Hold Me

Shelby covered her face with her hands. “Don’t make me feel guilty for asking. I wanted to do this myself. I wanted to stand on my own.” She dropped her hands and glared at him. “I mean it, Kipling. You don’t get to say how I live my life.”

While he understood her point, he couldn’t get past the fact that they were family. Of course he would give his sister the money to buy into the bakery. But she hadn’t asked. Instead, she’d gone to the bank for a loan.

“If they hadn’t needed someone to cosign, would you have told me about this?” he asked.

She hesitated just long enough for him to get his answer.

“I only want what’s best for you,” he told her as he grabbed the pen and scrawled his name.

“Kip, don’t be mad. I’m sorry. I appreciate all that you do for me. It’s just sometimes I want to be my own person without having to always be asking you for things. Can you understand that?”

“Sure.” He handed her the paperwork.

She took it but didn’t leave. “You’re upset.”

“I’m not the bad guy. I haven’t done anything wrong. I want to help you in every way I can. If that means cosigning your loan, then I’ve done it. Go buy into the bakery.”

“You still love me?”

Some of his hurt and anger faded. “Shelby, you’re my sister. I’ll always love you, no matter what. I signed the paperwork, didn’t I?” Because the act was always more important than the words.

“I love you, too. Thanks for doing this.”

He nodded, and she left.

Kipling settled back at his desk but couldn’t seem to get interested in the spreadsheet on his computer. He sort of understood what his sister had told him, but he still thought she should have come to him rather than a bank. He also thought she was making a rash decision about buying into the bakery so soon after moving to Fool’s Gold, which he’d already told her. It was probably the reason she’d gone to the bank in the first place.

He closed the spreadsheet and clicked on his email. He had one from Gideon saying he was getting lots of pushback from women on The Man Cave. Something else Kipling didn’t want to think about. He saved the email then stood and paced restlessly in his office.

There were too many things going on, he thought. Problems he couldn’t fix. The issue with The Man Cave and Jo’s Bar frustrated him. There’d been a need. He’d filled the need, and now he was the one in the wrong.

Couldn’t the men in this town stand up to their wives and girlfriends? There was plenty of business for both locations. Tourists would have options on where to go. Why was that bad?

As for Shelby—not much he could do there. He’d done his best, and now she had to make her own decisions. And live with the consequences. Because if he was right and it all went—

The door to his office opened, and Destiny walked in. Kipling immediately relaxed. Not only was she a nice distraction from all the things he couldn’t control, being around her grounded him, too. Something he couldn’t explain but was willing to accept.

“Hey,” he began, then paused.

She was upset. He could see it in her eyes. Emotions churned. She was flushed and tense. He crossed to her.

“What’s wrong? How can I help?” Fixing her problem would go a long way to make them both feel better.

She stared at him and laughed. Only the sound was more strained than happy.

“You’ve already done enough,” she said. “Did you know my body doesn’t care that I was a virgin? I looked it up online. Something I should have done before. But I figured I got a free pass. Just one. Or maybe some kind of protection from my hymen or something. But, no. There’s nothing.”

She wasn’t scaring him exactly, but she sure wasn’t herself. The emotions he’d long suspected she buried had finally broken through, and it wasn’t the thrillfest he’d been hoping for.

“Destiny,” he said calmly. “Catch your breath and then tell me what’s going on.”

“I’m breathing fine.” She exhaled to demonstrate. “See. This is me breathing. As for what’s going on, nothing new. Nothing that hasn’t been going on for weeks now. I’m pregnant. I saved myself all these years because I wasn’t sure. Because I wanted to make a rational decision. I wasn’t going to become my parents who, by the way, actually did wait until they were married to have sex and get pregnant. My mom told me this morning. Who knew?”

Pregnant? Destiny was having a baby? His baby? Kipling took in the news. Mentally, he turned it over in his mind, not sure how he felt about it. He liked kids. He’d been hoping to have kids. He could make sure he was always there to fix things for a kid. Yeah, he could do this. A child. He felt himself start to grin. A mini G-Force.

“I don’t get it,” she said, her voice rising just a little. “There should be a one-time protection mechanism. Like a do-over. But no. Virgins get no special allowances. Instead, there are consequences. That’s what gets me. I believe in consequences. I’m a huge fan. I live my life to avoid ever having to worry about them. But there we were, on the bench in the bar, doing it, and I’m pregnant.”

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“No!” The word came out as a shriek.

She visibly drew in a breath. “No,” she repeated more quietly. “I’m not okay. I’m just getting things together with Starr. We don’t even have a permanent place to live. We’ve decided to stay in Fool’s Gold, but it’s not like I have a job lined up. Or even a plan. What am I supposed to do with my life? And now there’s a baby?”