moment.
“Call it my gut instinct. I went to the restaurant and Jenna said you had an appointment this morning, then never showed up afterwards. That doesn’t exactly sound like the Mackenzie we all know and love, so I had a feeling something must be wrong. I was on my way to the condo and noticed your car on the side of the road here.”
I wiped at my cheeks, taking a deep breath to settle my cries.
“Want to tell me what’s wrong?” he asked, almost guarded at how I would react.
“What isn’t wrong?” I scoffed. “I still go back and forth, boo,” I confessed, leaning my head on his shoulder. I picked up some shells in front of me and began tracing patterns in the warm sand. “Sometimes I feel like I’m losing my mind, that something in my brain snapped and I made it all up.” Lifting my gaze, I stared at the ocean waves, hoping they would calm me as they used to. “The only people who assured me I didn’t imagine any of it were you and Jenna. If I didn’t have you swearing it was real, that he was real, I probably would have checked myself into the loony bin at this point.” I glanced at him, seeing him studying my every move, almost as if he was ready for me to freak out at any second.
Returning my eyes to the sand in front of me, I softly asked, “Do you know I still go by his house every day?”
Biting his lip, he nodded. “I figured.”
“I don’t know why.” I shrugged, fighting back the new tears brimming in my eyes. “Part of me wants to think all of this has just been one giant nightmare, that I’ll wake up and everything will be like it used to be. What would you think if you were me? If, a week later, you decided to be the bigger person and try to talk things over, but you find someone completely different living in Tyler’s house, trying to convince you he’s lived there for years? It’s as if someone wants me to feel like I’m losing my mind. As if they want me to question whether any of it’s real. No matter how many times you and Jenna have told me it was real, I still had my doubts. My brain was yelling at me that it couldn’t be real. I had no physical proof it was. My heart didn’t want to believe it, though, and that’s been the only thing that’s kept me going. In my heart, I just knew it had to be real.” Meeting his gaze, I studied his gentle face, his eyes brimming with the same pain I felt.
Taking a deep breath, my voice quivered. “But there’s no doubt anymore.” I pulled the black-and-white image I had been staring at most of the day out of my purse and handed it to Brayden.
He glimpsed at the photo, then shot his wide eyes to me, questioning.
“You’re going to be an uncle, boo.” I covered my mouth, my breath catching at the words. Until that moment, it hadn’t sunk in. Even after the doctor confirmed what over a dozen pregnancy tests already had, I didn’t think it was real. Finally speaking those words surrounded me with the truth amidst a lifetime of lies.
Brayden’s expression momentarily grew grim before he replaced it with a cheerful smile I was certain was for my benefit. “Uncle Boo… I like the sound of that.” He pulled me to him once more and planted a soft kiss on my temple.
A thousand thoughts ran through my mind, the most pressing of which being how the hell I was going to afford this. Since most of my money was tied up in the restaurant, I had allowed my health insurance to lapse. The doctor visit itself was going to cost me a small fortune. I knew Brayden would offer to help, as he always did; however, at some point, I was going to have to find the man who had become a ghost…Tyler.
“Mack, I know you probably don’t want to, but you need to talk about what you’re going to do.” He released his hold on me, forcing me to stare into his eyes.
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean,” he insisted, raising his eyebrows at me once more. “He has a right to know. I’m assuming it’s his…”
I nodded. “But how am I supposed to tell him? It’s like he’s dropped off the