The Officer and the Secret (21 page)

“Shit.”

Skye stared at her from the ledge of the tub. “I’m sorry, did you just curse?”

Had she? It didn’t even register. With a dull voice that felt rusty coming out her throat, she asked, “Does it matter?”

“Oh, honey.” Skye slid onto the tile and gathered Veronica in her arms, rocking her just a little like she was a child. “It will be okay. I swear.”

She wanted to believe. Wanted to think it would all just go away, be a bad dream, a nightmare. She could wake up tomorrow and there would be no plus sign haunting her.

And the worst part was… she couldn’t help that small voice in the back of her mind from whispering harshly,
Your
mother
was
right.

“What have I done?” she whispered, mostly to herself.

“Nothing.” Skye’s voice was fierce as a warrior as she sat back up and cupped Veronica’s face with her hands. “You have done nothing. It is what it is, and it will be okay. Dwayne is an amazing guy, and it will all be fine. He’s half in love with you already, anyone can see that.” She stood and held out a hand. “Let’s go downstairs and get some lunch. I’ll make us some sandwiches.”

She took Skye’s hand, not even feeling the pressure as she stood. Numb, that’s all she could register. Like she was sleepwalking down the stairs, into the kitchen.

Skye started to make sandwiches and stayed silent. As if she knew Veronica couldn’t handle anything more right that moment.

She would have been right.

So why was it, when she most needed a quiet minute to absorb the shock, did one particularly loud voice continue to rudely echo through her mind?

And did it have to be her mother, of all people?

She shut it down as best she could and laid her head on the table.

“Babe?”

Tim’s voice filtered into the kitchen and she lifted her head.

“Tim? What are you doing here?” Skye walked over to poke her head out of the kitchen.

He walked in and gave her a quick peck on the lips. “Half-day, since we’ll be in the field all weekend. You making lunch?”

“Just sandwiches for me and Veronica. If you wouldn’t mind—”

“Oh, hey, didn’t see you there. How are ya?”

Before Veronica could answer, he started walking back out of the kitchen. “Hold that thought. I’m gonna change and wash up. Dwayne is meeting me here for lunch. We can all eat together, if you guys don’t mind waiting another few minutes.”

Veronica sat there, feeling like she’d just been the victim of a drive-by greeting.

Skye rubbed her back. “I can get rid of him easy. Just tell him we planned a girls’ day and—”

“Hey, Skye,” Dwayne’s voice called out from the front door. “I saw Veronica’s car outside. Is she here?”

Veronica let her head thump to the table. If things weren’t so very wrong, it would almost be comical.

Skye waited a moment before answering. But Veronica just shrugged. He knew she was there. They could talk later. As Skye called out they were in the kitchen, she worked on her smile. Now wasn’t the time to go into it.

Dwayne’s boots thudded, announcing his entrance before she could see him. With monumental effort, she put on a smile. It hurt. Actually, physically hurt to stretch her lips into the fake gesture. But now wasn’t the time. She just couldn’t have the conversation in Skye’s home, with her cousin and husband listening in.

“Hey, darlin’. Didn’t know you were over here. Nice surprise.”

Surprise. Right. Word of the day.

No, the word of the day would be
panic
.

He leaned down and gave her a kiss, and she breathed in the calming scent of his soap and scent. It did something to her insides, calmed the fluttering nerves just a little.

“How about you two go and sit in the living room? I can bring out the sandwiches in a few minutes.”

“Do you need help?” It was the polite thing to ask, but Veronica felt about as capable of helping as an infant, so when Skye shook her head she was relieved.

Dwayne unbuttoned his uniform blouse and draped it over the arm of the sofa before sitting down with a groan, stretching his long arms over the back. She watched as his olive undershirt stretched across his chest, and new fluttering happened low in her belly. The stirrings of want.

Inappropriate timing. But when he patted the cushion next to him, she sat.

“Okay. I’ve got the mother of all lazy lunches here.” Skye walked in from the kitchen and set a big plate on the coffee table with one hand, and set a few bags of chips down with the other. “Some are simply PB and J, four are turkey—” she shuddered visibly, her vegetarian side clearly objecting “—and there are a few different kinds of chips. Dig in.”

“Thanks, babe.” He reached over and snagged a turkey sandwich in each hand.

“Skye?” Tim thundered down the stairs, landing in the living room, looking more flustered than Veronica had seen him, ever.

“Lunch is on.” Skye started to sit down, but Tim grabbed her by the arms and spun her around.

“Is it true? Are you?”

“Am I lunch?” Skye looked as confused as Veronica felt.

“I saw the test. You’re pregnant?”

Oh. No. No, no. Please no.

“Maybe we should go,” she whispered in Dwayne’s ear.

Dwayne apparently didn’t hear her. “Holy shit. Tim’s gonna be a daddy?”

“Uh…” Skye looked like a caged animal, which Tim didn’t seem to register as he picked her up and spun her around while laughing with pure euphoria.

Veronica, meanwhile, had never felt lower in her life. Tim was in for a massive letdown, and it was her fault. “Let’s go,” she said a little louder, tugging on Dwayne’s arm. She knew Skye would let him down easier in private.

“I can’t believe this. Did you just find out? Are you feeling okay?” His hands roamed lightly over Skye’s arms, her face, her stomach, as if checking for himself that she was okay.

“No, I, um.” She looked over at the couch.

“Oh. Right. Private moment.” Dwayne finally picked up on the fact that their presence wouldn’t be welcome at the fake announcement. He stood, pulling Veronica with him. “We’ll just head out.”

As she followed Dwayne, Veronica turned to mouth, “I’m so sorry,” over her shoulder. Skye, watching over Tim’s shoulder, mouthed, “It’s okay,” and gave her a smile.

It didn’t help much.

As they stepped out on the front porch, Dwayne let out a whoop. “I can’t believe it. My best friend’s gonna be a dad.” He all but skipped toward his truck, the thick soles of his boots thudding on the concrete.

“Let’s not get too excited. It could be a false alarm,” she said weakly, trying to think of the most neutral way to let him down. The enthusiasm he showed for his own friend’s—fictional—impending fatherhood was beautiful to watch, but it only made her feel that much worse for the deception.

“Is that even possible? I think I—crap.”

“What?” She glanced back to see Dwayne heading for the front door again.

“Forgot my cammie blouse; be back in a sec.”

“Oh, okay. Wait, no.”

She hustled after him and into the front door just in time to hear Tim ask, “If the test wasn’t yours, then whose was it?”

***

Dwayne immediately realized his error as his hand froze over the blouse. Neither Tim nor Skye were looking at him, still engrossed in their convo by the fireplace. He could slip out now, leave as if he hadn’t come back in.

Except the tension had changed from elation to anger in the last five seconds, and now he felt stuck.

“If the test wasn’t yours, then whose was it?” Tim asked, shoulders bunched beneath his shirt, hands clenched at his sides.

Test? What?

“That’s not my information to share,” Skye said, voice thick with regret. “I’m sorry.”

Well, hell. He’d accidentally walked onto the set of a freaking telanovella. With as much stealth as he could manage—let’s face it, Delta Force he was not—he lifted the blouse from the back of the chair and took a few steps backward. He needed to turn around, walk forward, ignore them. But it was like watching two cars heading for each other dead-on. You couldn’t look away, despite the imminent crash.

“No. I can’t accept that. This is too important. I need the full story. Now.”

He couldn’t blame the guy. But he was so close to the front hall so he kept backing up slowly, carefully, each step planned with care.

“You can’t just accept that the test wasn’t mine?”

Tim shook his head. “If it wasn’t yours, then who’s pregnant? Wait.”

So close. Just a few more steps and he was home free…

“Is it Veronica? Is that why she was here with you? Is Veronica pregnant?”

And stealth became a nonissue as he tripped and crashed into a side table, knocking over a bowl filled with keys to clatter on the floor.

Both turned to stare at him, Skye with her eyes wide in shock, Tim with his mouth hanging open. But neither said a word.

Veronica. Did he say
Veronica
and
pregnant
in the same sentence?

“I’m sorry.”

Both turned their eyes to something over his shoulder, and numbly he forced his body to shift and look as well.

Veronica, white as a sheet, stood by the front door, looking ready to burst into tears at any minute.

“I’m so sorry. I just… I didn’t… I wasn’t ready to… and then he thought…” She blinked rapidly, then spun on her heel and took off through the door. In some rational part of his mind, he registered the start of her engine and her car pulling away.

“Dwayne.”

Tim’s voice. He shook his head.

“Dwayne, please, before you—”

He held up a hand, still staring at the front door where Veronica had bolted through, leaving it open. He didn’t turn around as he asked, “Is she?”

“It’s not for me to—”

“Skye.”

She sighed, then he felt her small hand on his back, slipping around his waist, her forehead resting on his shoulder. “Please just talk to her. That’s all I can say.”

Her nonanswer was as good as a billboard sign.

Oh, God. She was pregnant. Veronica was pregnant.

And it was Blair, all over again.

***

Veronica rocked on her bed, arms drawn around her knees. Though she wanted to block it out, the scene kept replaying in her mind.

The one-second-too-late realization that Dwayne was walking back in Skye and Tim’s door. Hearing Tim ask Skye whose test it was. Watching Dwayne stumble when Tim spoke her name. The look on his face, a cross between horror and something so deeply painful it didn’t have a name.

That was nothing compared to the feeling of her own heart as it cracked down the middle. The force of the shock of the positive pregnancy test layered with Dwayne’s reaction was just too much.

And what was she going to do? Leaning back, she placed a tentative hand on her stomach. Nothing. It was almost impossible to believe there was something there.

She jerked when a pounding echoed through the apartment.

Skye wasn’t going to knock like that, and Tim was too controlled to knock like that. Madison had a key, and Jeremy wouldn’t be knocking if Madison wasn’t here. Which just left…

Dwayne.

Childish though it was, she’d rather sit in bed alone and mope. So she didn’t move.

The pounding continued. How long would he go on?

“Veronica, open up.”

Even from the back of the apartment, she could hear him clearly. His voice boomed. He wasn’t yelling, but he meant business.

“I will stand here all day if I have to. And eventually Madison will let me in.”

Darn it, he was right. With a sigh, she crawled off the bed and walked to the front door. She opened and stood back as he barged in like a bull looking for a fight.

“Talk. Now.” He stood with his arms crossed.

“What do you—”

“Are you? Are you pregnant?”

“I just took the test today. As far as I understand—”

“How could this happen?” He threw his hands in the air and headed down the hall, then spun around and came back. “I was always so careful.”

She’d wondered too. But there was that one time… “When the condom broke?” she said weakly.

“When the condom…” His eyes narrowed. “But you said it was fine. You said you were on birth control.”

“I was. I am! Was. I guess.” Didn’t seem like she would need it now.

“Then explain to me how this happened?”

“Do I look like a doctor to you? Back off!” She immediately slapped a hand over her mouth, appalled at the anger in her voice. Then she remembered. She sure as heck had a reason to be angry. She didn’t have to censor herself any longer. “I didn’t ask for this, you know.”

“Didn’t you?”

She stared at him, trying to figure out what in the world that cryptic comment meant. But he gave nothing away.

“Okay. Here’s what we’re going to do.” He crossed his arms again. “You and I are making an appointment with an OB.”

She wanted to argue, but what was the point? She needed to see a doctor anyway.

“If they confirm you’re pregnant—”

“Why wouldn’t they? The test said I was.”

He shook his head. “I am going to be in the room when the doctor says yes or no. That’s not negotiable. And if you are, then we’re getting married.”

This, out of all, was the hardest blow. A proposal from the man she loved… out of obligation and duty. It was the worst thing ever. “That is not a good idea.”

“Why not?”

Because
daily
my
heart
is
going
to
break
being
around
you.
“It’s clear to me we all need to just take a step back and reevaluate.”

“If you’re not pregnant, then that’s a fantastic idea. But if you are, then this is just how it works. I’m not letting that kid grow up without a father. And I’m not just going to turn into some dad who sees his kid whenever he has breaks or can make a few hours. I want you and that child under my same roof. Every night.”

Said more sweetly, it could have been a beautiful proposal. But he was so angry, so frustrated, and his words came from a place of resentment rather than affection. God, how that hurt.