23
Landon
My baby. She was carrying my baby. And she was happy about it. I’d almost lost hope of ever experiencing that, but there it was. In front of me. Sitting on the table in my shop.
“I need you,” I whispered against her ear.
“We’re not exactly in private.”
I looked around. The door locked, but I wasn’t going to risk exposing her or making her uncomfortable. “Upstairs. You can say no.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to.” She pushed me back with a hand on my chest and slipped off the table. “But there are people here, so we have to be quiet.”
“I’ll try,” I said, opening the door for her to walk out ahead of me.
Gail and Carson were handling customers, not paying us any attention as we snuck to the back stairs and hurried up to my apartment.
“They’re going to know what we’re doing,” Casey said when we made it into the apartment with the door closed and locked.
I pressed her against the door. “You’re pregnant with my child. They’re all going to know soon anyway.”
She chuckled. “True.”
“Are you sure you’re okay with all of this? A baby and me?” I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel like we were secure. Not when I worried she felt stuck with me.
She sighed and cupped my jaw. “When I found out I was pregnant with Mikayla, I was scared. I…” She shook her head. “I guess I loved Kyle, in a way, but we were young. We weren’t really ready for the realities of life. Together or with a baby. I was working full time, but we weren’t talking about getting married. Then I found out I was pregnant, and we both felt like we had no other choice.”
“That sounds a lot like what’s happening right now,” I admitted. I wasn’t looking to push her away, but I didn’t want it all to end.
She nodded. “Yeah, but the big difference between you and Kyle is I was already thinking about a future with you.”
“What?” I blurted.
She chuckled. “You scared me. A lot.”
I took a step back. “Why did I scare you?”
“Because being with you has been so easy from the start. When we met, I knew I needed to stay away from you because of Reegan.”
I opened my mouth to interrupt her, but she held up a hand.
“I know. But at the time, I didn’t know things were really over. I thought you two were on the way to getting back together, like everyone else in town.”
I sighed, knowing she was right.
“When you asked me to be your date for the wedding, a part of me still thought you wanted to use me to make her jealous. And I figured that was fine because I was interested in the online you, and I went into this with my eyes open. But the more time we spent together, the more I wanted to see you.”
“I feel the same.”
She grinned. “I couldn’t stop myself from loving you, even though I figured it would end up with me on the outside and you and Reegan back together. When I saw her yesterday?—”
I sucked in a breath.
Casey smiled. “She said she was happy for us. She’s a really good person.”
I nodded. “She is. It was part of why I stayed with her so long even though I knew we weren’t right for each other.”
“I don’t want you to do that with me.”
