Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
“Back up.” Rustling comes through the phone as Archer picks up one of his youngest. I met Archer back when we were both resident doctors at the same hospital in Indianapolis. He’s a general surgeon, and we ended up working together in the OR a lot and became friends and later roommates, saving money on rent in a shared apartment as we finished our residency. He lives in Eastwood, the same small town in Indiana where my sister lives, and we only see each other a handful of times through the year.
Evelyn and Camila are his fourth and fifth children, and they’re cute-as-fuck little girls, who look just like Quinn, their mother. I enjoy going to Eastwood to see them, and my nephew, of course, and every time I’d hold a baby someone would point out how good I am with them…how I should have one of my own.
I’ve always wanted kids and a family. And I always assumed it would happen…but with someone I loved. With someone I wanted to spend my whole life with.
With someone like Chloe.
“Stacey,” I start, knowing that Archer is aware who I’m talking about though he’s never met her. Rory has never been a fan of Stacey, and I know Rory and Quinn are close. Quinn is keen to all of Rory’s thoughts on Stacey, which means Archer is too. “She showed up this morning saying she’s pregnant and I don’t know what to fucking do.”
“Shhh…it’s okay, sweetie,” Archer whispers to his daughter, and the fussing baby quiets. “Do you think it’s yours?”
“It could be.” I look out the window at the busy Chicago streets below. “We hooked up in early June.”
“So she’d be right at the end of her first trimester,” Archer says, able to do math in his head much faster than me since he’s not suffering from shock. “And she just found out?”
“She tried calling me about two weeks ago and I declined her calls. I thought she wanted to get back together,” I admit.
“And you don’t because you’re busy with Chloe Fisher. Yeah, I know all about that.”
“Fucking Rory,” I huff.
Archer chuckles softly. “Quinn is a huge fan, by the way. And I’m a fan of her being a fan. Those books get her in the moo—never mind. Fuck.”
The feeling of throwing up comes back strong. Archer doesn’t have to say it for me to know what he’s thinking: I’m going to have to tell Chloe. “What did you do when Quinn told you she was pregnant?” I rub my forehead again, doing little to ease my headache.
“I internally panicked, but was happy.”
“For real?”
“Yeah. I’d been in love with her for years and now she had a reason to talk to me. Which sounds fucked up and makes me sound creepy, I know, but it made the both of us give being together a shot, and well, it’s worked out in our favor, that’s for sure.”
“Yeah.” I don’t want to settle down with Stacey. I never did. If it was Chloe telling me she was pregnant after our first few times together when we were too swept up in passion to remember using a condom…I’d probably feel the same as Archer.
It wouldn’t be ideal timing, but it wouldn’t feel like this because Chloe is my end game. She always was, even when I was too scared to admit it to myself. Back when I insisted she was like a sister to me, because it was easier than coming face to face with my feelings…which I should have fucking done or else I wouldn’t be in this mess.
“You don’t love Stacey,” Archer says, filling in the silence.
“No, I never have. Chloe,” I start and can’t finish.
“I know.” A few seconds of silence tick by before Archer talks again. “You need to tell her. Sooner rather than later. You and Stacey hooked up before you and Chloe got together, right?”
“Yes. This happened in early June. I hadn’t even seen Chloe in years until a few weeks ago. She’s going to fucking hate me for it.”
“It’s a bump in the road, that’s for fucking sure, but she can’t get mad at you for it. If she had a kid, would it change how you feel about her?”
My mind goes right to Charles Baldwin, the popular actor and star of the Nightfall TV series, based off of Chloe’s even more popular book series. He and Chloe have dated on and off for the last few years, much like how Stacey and I have. If she came back into town with a baby in tow—Charles’s baby—it wouldn’t have changed a damn thing. I’d still be as hopelessly in love with her as I was all those years ago.
“Not at all.”
“Then I think there’s a good chance she’ll feel the same.”
I’m all jittery inside, a feeling I haven’t experienced since my first day of med school. I’m calm and collected, able to compartmentalize and deal with things rationally. Things that make a good doctor, and things that are necessary when you’re in the operating room dealing with traumatic injuries.