"Can I walk you to your car?" Easton asked when the class was over.

"I was actually planning to walk the path around the hospital before going home, since I didn't get my evening walk in yet."

The hospital had created a really nice path a couple of years ago, landscaped with trees and bushes, and even a small waterfall around the back, with benches along the way for patients to rest on when needed. It was one of my favorite walking paths in town.

"Mind if I join you?" he asked.

"Sure," I said. I thought about adding the requirement that he wasn't allowed to kill my peaceful feeling by talking about our plans for the baby...but decided against it. He didn't look like he was in an arguing mood, either.

I pulled on my soft pink jacket when we got outside, and Easton put his dark blue one on.

I kept my gaze down as we walked. "Thanks again for coming tonight. I was about to leave before you came."

He shoved his hands in his pockets. "Sorry I was late. I remembered what we'd be doing and thought it would probably be better if I didn't stink like the locker room when I came."

"You knew about the cuddling stuff?" I didn't remember the instructor talking about this last week. She had only mentioned breathing exercises.

"Well, when Maddie was coming to these classes, I would sometimes show up in case Jaxon didn’t make it. So I got to learn about this stuff just watching Maddie and Jaxon go through it.”

“I always admired how willing you were to be there for Maddie during that time.”

He looked at me carefully. “I watch out for the people I care about.”

I nodded and looked away. “And you care about the baby.” I said it so he wouldn’t have to clarify that he had come for the baby and not me.

“Not just the baby.”

I looked back to him with a furrowed brow. “Really?”

He got an uncomfortable look on his face before he shrugged and said, "You know how I feel about you."

"Do I?" I asked. "Because the way we left things on Friday convinced me otherwise."

"My feelings didn't just disappear over the weekend. I still care about you."

"Of course you do." I couldn't keep myself from sounding sarcastic.

He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. "Why do I get the sense that you don't believe me?"

I crossed my arms. "Because I don't."

He moved closer, and I backed up automatically, my foot on the grass. He said, "Just because we don't agree on everything doesn't mean I don't like you anymore."

He'd said love on Friday. Like was different from love, so that had changed.

"But having strong opposing views makes it harder for the feelings to survive," I said.

I'd seen enough of my friends' parents get divorced through the years to know that sometimes, love wasn't everything people chalked it up to be.

He stepped closer, and I took another step back. "I don't want to play this game where you tell me how I feel. I know where my feelings are. I don't need to prove anything."

"But what if I want you to prove it?" The words were out before I could stop them.

What the heck did I mean by that, anyway? How could he even prove his feelings for me? By giving in and signing away his parental rights just because I wanted him to?

That wasn't fair.

That wasn't love.

But he seemed to have something else in mind entirely because he cornered me until I had nowhere else to go—my back bumped against the trunk of a big tree.

But I wouldn't want to go anywhere, even if I could. I didn't want to fight with him anymore.

He leaned in so close that his hot breath was on my cheek. "I want to be yours, Juliette. And I want you to be mine."

His eyes were hungry now. Deeper. Desperate. He was searching me like he was trying to find the answers to all our problems. Like if we just cared enough about each other everything would work out.

And maybe it would.

He lifted his fingers to trace their way along my lips, across my chin, and then down my neck. The only thing left for me to do was close my eyes and sigh.

"I'm still in love with you, Juliette." His warm minty breath was on my mouth, his lips hovering only a couple of centimeters away. "I want to find a way to make things work with you."

I could feel the heat radiating off his body, feel the strength in his chest as his heart beat wildly with hope, and I couldn't take it anymore. I had to kiss him.

So I arched my back and tilted my chin up to press my lips against his. He went still, like he hadn't expected me to actually kiss him, but his lips moved with mine in the next instant, like they'd been ready just in case.

As our lips moved and our breath mingled, every rational thought I had about the future disappeared. We would figure out the logistics later. We'd think later. Right now, we would just feel.

He slid his left hand behind the back of my head, his right hand tightening around my waist as he pressed his chest against mine. And I remembered why we'd gone too far last time. Our chemistry was something that was hard to keep a handle on. It made it hard to breathe. Made me forget why I even needed oxygen because all there was that existed was Easton. This moment.

And nothing else mattered.

I knew I'd probably regret kissing him tomorrow when reality came back to me, but I didn't care. I wanted to be loved. I wanted to remember how it had felt to be loved by Easton. How his arms around me made me feel strong and safe, like I could take on the world with him by my side.

We could do anything together.

I would keep things in check this time. I wouldn't push things too far.

But I would let myself live and love. I wanted that, and he seemed to want it, too.

I let my hands slide up his stomach and explore the contours of his chest. He was stronger than he'd been the last time I'd touched him like this. He'd grown up just a little bit more, and I reveled in the feel of his muscles beneath my palms as his heart raced so fast it was probably keeping pace with mine.

His lips left my mouth to explore my throat, and my head fell back because his lips on my skin felt amazing. I let my hands explore the lines of his body, the tightly corded muscles just beneath the sleeves of his jacket.

"How is it possible I went so long without kissing you?" he said, his voice husky and his breathing heavy like he'd just run a race. "Why haven't I been kissing you every single moment since you got back from Paris?"

"I don't know," I said as I pushed my fingers in his hair and tilted his head up to bring his mouth back to mine. He didn't hesitate to close the distance between our lips again, but this time, instead of a fast and hungry kiss, he slowed it down and deepened it.

My stomach muscles tightened, electricity shooting through my veins as his kisses took me back in time. But my feet were hurting, and I could feel them swelling up from the pressure of having me and the baby's weight on them for so long.

"I need to sit down." I gasped as I pulled away, my chest rising and falling with my labored breathing.

Easton's eyes looked dazed for a moment before focusing again. He scanned the area before spotting a bench about fifteen feet away. "You want to sit there."

I nodded, and then he was pulling me behind him like he couldn't get to the bench fast enough. He sat down, and I was about to take the spot next to him when he tugged on my arm and pulled me sideways on his lap. And before I knew what was happening, he was reaching his hand behind my neck and we were kissing again.

This was crazy. We couldn't just make out on a bench like this. Sure it was dark, but people sometimes walked this path at night. What would they think when they came across a pregnant girl making out with a guy on a park bench?

But when his arms encircled me, and his fingers accidentally grazed along the skin at the base of my shirt, I didn't really care anymore because I didn't want this to stop. I wanted to kiss him all night if he’d let me.

His hands didn't remain at my waist for long. They slowly slid up my side and down again, ran along my stomach before finding their way to my back once more.

Easton sparked every molecule in my body to life as he kissed me over and over again. I dug my fingers into his scalp and he reacted by making a deep and masculine sound at the back of his throat, which made my fingers tremble at the thought that I could make him moan.

He stared into my eyes for a moment, his pupils blown wide as he looked me over, scanning over every inch of my face—and I couldn't help but feel so vulnerable. As if he could see all my flaws. But instead of turning away and telling me I didn't match up to what he wanted, he murmured next to my lips, "You're so beautiful, Juliette." And then we were kissing again.

The intense, crackling heat continued to turn my brain into liquid as the kiss deepened, and all I could think of was that I wanted more of this. I needed to touch more of him. So I let my hands smooth their way along his shoulders and under his jacket. They traced their way down his chest, finding a path along the thin fabric of his shirt. They rubbed along his sides, but that still wasn't enough. I wanted to feel his skin on my fingertips.

So I let them push their way across his back, lifting the bottom of his shirt so I could feel his hot skin under my fingertips.

He felt like summer. Like the day we'd snuck to the lake and kissed for hours on a blanket on the shore. What I wouldn't give to be back there right now. Tangled up with the edges of his body pressed against the contours of mine.

Too bad my huge stomach kept us from getting too close.

It was almost as if my thought about my stomach triggered some sort of warning in Easton because he suddenly took my arms by the wrist and pulled them away from his back.

"H-hold on, Juliette. We can't kiss like that anymore." He sounded out of breath.

"Why?" I asked. Stopping our kiss was about the last thing I wanted to do.

He took in another deep breath and set one hand on my stomach. "Because of this. I don't want to play with fire anymore."

"I wasn't trying to have sex with you, Easton."

He rubbed his hand across the top of my stomach. "I know. But we didn't exactly plan on that the last time, either, and look what happened."

I slid off his lap and folded my arms like a sullen child who’d been caught stealing cash from her mom's wallet.

Easton cupped my chin and turned my head to face him. "I'm just stating my boundaries. I'm not trying to get after you."

"Okay, I got it." I held my hands up before looking away, still feeling like he thought I was some sort of tramp who was always trying to take his clothes off.

"Juliette..."

When I ignored him, he scooted closer and put his hand on my leg. "I just want to take things slow."

"I was just touching your back."

"I think you forget how much I like that." He gave me a wicked grin. "I just don't want to push the limits anymore. Kissing and having you touch me like that makes me lose my clarity and I'm much more likely to do things I wouldn't normally do." He looked at me carefully, his eyes darting back and forth between my own. "Can you at least understand that?"

I sighed. "Of course I understand. I'll try not to do it again."

He leaned forward and gave me a hug then he whispered in my ear. "Just let us grow up a little more. We can definitely revisit this topic in the future."

Chills raced down my spine, and I couldn't keep a grin off my face. So he really did want me like I wanted him. He was just better at remembering the reasons why we needed to keep things in check.

He pulled away from the hug and stood, holding his hand out for me.

We continued on the trail to finish the walk back to our cars, holding hands the whole way.

I glanced down at my stomach as I waddled down the path next to Easton. "You'd think this belly would help me remember why people wait until after they're married to have sex."

Easton looked over and grinned. "You would think so. But don't be too hard on yourself. I’m kind of an amazing kisser and I haven't been contacted by modeling agencies for nothing."

"Yeah, yeah." I rolled my eyes but couldn't keep from smiling.

"Are you saying I'm not that hot?" he asked. His tone was light, but I could tell there was insecurity beneath the surface.

Instead of making him sweat, I said, "Do you think I'd have this if I didn't think you were drop-dead gorgeous? I mean, I don't want to make ugly babies."

He laughed. "It sounds like our baby won the genetic jackpot, since his mom is smokin' hot, too."

I tried to smile at his compliment, but I couldn't ignore the fact that he'd said our baby and his mom and dad. It just brought me right back to the reality that even though we obviously cared a lot about each other, and even though we were insanely attracted to one another, we still had a huge issue between us.

He wanted to keep the baby, but I didn't. And if he kept the baby, I knew I wouldn't be able to be around him anymore. It would just be too hard for me to see him be a great dad to our child—to be reminded of all the ways I wasn't good enough. If Easton and I were to try to date, I would be like a step-mom to my biological son—and how confusing would that be to him if things ended up not working out between Easton and me in the end?

And if things did work out, it wouldn't be fair to Easton to make him do all the hard work for the first few years only to have me jump in later and say, yeah, we should totally get married now and I'll be happy to start taking care of our kid.

We made it to the parking lot and Easton walked me to my car.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"I was just thinking about how everything would work out after the baby is born."

He nodded. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I shook my head and pulled my keys from my pocket. "Not really. I want to just pretend like everything is easy tonight. We can go back to reality tomorrow."

A pained look crossed Easton's face before he pulled me in for a hug. "We'll figure things out." He spoke into my hair before kissing the top of my head. "We'll make the right decision."

I buried my face into his chest and tried to force the doubts out of my mind. "I hope so."