Chapter 14
Gavin
Isitonthe front porch throwing a ball for Gem so she can run off some of her energy. This is one of her favorite things to do when she has time to play. She's partly working, too, because she has to nudge my leg when there's no one in the way, so I know it's safe to throw the ball.
Lauren should be home later today, and I can't wait to see her tomorrow. Since she left, we've been texting daily, and at night we’ve been having the naughtiest phone sex. Each night, her confidence grows, and our phone sex gets hotter.
This is more like my Lauren, but ten times sexier. I can't wait to hold her in my arms and show her I meant every word about her curves.
When Gem brings the ball over, she sits beside me instead of nudging me to play, which means there's someone nearby. A minute later, the creak of the wooden porch indicates someone is walking toward us.
I assume it's a visitor or another patient heading inside, but whoever it is stops next to me.
"Hey, Gavin."
I immediately jump to my feet."Lauren! I didn't think I'd get to see you until tomorrow." I reach for her, and she comes right into my arms, letting me know my feelings aren’t one-sided.
"I came straight from the airport."
Holding her tighter, I kiss the top of her head. "I missed you too, baby," I whisper into her hair.
"Will you sit with me? I have something I need to talk to you about."
"Of course."
She takes my hand and leads me to one of the benches. We sit next to each other, and I pull her in close, putting my arm around her. Gem comes up, gives me the ball, and knocks my knee, so I throw it for her, and she takes off running.
“Every time you throw that ball, I swear Gem has the biggest smile on her face.”
"Good. She deserves to have some fun," I say, waiting for Lauren to tell me whatever’s on her mind.
"All right. There's no easy way to say this. All weekend and all the way home, I've been trying to figure out a way to tell you. I want to start by saying how sorry I am. I never meant to keep this from you, and if you give me time to explain, you’ll understand why it happened. But I think it's best to rip off the Band-Aid."
She pauses to take a breath, and a million things run through my head in that second. Is she seeing someone else? Has she decided not to try for an us? All my thoughts lead to her leaving me. My heart breaks before she says anything because I had a completely different idea of how things would go once she got home.
"After you left for boot camp, I had no way of getting hold of you. I sent letters, but they were returned because they couldn’t find you, or maybe you sent them back because you didn't want to read them. I don't know."
"I never got anything from you. If I had, I wouldn’t have sent them back. For sure, I would’ve read them and responded," I tell her honestly.
I wish she could’ve contacted or written me. I would have talked to her for as long as she wanted. But I never gave her an address, so I would’ve been more shocked if she’d been able to track me down.
"I found out a few weeks after you left. I wasn't in a good place, and I thought stress and everything else was making me sick. When I finally went to the doctor, he told me it wasn’t stress."
All thoughts that this is about her seeing someone else are gone. She found out that she was sick. Cancer? When she needed me the most, I’d walked away. How could she ever forgive me?
"What did the doctor say?" I need to know, but I’m not sure I want to know.
Lauren fidgets nervously, and I know whatever she needs to tell me is hard for her to vocalize. I pull her closer, hoping to give her the strength she needs.
"He told me I was pregnant. You have a son. His name is Graham. He’s six years old and in the first grade."
I’m sure there's no way I heard her correctly, but the longer I sit here, the more it sinks in.
"Gavin, I swear I tried to contact you. I still have all the letters that were returned to sender. Some were never returned, and I thought maybe they got to you, but after spending time with you here, I realized they hadn't.
My parents insisted I would be able to raise him, and they helped me through school. They moved to Arizona once I was stable, and he started kindergarten last year."
Lauren stops talking. I should have questions for her, but I'm stunned. "A son? We have a son together?"