Falling for Trouble (11 page)

“Despite
all of this, you have always stuck by my side, loving me and giving me strength
when no one else would. I’ve done a lot of things that have warranted you to
turn your back on me, but I’ve come here tonight to tell you that if you’ll
give me another chance, I want to be the man you turn to as more than just a
friend. I’m so in love with you, Sophia.” God, telling her that he was
in
love with her, that he wanted her to
choose him and not Hunter, was far harder then he thought it would be,
especially since she had yet to say anything. He had played this exact
conversation over and over again in his head, but doing it in the flesh was
like a fucking nightmare.

The
silence that stretched between them was suffocating, but he gave her time
because he knew she needed it. He watched as she picked up her mug and took a
slow sip. The smell of chamomile permeated his senses, and the slender column
of her throat worked as she swallowed. When the bottom of the cup met the table
again, she kept her hands around it.

“Sophia…”
He could do this.

 
She lifted her eyes to him and then said, “I’m
pregnant.”

Chapter
Eleven

When
those two words left her mouth, everything around Sophia seemed to still. Abe
blinked several times and slowly leaned back in his chair. He had poured his
heart to her, said the exact thing she had longed to hear, and now everything
had shifted because of her revelation.

If
she couldn’t see his chest rise and fall, she would have thought he stopped
breathing. “Abe? Please, say something.” She couldn’t stand his silence. His
eyes dropped to her belly and she covered it with her hands even though the
table blocked his view. “Say something, Abe.”

For
several long, tense moments, he did nothing but stare at her. When he did
exhale, she thought they could finally discuss this. His hands slammed down on
the table so hard, she jumped and cried out. He stood so fast his chair skidded
back and hit the wall.

“
Christ
, Sophia. What the fuck do you
want me to say?” He started pacing the length of the kitchen like a caged
animal. He looked feral and intense. All she wanted to do was tell him the baby
was his, but he seemed far too worked up. It didn’t matter what she said right
now. Abe wouldn’t listen to reason.

“I—”

“So
what?” He stopped and placed his palms on the table, leaning forward so his
face was close to hers. “You fuck Hunter, get knocked up, and now you don’t
know what to do?” He gave a humorless laugh and stood to pace once again. She
was so stunned by his words that all she could do was stare at him with her
mouth open.

“You…
What?” Her voice was small, the shock of how this conversation was transpiring
too much to even comprehend. She certainly hadn’t thought about telling him
this way, and not tonight, but when she had seen him through the kitchen window
striding up to her door, she knew it had to be a sign.

It
had been over a month since they had a heart-to-heart, and since she had already
spilled the beans to Hunter, she thought she might as well tell Abe tonight
too. She hadn’t even told him the biggest part yet.

“You
heard me, Kid!” He kicked his seat and it skidded across the floor. Sophia
stood and put some distance between them. He looked bigger, his muscles more
pronounced. The shirt he wore stretched across his wide shoulders, emphasizing
his raw power. He turned his back to her and dropped his head in his hands. His
shoulders shook slightly and when he turned back around, she was stunned to see
tears in his eyes.

“Sophia.”
The way he said her name was a broken gasp from his lips. He sat in one of the
empty seats and let his head fall in his hands again. “Fuck, Soph,” he
whispered hoarsely. She sat down beside him and with tentative movements
reached across the table and gripped his forearm. His head lifted and he looked
at her. The pain she saw in his face rocked her to her core.

“Abe—”

“I
always thought it would be me.”

His
words didn’t make any sense and she tightened her hold on him. “You always
thought what would be you?”

He
laughed, the sound short and low and hardly filled with humor. He looked out
the kitchen window and stayed like that for several long moments. When he
finally turned back to her there was a deep and fierce need in his eyes. “I
thought the baby you would someday carry would be mine.”

Her
throat closed and she held in her tears. “Oh, Abe.” She threw herself across
the table and wrapped her arms around his neck. Inhaling deeply, she let the
scent that was wholly Abe wash through her. She missed him so much, so damn
much.

Throwing
caution to the wind, she brought her lips to his ear and whispered, “But it is
yours, Abe.” His body went taut and he gripped her arms, pulling her away.
Sophia knew there would be disbelief and hurt in his expression, but she had
hoped for happiness. Of course she got the former.

“Abe?”
He pushed her away and stood. His breathing was hard and fast, and when he
turned his gaze on her, she covered her throat with her hand. Pure unadulterated
rage was reflected directly at her.

“You
know, Sophia, I came here trying to make amends. I told you everything, opened
my fucking soul to you. You’re the girl I love, the one I can’t see a future
without, but then you tell me you’re fucking knocked up and that I’m the
father.” A strangled sound left him. “How can someone so sweet be so cruel.” He
didn’t phrase it like a question. “I tell you I wish you’d carry my babies
someday and you go and tell me something like that.” His head dropped back into
his hands and he murmured, “Tell me, Sophia, how can I be the father when we’ve
never slept together?” When he lifted his head, tears freely ran down his
cheeks. Despite his anger, she wanted to brush the wetness away.

Sophia
had known this was going to happen, but she had never expected to see this kind
of sadness from him. Her mouth was dry and no words could make it past her
lips. “I’m sorry, Abe.” It was the best she could come up with at the moment.

He
turned and looked at her incredulously. “You’re sorry? What are you sorry for,
Sophia? My heart is broken and the life I dreamed about won’t ever happen.
You’ll run off and live happily ever after, and I’ll stay in the background
watching it all go down.” He stood and the chair scraped against the floor.

“I
could have lived with the fact you didn’t want me, could have even made it
through life watching you love someone else. But, Kid…” He turned tortured eyes
to her. “I’ve been in love with you for years, and what I can’t live with is
you pulling me in two different directions.”

He
started walking toward the front door and she went after him, unwilling to let
it end this way. “Please, Abe, please just listen to what I have to say.” He
gripped the handle but didn’t open the door right away. “My whole life I’ve
looked to you to be my rock. Our lives haven’t been the best, but we have
always been there for each other.” She dropped her voice and whispered, “I’ve
never lied to you. Never would. Now, please, if you’ve ever believed anything
I’ve said, trust me in this. The baby I carry is yours.” He didn’t move, just
held the door handle with his head downcast.

“I
don’t know how to process any of this, Sophia. I want to be there for you, for
your baby, but the pain I feel right now is sucking the very life out of me.
Please,” he said as he looked over his shoulder at her, “let me get my head
straight.” He threw open the door and she grabbed his arm, needing to tell him
all of it.

“I’m
not lying, Abe. For God’s sake it happened one night when you were dru—” Before
she could finish, he tore his arm out of her grasp and stalked toward his bike,
not even looking back at her.

Sophia
watched him climb on his bike and leave. Pain radiated from her chest and she
rubbed hard, fast circles over her heart. She knew what he thought, knew he was
under the impression that she was pregnant with Hunter’s baby and trying to
pass it off as Abe’s.

God, what a freaking
mess.

She
closed the door and leaned back against it. How she wished the world would just
swallow her up right now. She knew this was going to be hard for Abe to accept.
Hell, it would have been hard for anyone to accept. He needed time to come to
grips with this. She wouldn’t give up on him now that he loved her as more than
a friend. Maybe there was hope for them? Right now, though, she was alone in
more ways than one.

****

Sweat
poured from Abe’s body and he pumped his legs harder. He had been running for
over two hours now and he had no intention of stopping. Ever since leaving
Sophia’s house a week ago, he had been all kinds of fucked up. He’d completely
stopped drinking and hadn’t been with any women. He was cleansing his body of
all impurities, trying to clear his head in the process. He felt like a piece
of shit for shutting Sophia out, but everything she told him kept replaying in
his mind over and over again.

He
trusted Kid with his life, but how in the hell could he be the father of her
baby when he never slept with her? Running harder and faster, he circled the
lake for the twentieth time. A woman with one of those running strollers
crossed paths with him and he couldn’t help but glance down at the baby inside.
Although he couldn’t see the child because of the screen, he could hear a tiny
cry as she passed him.

Facing
forward again, he knew the more logical explanation was that Hunter was a
deadbeat dad. It seemed hard to believe because, for all the years Abe had
known him, Hunter had always been a stand-up man. It was clear the reality of
life had fucked with his head too and he was completely turning his back on
Sophia, just like Abe was doing. Could he really raise another man’s baby?
Could he watch the woman he was in love with grow big with Hunter’s child? It
was a lot to take in and all he wanted to do at the moment was run until he
couldn’t run anymore.

****

Three weeks later

Sophia
sat in the waiting room and twisted her hands together. There were a few other
people also waiting, two women with their boyfriends or husbands by their
sides, one girl who couldn’t be more than sixteen, and another who was around
her age and alone as well. The women that had their male counterparts with them
were very pregnant. Their round bellies protruded under their tops, and Sophia
placed her hand on her own stomach. While hers was still flat, she imagined
herself with a big, round belly. Even after she had time to comprehend it all,
it was still so surreal. She grabbed a magazine, one that had a smiling
pregnant woman on it. The cover said something about being fit and pregnant.

After
the incident with Abe, she tried to call him a few times, but it was clear he
wasn’t ready. She didn’t know how long it would take him to get through it all,
but at least she had finally been honest with him. She might not have been able
to tell him about their drunken night of sex, but Sophia would continue to try,
no matter how long it took him to listen. Giving Abe space was the hardest
thing she had ever done.

“Ms.
Kidd?”

Sophia
looked up. An older woman wearing Sponge Bob scrubs smiled at her and gestured
her to come forward. After putting the magazine down, she grabbed her purse and
followed the nurse to the back. First she was weighed and instructed to put on
the required paper gown, and then Sophia could do nothing but wait for the
doctor to come in.

Sitting
in the cold exam room, all she could think about was what Abe was doing and how
she wished he was experiencing this with her. In the three weeks since he had
left her house and refused to talk to her, Sophia had quit her job at the bar
and found one as a secretary for a dental clinic in the next town over. The
drive was only about twenty minutes, and there were a lot of perks that she
hadn’t been offered working at Tiny’s. She now had health insurance, made more
money, and was able to sit down which would be a godsend when she was big and
fat.

There
was a knock on the door and then the doctor pushed it open and smiled at her.
This was her second appointment, the first one being the initial visit where
they confirmed she was indeed pregnant. This appointment was a little more
special, though. Today she would get an ultrasound and actually get to see her
baby, the bean-shaped creature that was growing inside of her anyway.

“How
are you, Sophia?” Dr. Smith sat down beside her and started typing on the
mini-sized computer she carried around. She swiveled around in the small black
rolling chair with a wide grin on her face. “You ready to see your baby and
hear the heartbeat?”

“Absolutely.”
Sophia couldn’t help the excitement in her voice despite the fact that she
wished Abe was there to share it with her.

“Go
ahead and lie back, and put your feet in the stirrups.”

Once
Sophia was positioned and the doctor had the cold, lubed-up instrument where it
needed to be, she turned her head and watched the small screen. At first all
she saw was black and gray, but then there it was, the tiny flickering on the
monitor. The doctor tapped on some buttons and then the whooshing and thumping
sound of her baby’s heartbeat filled the room. Tears welled in her eyes. She
propped her head up with her arm and watched the screen.