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“Why are we acting like we don’t know each other at all?”
She sighs, and I almost regret saying that as I catch the hurt in her eyes.
“I guess I just need some time to…” She pauses. “We have a lot to talk about, and I just don’t know where to start.”
So, she did want to talk to me, too.
That’s a start, and I can work with that.
I scoot over closer to her, but still maintain a distance so that I’m not completely intruding on her personal space. “Let me start off, then. I need to apologize to you.”
Her eyes fly to mine. “Apologize?”
“Looking back, I think I should have handled things much differently than I did.”
Her breathing is coming out rough now, and she is biting her damn lip again. I want to be the one biting it. But this conversation needs to happen first. It needs to be her choice..
“I think I failed. I might have given you the impression that you don’t matter to me, when that could not be further from the truth. You mean… a lot to me. And I’m sorry. I thought I was putting my children’s need above mine in some twisted act of righteousness, but that was wrong.”
“What made you realize this?” Her eyes are on mine, trying to see all the way to my soul, and I could lose myself in their depths.
“Time, mostly. I haven’t been able to get you out of my head at all.”
“I guess that makes two of us, then,” she mutters.
I’m not sure she meant for me to hear it, but a small ray of hope shines in my otherwise bleak mind. “Why are we doing this to ourselves, Quinn?”
Her little admission has given me the confidence to close the distance between our bodies a little bit more.
I put an arm around her. Her delicate little frame fits into me perfectly like she was made to be mine. And I want to do a victory dance when she relaxes into my touch.
“Enzo.” Her tone turns serious, “There’s a few things you need to know before we can move forward with this conversation.”
I tuck a strand of her hair behind her ears. “Of course. We can talk for as long as you want. I’m not going anywhere this time.”
She searches my expression. She must find what she’s looking for because she nods. “What did Valentino say to you when he informed you of my arrival?”
I rack my brain for a second. It’s like I’ve forgotten everything that has happened in my life, and she’s the only thing that matters. But then I remember. “That you had to something to tell us.”
“Yes, well, there’s two things I need to tell you.”
“Let’s have it, then.”
She doesn’t say anything.
I look up to find her with a worried expression. Immediately, I take her hands into mine.
“Quinn, I hate that you feel you have to think so much before telling me anything.” My voice is so soft that it might as well have been a whisper. “You’re safe with me. Anything that you—”
“Enzo, I’m pregnant.”
It takes me a second to register what she says.
And all of a sudden, it makes sense. Her yanking the fabric of her top over her belly, the baggy clothes, the awkwardness.
She’s studying my expression more intently than I’ve ever seen her, fumbling with her fingers.
“It’s okay. I don’t expect anything. I know it’s a shock to you, and neither of us planned this, and—”