moved in opposite directions. Mostly my fault. I didn’t want you or anyone else to really see what it was like for me. I’m sorry about that too. You would have stood in the fire with me and gotten burned. That’s a good friend. That’s a best friend. That’s what you are.”
Aaron looked over his shoulder. “I’m scared to death, Josh. I don’t want to lose her. So I’m going to marry her. I don’t know if that’s right or wrong. But it’s too late now.”
“It’s never too late,” I said. “But you two are crazy together. So, ride it out as far as you can. Why not?”
“What about you? When are you going to actually take care of all the things you’ve said and done?”
“I told you to stop worrying about me.”
He opened the door. “Oh, before I forget, my wedding…”
“What about it?”
“This is a big deal.”
“I can see that. You’re finally going to get laid again.”
Aaron shook his head. “I need you there.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for anything in the world,” I said.
“I’m not sure I believe you.”
Aaron went inside and I stood in the garage alone.
The main doors were open, so I stepped out into the driveway.
This was my chance.
To leave.
For once and for good.
To just slip away into the night and never be seen again.
Kind of like what my father did.
Everyone would hate me, but they’d forget about me.
It had been weeks since I’d seen, touched and tasted Amelia. Yet I couldn’t forget about her.
Inside the house, Aaron and Rae were living in their moment. Their moment. Their house. Their family. Their future.
My phone buzzed in my pocket and it was a text message from Amelia.
It made my heart ache because she tried so hard to keep in touch with me.
Eventually I would just need to tell her to stay away. Or I could change my number.
I opened the text message, willing to do more damage to my heart.
There was no text.
Just a picture.
Of a positive pregnancy test.
Chapter 43
Being Right is Being Wrong
NOW
(Amelia)
The first thing I felt like doing was calling Mitch to tell him I was right. That I knew my own body and that I knew I wasn’t actually sick when I would vomit at work. And whoever termed it as morning sickness needed a slap against the side of their head. Because this was called random sickness.
The positive pregnancy test was balanced on the bathroom sink and I was thinking about my boss at work. Not the man who was the other half of this situation.
My hands gently touched the smooth, coolness of the sink and I forced myself to lift my head and gaze upon my reflection in the mirror. When the tears filled my eyes, I was also filled with an intense feeling of guilt. That instead of feeling happiness in the first moments of knowing about my baby, I was crying.
Crying because I didn’t want this baby to grow up with just one parent. I didn’t want to be a single mother. Crying because I didn’t know what Josh’s reaction would be, if anything at all. He had grown up in his own version of hell, never having a father. I had no idea whether that kind of thing was hereditary or just stuck in someone’s soul and they would make the same bad choices.
And it didn’t help that Josh wouldn’t return my calls.
I hadn’t heard his voice in twenty-nine days.
And yes, I counted. I stood at the cat calendar on the fridge and fucking counted. It was pathetic but it helped to pass the time as I waited for the pregnancy test to give me an answer.
And even if Josh did step up and be the father he should be for our baby, what would that look like? He loved someone else. He loved someone else so dearly that he was willing to just forget about me. Like he did once before. Like he wanted to do now.
“Amelia? Are you okay in there?”
Grace’s voice was muffled through the bathroom door.
I reached for the knob and twisted it.
She saw my face and knew before she looked at the test.
Then it was quiet.
Really quiet.
“You can say something,” I finally said.
“I’m waiting for you to go first,” Grace said.
“For what?”
“Whether to hug you and cheer or console you and cry.”
“Can we do both?”
Grace threw her arms around me. I bumped into the pregnancy test and it slid off the sink and into the trash can.