Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Number one?
What?
Then my eyes moved to the second screen, and what I read there nearly made me pass out.
If I hadn’t been already lying down, my body would’ve hit the ground.
Because there, in bold lettering, was the second big surprise of the day: ‘Baby Hail #2.’
Chapter 8
One does not simply explain to a pregnant woman that she is overreacting.
-Krisney to Reed
Krisney
I made it until six fifteen in the afternoon before he showed up at my door.
I knew I should’ve gone to the new place.
I guess I should’ve known that it was coming, to be honest.
But I didn’t.
There I was, wearing nothing but a pair of underwear and the t-shirt I’d stolen back from Hennessy the day I got back from Germany—which also happened to be Reed’s old soccer shirt from high school—when the doorbell rang.
I contemplated putting pants on, but with the way that the shirt swam on me, it covered more than a normal dress would, so I didn’t hesitate answering it.
In fact, since I’d already been expecting Hennessy, I opened the door and turned before I’d even seen who was on the other side.
“Come in,” I told Hennessy. “I’m job hunting.”
No reply was forthcoming, and I frowned before turning around. And nearly swallowed my tongue.
Reed was standing in my living room, closing the door behind him as he watched me.
I scowled.
“What are you doing here?” I questioned him.
He didn’t smile. Didn’t laugh. Didn’t do a damn thing but watch me.
“What?”
He didn’t say anything, only came in and took a seat on the loveseat.
“It’s weird being here,” he admitted.
I snorted.
It was weird for me, too.
Since my parents had died, I’d moved back into my old house.
I hadn’t wanted to, but until I figured out a way to sell this place since I couldn’t afford the taxes on it, it would have to do.
My parents were rich, and by default since they didn’t have a will, I was, too.
Yet, I refused to spend any of their money. I’d been living on my savings account since I’d moved, and I was getting dangerously low on my reserves.
If my guestimations were correct, then I’d have exactly two more months to live how I’d been living before it ran out.
And I’d already canceled all of my parents’ utilities except for the ones I absolutely needed like water, electricity, and trash pickup.
All the rest of my monthly expenses, like television, Netflix—which really hurt the most—and my anime membership on Crunchy Roll and Hulu, had been canceled as of today.
With the doctor bills I was about to be accruing, I didn’t see any reason to delay the inevitable.
Hence why I was getting a job.
“It is,” I confirmed, uncomfortably aware that he was now looking at me instead of the house around him.
“Is that my soccer shirt?”
I nodded, crossing my arms over my chest.
I’d stripped the bra off the moment that I walked in the door.
The pants had soon followed.
The shirt I’d already been wearing at the doctor, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that I was wearing it.
But, apparently, it was.
“I thought I lost that shirt.”
I didn’t reply.
“What are you doing here?” I asked as the silence stretched on.
His eyes flicked up to mine.
“I never wanted this to happen.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
I hadn’t either.
But it still smarted to hear him say those words.
“I’m sorry.”
And honestly, I was on birth control. Really, it hadn’t been my fault…or his. It’d been a joint effort, that was for sure.
As much as I had thought how we shouldn’t have done what we’d done, I knew that I wouldn’t have stopped it.
I’d wanted it.
Wanted him.
Had wanted him for a very, very long time.
It didn’t matter that twelve years had gone by. Not one of those days passed that I didn’t think about him. Didn’t want him. Didn’t miss him.
I started to cry.
And, for the first time in twelve very long, very exhausting years, I was back in his arms.
Everything in my world was right for the few short minutes that he held me.
***
Reed
The moment the first tear hit her face, I couldn’t resist any longer.
She was carrying my baby—my babies.
It physically hurt to be in the same room with her and not touch her, and I just fucking missed her. Plain and simple. I. Fucking. Missed. Her.
I missed the way she smelled, and the way she brushed her hair. I missed the way she talked my ear off about anything she felt needed my attention, and the way she stole my t-shirts.
My favorite ones, might I add.
I remembered that specific soccer one from high school. It seriously was my favorite.
It was worn out and soft due to the many washes and wears that ensued during my senior year of high school soccer. Games. Practices. Just for the hell of it. I wore it everywhere. It was an old faded gray t-shirt with Hostel Soccer on the front and a soccer ball. There wasn’t anything special about it, and it damn well wouldn’t fit me anymore, but I hadn’t known she’d had it.