I’m really not a fan now. Which is just dumb because that’s coming from pure jealousy. But still, I can’t help how I feel, and I’m feeling all kinds of unpleasant things about this.
Desperate to stop focussing on Lynette, I think about the baby instead. “When’s the baby due?”
“July. I think.”
I frown. “You don’t know?”
His mouth pulls into an angry line. “She doesn’t know.”
I continue frowning. What pregnant woman doesn’t know when her baby’s due?
“Fuck,” he says. “We need to talk about this.”
“I thought we were talking about it,” I say slowly, confused. I don’t like the sound of his voice. And I really don’t like the way he’s looking at me with regret and heartbreak and apology all rolled into one.
He reaches for my waist and pulls me to him. Smoothing my hair, he says, “I had the shittiest childhood; I’ve told you a little about that.”
I nod and swallow hard. Why is my chest squeezing like my world is about to crash down all around me? “Yes.”
“It’s the kind of childhood I’d never wish upon any child. Children deserve two parents who love them and who will go to the ends of the earth for them if necessary.” He pauses like he’s trying to figure out how to say what he has to say. “I need to go to the ends of the earth for my child. I need to do everything I can to give it a home with two parents.”
Oh God.
This is why he’s looking at me the way he is.