“Would you be able to take us now?” she asked him.
Justin stiffened. “I’ll take you,” he insisted. At least he could try to use the time to convince her they could work through this.
Blake stepped forward, placing a hand on Justin’s chest. Their eyes met and Justin clenched his jaw.
“I’ll take them, Jus,” Blake said, his gaze holding firm, issuing a silent caution. “Go talk to Brin.” He lowered his voice and added for Justin’s ears only, “and don’t fucking agree to anything unless you’re positive it’s yours.”
Blake stepped away, giving him a meaningful look. Justin knew what he was implying, but Brin had to be at least seven or eight months along. She was almost as big as Delaney.
Brin hadn’t cheated on him with their boss until the night he’d found them at the condo and ended their relationship. That was barely six months ago, so Justin knew he couldn’t put the blame elsewhere. Unfortunately, Brin was pregnant, and whether he liked it or not, she was carrying his child.
“Gab, wait,” Justin said when she started down the stairs. He caught up to her and searched her face. She leaned down to talk to Chloe.
“Go get in the car with Mr. Blake, honey. I’ll be there in a second.”
Chloe frowned and looked from Gab to Justin.
“I thought we were going to have a cookout,” the girl said, sounding disappointed.
“We have to change our plans.” Gab offered no further explanation. “Now go get in the truck.”
“But what about—”
“Now, Chloe!” Gab’s tone was firm, and her daughter gave a pout but did as she was told.
Gabriella closed her eyes, expelling a harsh breath and swallowing before looking at him. She didn’t say anything, even though he knew she had to have a dozen questions.
“I’ll stop by later tonight.” He needed her to know this didn’t change anything between the two of them. Once she understood that she’d be okay. They’d be okay. Things might not play out the way he’d thought they would now, but somehow he and Gab would come up with a plan to make it work.
“You don’t need to do that.” She pursed her lips. “It will probably be late, and it looks to me like you need to be talking a lot more to her than you do to me right now.”
Justin clenched his jaw. “I’ll be out later, Gabriella. Yes, I need to talk to Brin, but nothing between you and me has changed.”
Gab looked over at Brin, who was still standing on the porch watching them, and Justin heard her draw in a weary breath.
“Gab, please.”
She sighed. “Fine, you can stop by, but please wait until after Chloe has gone to sleep. I don’t want her to be hurt by any of this.”
She left him standing at the bottom of the steps and hurried toward Blake’s truck. He had a sinking feeling she was already beginning to form her own conclusions about what he should do. He had every intention of supporting his child, but he’d be damned if he would marry a woman he didn’t love in the bargain.
There was only one woman he planned on spending the rest of his life with, and right now he was worried she had the mistaken belief she might be walking out of it.
There was no breeze. The air hung still and heavy, but nothing could match the weight on her heart.
Justin was going to be a father…the father of another woman’s child. Gabriella brought her hands to her face, pushing the heels against her temples where a dull headache was making a nuisance of itself.
How could she not have known he’d been engaged—maybe not officially—but the woman, Brin, seemed to think it had been implied. In the least, she was expecting to make it official now.
Long moments passed with no thoughts in her head, no feelings raging, as if someone had pressed the pause button on her emotions. More than anything Gab felt numb. It shouldn’t surprise her. Wasn’t that the way she’d always dealt with pain and rejection? By blocking them out?
Justin hadn’t rejected her, and she knew he cared about her, but none of that mattered now. Soon he would have a child, and as difficult as it was to accept, his future changed the minute Brin walked out onto that porch this afternoon with the proof of his responsibility on display for everyone to see. It was a future she couldn’t be a part of now.
If Justin had been in love with the other woman, he had a duty to her and their child to try and mend whatever issues they’d had and try to forge a new relationship. Gabriella didn’t want to be responsible for breaking up a family. Had she known about Brin and her condition, she never would have let herself become involved with Justin. She never would have risked the heartache.
She didn’t blame anyone for the pain losing him would bring. It wasn’t as if Justin had intentionally deceived her. It was clear from his reaction earlier that he had been shocked to discover he was going to be a father. And he hadn’t looked happy about it. Gab didn’t know if it was because he didn’t want a child, or if he just didn’t want one with his old fiancée.
Had he been in love with the woman? Had they once been as happy as Gab had thought she and Justin were? Had he made love to her with the same tenderness and passion he had to…
Stop it! Gabriella shook her head, as if she could shake the disturbing thoughts out. It was stupid and torturous to ponder what his relationship had been with someone else. She refused to travel that route.
She pulled her phone out of her pocket and glanced at the time. 10:30. The unmistakable call of a green heron broke the silence. Justin hadn’t come over and he hadn’t phoned. He said he’d stop by, but it was too late now. She wouldn’t dwell on why. She’d asked him not to…maybe he’d realized she was right.
“I DON’T like it either,” Delaney was saying to Blake when Justin walked into their kitchen later that night. “But she can’t stay at Justin’s. I’m worried she’ll—”
Blake looked toward the doorway and cleared his throat. Delaney swung her head in Justin’s direction, whatever she’d been about to say left hanging.
Justin walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a beer, then joined them at the table.
“Where’s Brin?” Blake asked.
“She’s lying down.” Justin took a slug of beer. “She said she didn’t feel well. Apparently, I was being mean to her and it upset her.”
“How were you being mean?”
Justin rolled his jaw. “I told her I’d help raise the kid, but I wasn’t going to marry her.”
“Yeah, I can see her point. Much better to raise a kid in a home where his parents are married but can’t stand each other,” Blake said. “If it even is your kid,” he added with a dubious frown.
If she weren’t so far along, Justin might be inclined to put some hope in that possibility, but her indiscretion hadn’t happened long enough ago.
“Is there a chance the baby could be someone else’s?” Delaney asked. “I mean, you two have been broken up for a while now, haven’t you?”
“Just over six months,” Justin clarified, “and she said she’s seven and a half months along.”
“Oh.” Delaney said. “You hadn’t been…you know, trying to get pregnant, were you?”
“Hell no! We were both putting in about seventy hours a week and busting our butts to make partner. She wanted it as much as I did…more actually. The last thing Brin would have wanted was a baby.”
“And right after you made partner you break up with her and quit the firm?” Blake narrowed his eyes at him. “I know you said you wanted out of the rat race, but it’s odd those two things happened within days of each other. You never said why you broke things off.”
Blake knew Justin better than anyone, and he probably guessed the truth months ago. If Justin was right, then his brother’s suspicions were understandable, and he knew Blake wouldn’t let it go if he thought there was any chance Brin was pregnant with someone else’s baby.
“Okay, look, I know you already suspect Brin of cheating on me.” Justin blew out a weary breath. “I found her in bed with ou
r boss when I came back early from a business trip.”
“Son of a bitch,” his brother started. “Then it damn well—”
Justin held up a hand. “Hold on, Blake. That was the night I ended our relationship. I hadn’t been that happy for a while, so it turned out to be a good excuse for doing the inevitable; it just accelerated it. And I’d already decided I didn’t want to stay at the firm, so as coincidental as it seems, it wasn’t.”
“That doesn’t change the fact she was screwing around on you. Hell, Jus, it could just as easily be his kid.”
Justin shook his head. “She told me it had only been that one time, and that wouldn’t have been long enough ago.”
“And you just took her word for it?” Blake leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. He hiked a brow at Justin as if to say when did you become such a fool?
“It didn’t make a difference to me if she’d slept with him once or a hundred times at that point. We’d become little more than a convenient habit by then, and I think she knew it as well as I did.” Justin pushed his fingers through his hair. “So yeah, I believed her. She didn’t have any reason to lie. It wouldn’t have changed anything.”
“Brin was already pregnant when you broke it off,” Delaney spoke up, leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table.
He twisted his lips into a frown. “Yeah, I guess she would have been.”
“So why do you think she didn’t tell you then? Why would she wait until you moved away and she was so far along before letting you know?”
“I suppose she didn’t know.” Justin twirled the beer can in his hands. He didn’t know why she’d waited so long. Maybe she’d intended to give the baby up but then changed her mind. He didn’t want to marry Brin, but he wouldn’t have wanted his child to be given up for adoption. He would have stepped in and raised it on his own.
Delaney looked at him and shook her head. “Brin’s almost eight months pregnant, Justin. If you broke up with her at the end of March, I think she probably knew.”
“I don’t know what to tell you.” He didn’t like the possibility she might have considered an abortion and figured he’d be none the wiser, but in truth he couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t have told him. When he had told her they were through, she had asked him to give it one more try, that it wouldn’t happen again. She hadn’t understood he didn’t care enough to try. If she’d known she was pregnant, wouldn’t she have used that to try to make him reconsider?
“I think you’re wrong,” he said, unable to make sense of things. “If she’d known, I think she would have tried to use the pregnancy to make me stay in the relationship.”
“Maybe she was hedging her bets,” Blake threw out. “You’d just found her with another man. She might have thought if she told you about the baby, you’d deny it was yours. Which I still think is a possibility.”
Justin was tired of talking about it. He’d spent the last two hours talking in circles with Brin, and he didn’t feel like spending another one doing the same thing with his brother. Brin was adamant the baby was his. He could wish it away as much as he wanted, but the facts were in her favor, and she was too sure of herself for him to hold any hope otherwise.
He glanced up at the kitchen clock. “Damn it,” he mumbled under his breath when he saw the time. He’d wanted to see Gabriella tonight and try to do some damage control before she had too much time to come up with reasons they shouldn’t see each other now. He knew her. By now she’d probably come up with several arguments why it wouldn’t work. But, it was too late to drive over to talk to her now.
“I’m going to go home,” he said, standing up. “I have to think about what I need to do, but I’m tired of dealing with it tonight.”
Blake and Delaney looked at him with equally concerned expressions.
“Thanks for letting Brin stay here tonight. I know she expected to stay at my place, but…” Justin closed his eyes and ground the back of his teeth. He should have taken her call. If he had, maybe he could have prevented some of the fallout with Gabriella. Still, he couldn’t believe Brin just showed up without letting anyone know she was coming and making no arrangements for a place to stay. She just assumed he would have to let her stay with him. As if things weren’t going to be hard enough to explain to Gabriella.
“It’s okay.” Delaney stood up and walked around the table. She lifted up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. “Try to get some rest and we’ll see you in the morning.”
“I want to talk to Gab in the morning, so depending on how that goes, I might not get here until closer to noon.”
“Take your time.” Delaney wrapped her arm around his waist, patting his side. “We’ll be fine here.”
Blake got up and walked out to the car with Justin.
“I wasn’t trying to upset you in there anymore than you already are, Jus,” Blake said. “If that’s your baby, I know you’ll do what’s right by the kid. I just don’t want to see you get railroaded into something you’re going to regret.”
Justin met his brother’s eyes and knew no matter what, Blake would have his back. It went both ways. And anything either of them said or did, even if it might not always look like it at the time, was born out of love for the other.
“I know.” Justin attempted a grin, one he didn’t feel. “Don’t worry, bro. I’m not going to rush into anything stupid.”
“Good.” Blake slapped him on the back as he turned to get into his car. “And don’t be too upset if things don’t go well tomorrow morning. Gabriella isn’t going anywhere. You’ll have plenty of time to bombard her with your charm and wear her down.”
“Thanks,” Justin said before closing the door.
As he pulled out of the driveway, he pushed the quick dial button on his phone for Gab’s cell. She didn’t answer. She’d either already gone to bed or she had already begun to shut him out and just wasn’t answering his call.
In less than two months he was going to be a father. He’d always wanted kids, wanted a family, but this sure as hell wasn’t the way he’d planned it.
GABRIELLA SET her computer on the end table and went to refill her coffee cup. She’d been up for almost five hours already. After a restless night with no sleep, she had given up trying and gotten out of bed sometime around four and tried to minimize thoughts of Justin and Brin by doing some work.
When she returned from the kitchen, she sat back down on the couch, retrieved her laptop, and clicked her file open again. She didn’t want to think about Justin and his pregnant fiancée. If she made it through today without breaking down in tears, she could make it through tomorrow and the rest of the week. Each week it would be easier to accept that he’d be spending his life with another woman.
It was going to be a busy fall, and she was glad for it. Chloe would start school in two weeks. They would need to go shopping for clothes, a new backpack, and all the supplies to fill it. Her daughter already had her eye on a Hello Kitty backpack. Gab had received a list from the school of what each child would need. It wasn’t long—first graders didn’t need that much—but Chloe was excited about getting her new pencils and notebooks and her first calculator.
Gab thought about when she’d been a young girl. She’d always been a paper products geek. She had loved school, not just because she could get new tablets, glue sticks, and pens, but because in school she could be with her friends.
When she got into high school, she joined every club and group she could fit into her schedule. She volunteered for the school newspaper and served as editor her junior and senior years. She had been involved and well liked, and she had learned how to feel good about herself and what she had to offer. Her friends had thought she was smart and funny, and when one of her friends needed a pick-me-up, it was always Gab they came to.
She looked over at her daughter who was lining up her My Little Pony collection in a row on the coffee table. Chloe picked up one of the little pink ones and started to braid the tail. She was humming the
theme song from the show, and the words went through Gab’s head over and over. She only knew—my little pony, my little pony—and she hoped it wouldn’t be a case of having that one line playing over and over in her head the rest of the week. Although it would probably make her never want to see a My Little Pony again, it was probably preferable to thoughts of Justin and her shattered dreams constantly occupying her thoughts.
She would just stay busy during the day, with Chloe and work. And as soon as all the permits were granted, she would be able to focus on remodeling the house. It was going to be a big project. Unfortunately, with Blake managing the job she didn’t know how she would ever be able to forget about his twin.
It would be impossible to ever forget Justin. The pain of losing him might become more bearable, and she would move on, but she would never forget his teasing grins or the way he made her feel when he pulled her into his arms. She knew no man would ever be able to fill her heart with so much joy again…or break it into a thousand pieces that now lay splintering her soul.
Gab breathed out a shaky breath and dashed a hand across her cheek. She wouldn’t let Chloe see her get upset, not if she could help it. It was her own fault for allowing herself to fall in love with Justin so quickly. She should have been more cautious. She shouldn’t have made love to him until…
Until what? She’d done a background check into his prior love life to find out if he had any dangling fiancées who were on the verge of giving birth? Justin said they hadn’t been engaged. Gabriella rolled her neck in an attempt to relieve some of the tension that would most likely result in another headache. It didn’t matter if they were or they weren’t. He was going to be a father, and he had a responsibility to his child and its mother. Gab didn’t want to give him up. What choice did she have, though? She didn’t know what his relationship had been with Brin. If there was a chance he could work things out with the woman and make a home together for their child, though, he had to try.
Letters to Gabriella Page 23