“Yes,” she hopped on the bed again. “If one of us is going too far or if it hurts too much—”
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Say bubblegum and it stops,” she continued unfazed. “That’s the deal.”
“It’s like a magic word,” I said, curling a blonde strand around my finger.
She tilted her chin up, shaking her pretty head. “No, the magic word is please. The safe word is bubblegum.” Then she laughed and kissed me.
“I think we need to test this.” My hands had just gone to her cheeks, cupping her face when I noticed a loud tapping noise from the other room.
Our lips stilled and I raised my head. We exchanged a confused look, but I let her go, picking up my jeans and jerking them over my hips.
“Hold that thought, Bubblegum,” I said.
“You can’t use it all the time or it won’t work!”
I shook my head as the tapping grew louder and went to the door. “Hang on,” I called, pulling it open fast. The girl outside my door jumped back.
“Oh!” she said, and for a half-second, I didn’t recognize her. Light-brown, shoulder-length hair. Her lips were a rosy pink, and she only wore the lightest mascara. It was smudged a bit under big blue eyes. She was the same, but completely different.
“Kenny?”
Those eyes flew down my shirtless torso and back up as her cheeks flooded with pink. “This is how you answer the door?” she exhaled, shaking her head as she pushed past me, entering my apartment.
“What are you doing here?” I followed her back inside, shutting it.
She went to the fireplace and stood staring at the silent space while I took in her short dress with black combat boots. The edge wasn’t completely gone.
“I’ve been needing to talk to you, but you’ve been away so much.” She turned to face me, wringing her small hands. “When you texted that you were alone this weekend, I figured I’d just drive up and spend the night.”
My brow lined and I shook my head. “What’s going on?”
“Oh, Patrick.” Those hands went to her forehead, and she pushed back her now-even hair. It was a gesture I recognized from the tattoo parlor when she’d forgotten to get my signature on the paperwork. Her eyes rose to mine, and now they were shining with tears.
“Hey,” I crossed the room quickly to hug her. “What’s wrong?” I rubbed her back, holding her close. “Did your parents kick you out?”
“No,” her voice trembled. “But they might. Oh, god.”
Her hands went to my arms and she pushed out of them. Then she took another step away, and her eyes scanned my body again.
“Why aren’t you wearing a shirt?” she said, her voice irritated. “It’s hard to think when you’re all… on display like this.”
“Jesus, will you just tell me what’s going on?”
With a deep inhale, she straightened her back. Then closing her eyes, she said it. The two words that exploded everything.
“I’m pregnant.”
Chapter 19 – Right and Wrong
It felt like a roundhouse kick to the gut followed by an ice-chest of freezing water dumped over my head, but I still wasn’t ready to accept Kenny’s meaning. “Why are you telling me you’re pregnant?”
“Because it’s yours, dummy!” Her hands slapped down to her legs and she stormed into the kitchen, jerking open my refrigerator as she spoke under her breath. “What I wouldn’t give for a drink right now.”
I was right behind her. “But… You were on the pill.”
“Yes.” She took out a ginger ale and popped the top. “All I can figure is I’d had a sinus infection the week before. The doc put me on antibiotics—”