The cool evening breeze hit my face and dried the tears on my cheeks.
Despite the pain that accompanied that memory, it still wasn’t the worst I’d felt. The worst pain had come later, after Zane left town.
After I realized he wasn’t going to try to see me before he left.
After I realized that night in Kellan’s was our last night together.
After I’d spent hours crying myself to sleep and wishing more than anything that I had stayed in that booth just a little longer, for I could never be certain that he would ever return…
CHAPTER 10
Alicia
It had been a week since my last conversation with Zane and still, I woke up with a stomachache almost every morning.
I hated feeling so lovesick, but Zane crossed my mind at least ten times a day. No matter how busy I was, he always found a way to take over my thoughts, reminding me just how much I missed him.
I had known it was coming. Zane had constantly talked about the Savage Soldiers and how he was willing to do whatever it took to prove himself. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise.
And yet, it was.
It had knocked the wind out of me. Damn near broke me. The worst part had been his smile—like he was happy to leave me. Like our entire relationship had just been his way of passing time until his real life traveling in the military began.
Thinking about it made my stomach roll again. That morning, I’d shot out of bed and hurled myself into the bathroom, where I threw up everything in my stomach—which wasn’t much. Then I’d curled into a ball on the floor.
When Allie found me, she’d sat beside me and rubbed my back.
I rolled over to face her, knowing how pathetic I must have seemed to someone so strong.
“He’s just a boy,” I said, my voice weak. “I don’t know why it’s affecting me so much.”
“Because you love him,” she said gently.
“So what?” I argued.
“So it’s going to hurt for a while.” She paused. “But, Alicia—I don’t think that’s why you’re sick…”
“What do you mean?”
Allie sighed and reached behind her. Slowly, she laid a box down beside me and brushed my hair off my face. “I’ll be right outside if you need me.”
I frowned and watched her leave, closing the bathroom door softly behind her. When I looked down at the box, I almost screamed. I picked up the pregnancy test, feeling like it would burn a hole in my hand.
I sat up quickly, fighting another wave of nausea. The box fell onto the floor and I stared at it for a few seconds. All I knew in that moment was that she was wrong. I wasn’t pregnant. Zane and I were always careful, and I had been on the pill for two years.
Still, something tugged at the back of my mind. Particularly that one night when we’d been drunk after leaving Kellan’s…
Had we used protection that night?
I counted backward, realizing it had been about six weeks since that night and that I hadn’t had a period in almost two months.
My heart pounded as I opened the box and took the test. When I laid it down on the bathroom floor to wait, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. For every single second of those three minutes, I watched the little screen, waiting for it to tell me my fate.
When the plus sign appeared, my stomach rolled and I threw up again. Allie hurried into the bathroom to hold my hair back.
Somehow, she’d known all along.
Apparently, heartbreak wasn’t the only thing Zane Prewitt had left me behind with.