Rogue Beast (The Rourkes #12) - Kylie Gilmore Page 0,83

an Army Ranger? Check. Men should be men. Thank God you got a real man this time.”

Harper throws her hands up. “We broke up, Grandmom, you know that.”

“Take off your jacket,” Mrs. Ellis says to me. “Stay a while.”

I unzip my jacket and pull out the stuffed reindeer and Santa, which seem utterly ridiculous in light of all the turmoil going through me now. I can’t wait another minute to say what I have to say.

“Harper, we need to talk. Can we go outside?”

“It’s freezing out there,” Mrs. Ellis says. “Talk in here.”

Harper turns to her and says in an even tone, “I’d like some privacy to talk to him, please.”

Mrs. Ellis lets out a huge sigh and rises from her chair with some difficulty. “I’ll go upstairs, but don’t be doing anything inappropriate on my sofa.”

“We’ll try to restrain ourselves,” Harper deadpans.

Mrs. Ellis slowly makes her way to her chairlift, and I just know this is going to take way too long for me and Harper to connect.

I follow her. “Ma’am, could I carry you upstairs? You look like you weigh one hundred pounds soaking wet. It’s no problem.” I hold my arms out to her.

Her face flushes, and she calls over to Harper, “Your fellow is ridiculous.” She turns to me. “No, thank you, I can manage just fine.”

I wink. “I’ll get you in my arms one day, Queen Joan.”

“Nonsense,” she snaps, but I don’t miss the twinkle in her eye.

I join Harper on the sofa, and we wait as the chairlift makes its slow humming way upstairs.

“You can start talking now,” Mrs. Ellis says. “I can’t hear a thing over the noise of this contraption.”

“We can hear you,” Harper says loudly.

“Harper has something to tell you,” Mrs. Ellis says.

“I have something to tell her too,” I say.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Mrs. Ellis demands.

Harper turns to me with an apologetic smile. “Sorry. Let’s just pretend to talk until she’s in her room.”

“Did you meet someone else? Just tell me. I can take it.”

“Garrett, there’s no one else. Drew is just a friend.”

I relax. Everything else is fixable. I hope.

Finally, Mrs. Ellis makes it to a room upstairs and shuts the door.

Harper exhales sharply. “I never thought she’d get there.”

“Harp, I’ve missed you.” I go to hug her, but she pushes me away.

“Wait. I need to tell you something, and I want you to know I don’t expect anything from you. Okay?”

“Are you moving to LA?” I ask.

“No, stop guessing. Just listen.”

“Okay.” I brace myself, praying it’s not that bad. I want to be with her so much.

“I’m pregnant.”

The breath leaves my body, my head spinning.

“Garrett, are you okay?”

I suck in air. “Yeah. I’m okay. You surprised me. I thought you were on the pill. It’s mine, right?”

“Of course it’s yours. I was only with you.”

“Okay, sorry.” I shove a hand through my hair. “I’m just so surprised. How did this happen?”

“I missed a dose of the pill when I got that stomach virus, and the next night I threw it up when you got sick, so there was a window. At first, I wasn’t sure because the pregnancy test was negative, but then I went to the doctor later, and it was positive.”

“When did you know?”

“Four days after you left. I tried calling and texting you, but you didn’t respond.”

I groan at my own stupidity. “I was mad. I wanted to be fine without you and I wasn’t. God, I can’t believe I didn’t know all this time.”

“It’s okay. I knew you’d be back, and this was a conversation we needed to have in person.” She smiles. “I’m happy about it.”

“Me too.”

She searches my expression. “You are?”

I take both her hands in mine. “Of course.”

She sniffles. “I had all this shame at first. I was an unplanned pregnancy, and I didn’t want to follow in my mother’s footsteps. And then we broke up. I never expected it to happen this way. I swore my child would be born into the kind of two-parent family I always wanted as a kid. Now all that matters is that the baby is healthy.”

I lean forward, elbows on my knees, still reeling. “I was an unplanned pregnancy too. My parents call me a happy accident. Family story goes, Connor was supposed to be the last, the fourth born, but he was such an angel, they decided to have another, and Brendan was such a mischievous devil they were shocked. I was an oops, and my dad got snipped right after,