Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 97339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
“I just . . . I really want to hate you,” she cries. “You have no idea how much it hurts. I thought I was your best friend. We were supposed to tell each other everything, and this . . . it’s huge.”
“You should hate me, Cass,” I tell her. “I’ve been agonizing over not telling you, but I just couldn’t. At the start, I was in denial. I couldn’t even bring myself to take the test. I didn’t want to believe it was true, and I was so scared of how Carter would react, and now it’s worse than ever. I couldn’t even bring myself to tell my parents. Bobby is the only one who knows.”
Cassie nods as she looks down at her lap and plays with her rings. She’s silent for a while, and I want to scream at her to hurry up and say something, even if it’s just to yell at me, anything would be better than the silence. “So, there’s two of them?” she finally asks.
“There are,” I tell her, slowly inching across the couch until I’m close enough to grab her hand.
Cass doesn’t pull back from my touch, and as she latches onto my hand and holds it tight, relief starts pulsing through my veins. “Keeping this from me . . . I don’t know. I’m really hurt. I feel like I’ve missed out on so much of this. I could have been there for you, helped you through everything, and while I don’t necessarily agree with your reasons for hiding it, I understand it,” she says. “But at the end of the day, these babies are my nieces or nephews, and you will always be my best friend.”
I give her a small smile, bringing our joined hands into my lap. “Believe me, if I could change that, I would, but what’s important is that these two crotch goblins are going to need an aunty who loves them just as much as their mommy does.”
She gives me a sad smile before launching across the couch, closing the small gap between us, and throwing her arms around me. “I’m going to love them so much, they’ll hate me.”
“Not possible,” I smile as I wipe away a tear, pulling back to meet her eyes. “Cass?” I question, a seriousness creeping into my tone. “I’m terrified, after what happened to Sara, I—”
“Don’t,” she says, cutting me off. “What happened to Sara was a tragedy, but that’s not going to happen to you. You don’t need to be scared.”
My hands shake, needing to get the words out. “You don’t know that. Women die from childbirth and post-delivery complications all the time. And I can deal with that. It would really suck, but I need to know that if I’m doing this alone, if Carter doesn’t want to be a part of this, you’ll give these babies a loving home. I don’t want to leave them without a mommy or daddy.”
“Me?” she breathes, wide-eyed. “Are you sure? I’m honored, but what about Bobby?”
I shake my head. “Bobby would honestly love to have them, but he’s not ready for something like this. He has his career ahead of him and needs to figure himself out. He’s going to be an amazing uncle to these rugrats, but he’s in New York. You’re here where their daddy and their family is. This is where I want them to call home.”
“Okay,” Brianna breathes. “You’ve got my word.”
Tears fall from my eyes as I reach in and pull Cass back into me. “Make sure they know their father,” I tell her. “I want them to love him like I do.”
“Always.”
A minute passes as we each wipe our tears, and as Cass leans back, she forces a smile across her face, desperately trying to lighten the mood. “I feel like a fool for not noticing earlier,” she tells me, her fingers brushing over my bump. “You’re kinda huge.”
“Don’t. I went out of my way to make sure nobody would find out. The number of winter coats I’ve worn during fall is just ridiculous.”
Cass scoffs. “Well, looks like that plan crashed and burned.”
I smile to myself before muttering under my breath. “Tell me about it.”
Cass gives me a tight smile, glancing up at me and cringing. “I heard he nearly ran over you,” she questions.
“Yeah,” I grunt, my hands still shaking with the thought, that moment easily being the most terrifying moment of my life, thinking I was about to lose my sweet babies. “You were pretty damn close to visiting me in the morgue.”
Cassie’s eyes widen in shock. “Really?” she questions. “It was that close?”
“Uh-huh. There’s skid marks on the road to prove it. There wasn’t even enough time to jump out of the way”
“Shit. He never would have forgiven himself if he had hurt you.”