Chapter Thirteen
Landry
I’d thrown up most of the ice cream I’d eaten throughout the day, and was lying on the floor in my living room waiting for my Chinese food delivery. There had to be some food out there that this baby would tolerate. I hadn’t tried Chinese yet.
I rested my hands on my stomach and closed my eyes. I was so tired. Emotionally and physically exhausted. I felt narcoleptic, constantly falling asleep all day without warning. I’d talked to both my parents, binged watched an entire season of some inane TV show, and texted with my Uncle Luke. Everyone was worried about me, everyone was checking in. Except the one person I longed to hear from.
Brody was as unplanned as my pregnancy. And like the baby, now that he was here, I wanted him to stay. I hadn’t meant to fall for him, to start to count on him being in my life. But he’d wormed his weird little way into my heart.
I sat up when I heard someone bounding up my stairs. That delivery man was on a mission, which was good because my empty stomach was crying for some food.
“Baby cakes?”
“Brody?” I got to my feet, peering around the corner. “What are you doing here? How did you even get in?” I’d wanted nothing more than for him to show up at my door since the moment he left last night. But now that he was here, standing in front of me in his faded jeans and threadbare shirt, his messy blond hair wild from the wind…wait, where was I going with that?
“I still have your key.” He held it up and then shoved it back in his pocket, crossing the room and taking my face in his hands. “And I’m playing the odds like they’re in my favor.”
“What?”
He smiled, his eyes searching mine. “You told me to play the odds like they weren’t in my favor, and that’s bullshit. I’m doing what I feel. I’ve got a fifty-fifty shot that the baby is mine.”
I broke eye contact, looking down at the floor. “I told you that so you’d be okay about leaving. You don’t have to do this.”
“I want you.” He put his hand under my chin, making me meet his gaze. “I want to be here for you. It doesn’t matter who the baby’s father is. You’re its mom, and you’re my girl. So. I’m here. I should have never left last night. I should have never let you push me away. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Wait. You aren’t going on tour? That’s ridiculous.”
“No, I’m going on tour. I meant like metaphorically, I’m not leaving.” He took a few steps back, studying his well-worn Chucks for a minute. Like he was gathering the right words, rehearsing them in his head. “Look. Baby cakes, I’m not going to lie to you. I don’t know yet how I feel about the pregnancy, or the fact that the baby might not be mine.”
“And it was unfair of me to ask you that question last night.” I pushed my hair back from my face. “You found out I was pregnant, found out I’d lied to you, and then found out the baby could possibly be someone else’s all in a matter of minutes. I shouldn’t have pushed. I shouldn’t have asked you what you’d do if the baby wasn’t yours. You’d barely had time to process and I was making things harder.” I’d felt guilty from the moment he’d walked out. I’d been trying to push him away, trying to scare him. It wasn’t his fault that it’d worked.
“I shouldn’t have left. I should have stood my ground. I should have told you exactly how I was feeling.” He sat down and pulled me into his lap. “The only thing I’m sure of is you. We always had an expiration date, but I was never really going to be able to give you up cold turkey. Somewhere between fucking you in a supply closet and sitting here with you now, I started to fall for you.”
I rested my head on his shoulder. “Oddly sweet.”
“I can’t predict the future. And I can’t tell you how I’ll feel if the baby isn’t mine, at least not right now. But what I can tell you is, I’m here for you. I’ll fuck you to sleep every night and hold your hair back while you puke every morning. You mean the world to me, baby cakes. Let me prove it to you. Please?”
I nodded. What he was saying, the way he was looking at me, it was like a scene out of a movie. And at that moment, it was everything I needed. “Okay.”
“Okay?” When I nodded again, he kissed me. His arms snaked around my waist and pulled me flush against his body. I knew that there were still so many things about us that were up in the air. But at that moment, all that mattered was that Brody was here, holding me like he still wanted me. “Baby cakes, it’s been…” He stopped talking when there was a knock at the door. “If that’s Talon, I swear on my surfboard I’ll kill him.”
“Why would Talon be here?” I wiggled out of his arms and grabbed my wallet from the entry table. “I ordered Chinese food before you showed up.” I paid the delivery man and set the large bag of takeout on the coffee table. “Hungry?”
Brody put his arms around me, and whispered in my ear, “I’m fucking starving, baby cakes.” He growled against my neck and sent chills down my body. “You eat, and then I will.”
And just like that, things went back to normal.
Or more like, things went back to our new normal.