Herwords continued to leave me rattled, as Brendan and I ate dinner. He addressedme with irritation and a shortness in his tone, and the longer it continued,the more I was convinced that I deserved it. He was a good man. Maybe he wasn’tperfect, but who was? I certainly wasn’t, remembering every moment I thoughtabout another man while I was still with him, and how could I criticize Brendanfor being the way he was, when I was like this?
So,to stop his attitude, to make things easier, and to make myself feel better formy own shortcomings, I said yes.
Chapter Fourteen
“How'sthe sauce today?”
Gooseshot an expectant look in my direction as I stuffed an entire wing in my mouth.He laughed at my expense and muttered something about all semblance of decencyflying out the window.
“Shutup,” I grumbled in gest. “There is nothing decent about pregnancy.”
“Oh,come on. It's the miracle of life.”
“Yeah,”I snorted. “Leaky boobs, weak bladder, and the inability to smell cat foodwithout gagging. What a miracle.”
Theside of his mouth lifted in a heart-stopping smile. “Yeah, but all of that shitis temporary—”
“Mymomstillblames me for her inability to go an hour without needing topee!”
“Okay,so maybe some of it has some lasting effects. But what I was saying is,mostof it is temporary. And then you get this awesome little person out of it.” Heshrugged, grabbing aglassand wiping it down with arag. “It's not a bad deal. At least that’s how I feel, anyway.”
Isighed, laying a hand over my stomach. “Yeah, I guess maybe you're right.”
Then,I stabbed another wing with my fork before raising it to my Viking friend. “Andthe sauce is excellent today, by the way. But you should know I'd probably saythat even if it wasn't. I could liveoff ofthesefucking things.”
“Youkindaalready do.”
“Takethat as a compliment,” I said, before popping the wing in and groaning in a waythat was undoubtedly indecent.
Turningaway from me, Goose cleared his throat and asked, “So, uh, how's the movegoing?”
Ithad only been a week since I'd agreed to moving in with Brendan, and you wouldthink I'd have been eager to get my stuff over there and out of my tiny,shoebox apartment. If only just to get it over with and have one less thing toworry about. But the reality was, I hadn't started packing. I hadn't eventhought about it.
“Mm,I have so much on my mind,” I explained weakly. “And there's a lot I reallycan't do at this point.”
“He'snot helping?”
Isighed and diverted my eyes. “He's really busy. I mean, with work and—”
“Didn'theaskyouto move in, though?”
“Yeah,but he can't help that he's got other stuff going on, too.”
Goosepursed his lips and turned away from where I sat. His dismissiveness irritatedme, so I asked what was wrong.
Shrugging,he said, “It's none of my business.”
“No,”I replied sternly. “Come on. What were you going to say?”
Hehuffed a heavy breath and turned to face me, crossing his arms over his chest.“I'm just confused.”
“Aboutwhat?”
Shruggingand tightening his arms, he replied, “You say you're in a relationship withthis guy, but every time you say you're taking a tiny step forward with him, itseems like there's really nothing to back it up. He wants to be with you, buthe's never there. He wants to be a dad, but he's hardly there for you, whenyou'rethe one who's pregnant with his baby. He wants you to move in with him, butthere's no attempt to make it happen. From either of you.”
Narrowingmy eyes, I disputed defensively, “For something that's none of your business,you certainly have a lot to say about it.”
Gooseshook his head and groaned, dropping his arms at his sides. “I knew I shouldn'thave said anything.”
