Always in my Heart (The Subzero Series, #2) (17 page)

“And you think it’s better if we aren’t together anymore?” He yells back.

“I do if I can’t count on you to grow up and be places when you are supposed to be there or if I can’t trust you to not kiss other girls or to not keep secrets from me.”

Tyler’s face turns bright red as we continue yelling at each other. Neither of us is even listening to what the other has to say until those three words come tumbling out of my mouth.

“Tyler I’m pregnant.”

“What?”

“I’m pregnant.”

The color quickly drains from Tyler’s face. He staggers back a few steps, bends over and puts his hands on his knees. He glances up at me with a panicked look on his face.

“You’re pr...pr...pr...”

“Pregnant.” I finish for him.

“But...how?”

“Do you really need a lesson on the birds and the bees? You were there Ty. You helped.”

“The night we went to the speakeasy?”

I nod.

“How long have you known?”

“I’ve suspected it for the past week and I tested positive this morning. I have a doctor’s appointment in two weeks.”

“Maybe the test was defective.”

“I took six tests, three different brands, all were positive.”

Tyler straightens up and takes a step towards me. The look on his face turns from sheer panic to pure rage. He puts one hand on his hip and touches his temple with the other one as he shakes his head in disbelief.

“So you’re
pregnant
...with
my
child...and you’re saying you aren’t sure if we should be together?”

“I would never keep your child from you and you know that but we don’t have to be together to raise a baby. I would love for us to be a little family of three but if you want that to happen, you have to prove to me that I can count on you and trust you.”

“This is absurd Abby. How many times do I have to apologize to you?” Tyler throws his arms up in the air in exasperation.

I shake my head and fight the urge to roll my eyes. “Your apologies mean nothing when your actions can’t back them up.”

“I didn’t do any of those things intentionally.”

“I know you didn’t.”

“So why can’t you forgive me? All I am asking for is another chance.”

“You mean like the other chance I was giving you when you stood me up at my bakery and I found out later on you were with
her
?”

“It was an accident! Nothing happened between me and Cath after that kiss.”

“Look Ty, we’re just going around in circles here so...I think I am going to go home,” I start to walk past him and pause, turning to face him. “My appointment is two weeks from Tuesday at one thirty. It’s at the Women’s Medical Pavilion. I don’t know what they are going to do but maybe we will be able to hear a heartbeat or something.”

“I can go to your appointment with you?” He asks, his voice full of hope.

I nod. “I mean it when I say I would never keep your baby from you.”

I open the door and walk through before he has the chance to say anything else. I never imagined this would be how we found out we were expecting a child together. I always figured we would start a family someday but I always thought we would be married and find out together and we would cry and embrace and tell everyone right away because we were so excited. Instead I found out by myself and I told him as we were fighting with each other.

I walk down the hallway and push open the doors to the kitchen. Caroline is sitting on a stool talking to the caterers.

“You okay?” She asks me.

I walk over to the trays of desserts and begin to artistically arrange them on paper doily clad round trays.

“Abby?”

Caroline appears by my side and puts her hand on my back.

“Yeah, I just want to put these out so we can leave.”

She starts picking up the mini éclairs one at a time and putting them on trays. “Did you talk to Tyler?”

“We mostly fought.”

“I’m sorry,” She gives me an apologetic half smile. “You want to go get a drink and talk about it?”

“I can’t.”

“Okay...well maybe another night.”

“No, I mean I do want to talk about it but I can’t drink.”

“Why can’t you...oooooh,” Caroline’s eyes widened as she realized what I was saying. “Are you – you are, aren’t you?”

“Please don’t tell anyone. I don’t want anyone to know yet.”

“I’m not going to say anything. How far along are you? Did you tell Tyler?”

“My guess would be about 5 weeks. Yes he knows. I blurted it out just now as we were yelling at each other.”

Caroline reaches a hand over and runs it across my back. “Look, everything is going to be okay. Let’s just get these trays out so we can get you home.”

“Home...I want to go home. I want to go to my home where my big, comfy purple and black bed is and not someone else’s home. Where I can soak in the tub for as long as I want because the only person I could possibly inconvenience will just climb in with me. I want to lie down on my couch, stuff my face with ice cream and watch crap TV without someone complaining about it.”

“So, why don’t you go there?” Caroline asks me.

“Because he won’t leave.” I say.

She shrugs. “Well, you’re pregnant with his child. He needs to make some sacrifices too.”

“Yeah,” I say as I finish setting up the pastry trays. “But in all fairness, it was his place first.”

We both grab a large, round pastry topped tray and walk out through the caterer’s door. There are two long rectangular tables set along one of the walls by where the birthday cake is. We set the trays up and I look around for Dean. I spot him across the room chatting with a couple people I don’t recognize.

“Hey Dean.” I say as I walk up to him.

“Hey Abby.”

He puts an arm around my shoulder and we walk over to a quieter spot.

“You okay?” he asks, his voice full of concern.

I shrug, not really wanting to get into this again tonight. “I’m gonna head out but I wanted to wish you a happy birthday.”

“Thanks Abby,” He leans down to kiss the side of my head. “And thanks for everything you did tonight.”

I nod as Caroline walks up to us.

“Ready?” She asks.

I nod. “Bye Dean.

“Bye Abby.”

I look around for Tyler before we walk out but I don’t see him. I start to feel a combination of anger and nerves fill up in the pit of my stomach until I spot Cath in the middle of the room dancing with a bunch of people to the music the DJ is spinning. None of them have blue hair.

Wherever he is, at least he isn’t with her.

––––––––

S
he’s pregnant...with my baby.

I’m going to be a father.

Is it wrong that I was more terrified than excited when she told me? First of all, her father is going to kill me. Secondly, and most importantly, Abby still won’t take me back. She says I have to prove my love and intentions to her. 

Prove it to her?

How am I supposed to prove my love to her? I guess technically I haven’t been the best boyfriend lately but that doesn’t mean that I don’t love her. It just means I’m a bit daft.

I rub my hands through my hair, still trying to process everything that just happened. What am I going to do? I have to do something. I’m not going to just let her walk out of my life and I am sure as hell not going to miss out on any part of my baby’s life. We’re good together, Abby and I. We belong together.

First thing I need to do is set Cath straight. I can’t have her going around telling people we are in a relationship when we’re not. What was she thinking doing something like that? Then I need to talk to Chloe. Aside from me, she’s the closest person to Abby. I wonder if she knows about the baby.

I walk over to the door, open it up and head back into the building feeling slightly more confident than I did when I came out here.

I see Cath talking with some people as soon as I walk back into the event room. I walk quickly over to her, grab her by the arm and pull her over to the wall that is the farthest away from other people.

“Wow Ty, I knew you were manly but I didn’t realize you were so dominant.” She teases flirtatiously.

“Did you tell Abby that we are seeing each other?’

“No.”

“
Don’t
lie to me. She said that according to you we are seeing each other.”

“I’m not lying. I didn’t say a word to your
ex-
girlfriend,” She emphasizes the word ex. “but I may have mentioned something to my friend, Dahlia, while
she
was in the vicinity.”

I close my eyes and silently curse to myself.

“Look, Cath, I apologize if I’ve led you on but this...this is never gonna happen.” I point back and forth between the two of us.

“You can’t tell me you felt nothing when we kissed.”

“I did. I’m not even going to lie about that, but it was fleeting and not worth losing Abby over.”

Anger flashes through Cath’s eyes as she stares at me. “I don’t understand what it is you see in her.”

“You don’t have to.”

“What if I said I was willing to fight for you?”

“I’d say you were fighting a one sided, losing battle because I am fighting for her and only her.”

Cath gives me an odd smile, almost as if she is trying to decide whether or not she should just walk away or challenge me to see if I mean everything I just said. She shakes her head and turns to walk off. As she does, I reach out to grab her arm. She turns back around and glances at my hand on her arm before looking up at me.

“Look, you are absolutely gorgeous; you don’t need me to tell you that. The thing is that kiss should have never, ever happened. My heart and everything I have to give belongs to Abby. You deserve to find someone that feels for you what I feel for her.”

Cath flashes a fake smile, nods her head and walks off. I turn and walk in the opposite direction, heading for the parking lot when Jack catches up with me.

“We’re about to say Happy Birthday to Dean,” He says. “Are you alright?”

“No, I don’t know,” I say. “Let’s just go wish this sorry sod a happy birthday.”

We make our way over by the DJ booth where there is a microphone set up. Noah walks over and taps his finger against the microphone a couple of times, the sound of tapping echoes through the room.

“Hello everybody, as you know we are here to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Dean Anthony Michael Marshall’s first day on earth.”

Cheers and whistles erupt through the room.

“Could you join us over here Dean?” Jack asks. “Dean just
loves
being the center of attention.”

Laughter erupts as Dean makes his way over to where we are standing. His face is turning a dark shade of red. I will never understand how he has no problem at all getting up in front of people and playing for an hour or two, but you get him in front of a crowd that wants to wish him well on his birthday and he turns twenty different shades of red.

I couldn’t imagine being like that. I like being in front of people. I’d play my drums, center stage with not one stitch of clothes on if it wasn’t considered to be an indecent act.

“Happy Birthday Dean!” someone yells out.

He nods and holds a hand up to say thank you.

“We wanted to get you something totally amazing but then we remembered that we just don’t like you very much.” I joke.

“So we asked ourselves, what would Dean want for a birthday present?” Noah says.

“My vote was for framed autographed pictures of the three of us.” Jack says.

“And I said a girlfriend but buying them will land you in a cell with a man named Bubba.” I say.

“So in the end, we decided to put our money out and get you this.” Noah points to the right of us and everyone turns to see Chloe walk out with a black Adamas 2080 SR Ovations guitar.

“Wow!’ Dean exclaims. He leans in and gives Chloe a kiss on the cheek as he takes the guitar from her. “Thank you so much, I have been wanting this very guitar for some time now. Thank you guys and massive thanks everyone for coming out to celebrate my birthday with me. This is amazing.”

Dean raises his pint in the air. “Cheers.”

“Cheers!” everyone shouts back.

I move over to Chloe, put my arm around her shoulder and lean down so my mouth is close to her ear. “I need to talk to you.”

“Now?” She asks.

I nod.

“Okay.”

I turn and she follows me out of the room, down the hall and through the door that Abby and I had used to go outside earlier.

“Do you know?” I ask her once the door shuts behind her.

She shrugs her shoulders and shakes her head. “Know what? Please tell me you did not drag me out here because I am going to get a phone call about some ridiculous stunt you pulled.

“Abby hasn’t told you?”

“Told me what? I haven’t talked to Abby all day.”

The door swings open and Jack, Noah and Dean walk outside.

“What’s going on?” Jack asks.

Chloe turns towards him and shrugs her shoulders. “That’s what I am trying to figure out.”

“Abby’s pregnant.” I say.

“Wh-what?” Chloe’s hand flies up to her mouth and she takes a step back. “Is she sure?”

“She goes to the doctor in two weeks but she says she took six tests or something like that.” I say.

“Oh it makes so much sense now.” Chloe says. “I’ve heard her get sick a couple of times and she’s been sleeping a lot. I actually thought maybe it was stress or something like that. I can’t believe she hasn’t told me yet.”

“To be fair, she just found out this morning and she told me about thirty minutes or so ago.”

“So what are you going to do?” Noah asks.

“Hell if I know. She’s still insisting that I prove she can count on me. I don’t think she’s ever going to give me another chance. She says we don’t have to be together to raise a baby.”

“I think she’s just scared right now. I mean, aren’t you?” Chloe asks.

“Petrified.” I say, my voice just above a whisper.

“She was going to take you back.” Dean pipes in.

My head whips over to where he is standing. “What? How do you know that?”

“I talked to her but...”