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“I know that.” Trinity nodded. “However, my mother can’t even look at me and not think I’m the reason her life blew up, her marriage fell apart, and her other child isn’t here. I’m the bane of that woman’s existence.”
“I don’t even know what to say to that.” He took her hand and kissed the inside of her palm.
“For a long time, I tried to gain her approval. I wanted her to love me. Maybe she does. I don’t know. I’ve stopped trying.” Trinity let out a short laugh. “I guess I haven’t learned my lesson, though, since I’m still trying to make everyone in this town respect me.”
“Those that matter, do.”
“So you and my dad keep telling me.” She smiled weakly, taking his hand and pressing it over her stomach. She inhaled sharply and let it out slowly. “I wasn’thonest with you about everything that happened with Charlie.”
“I know,” he whispered. “I had no idea what you left out, but I think I do now.”
“He hit me. He kicked me. I fought back. I told you all that. But what I didn’t tell you was that I was pregnant. I hadn’t told him yet because I had learned he’d lied to me, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to be with him anyway. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I was past the point where I could have an abortion.”
“That’s a tough spot to be in.”
“I had a second-trimester miscarriage, and it didn’t happen that night. I started spotting that evening, but it wasn’t until the next day that I realized what was happening.”
He inched closer, wrapping his arm around her and tugging her close. “Did Charlie ever know?”
“I didn’t tell him. Neither did my dad. I wouldn’t have wanted his support, but that’s vastly different from you and Petra.” She glanced up, catching his gaze. “I told these stories because, sometimes, things aren’t about you. Whatever Petra’s reasons for not telling you might have had nothing to do with you, your love, or your relationship. There could have been something wrong, and she was trying to protect you. I didn’t see the paperwork, but I had to have what’s called a D&C, which is essentially the same as an abortion. You could have read the paperwork wrong.” She cringed. “No offense.”
“None taken. But when I confronted her, she didn’t deny it.”
“Lord knows I’m not defending her. But again, for all you know, her father might’ve had something to say about it. You were young and did say he was judgmental and controlling.”
“Very much so, and while he liked me, he had issues with me.” Keaton leaned back. “I need to accept I will never know.” He kissed her temple. “I’m sorry about what happened to you. Since you were past the point of no return, would you have kept the baby?”
“I honestly don’t know.” She rested her head on his shoulder. “Keaton?”
“Yeah.”
“Why did you need to leave the bed, separate from me, to tell that story?”
“If I tell you the truth, do you promise not to freak out and run away?”
“I promise I’ll tell you if I’m freaked out.”
He chuckled, turning his head. He tilted her chin with his thumb. “By telling it while lying naked in bed with you, it felt like a betrayal to…us. To what we’re building together. Whatever that is, and trust me when I say, I’m both terrified of what’s happening as much as I am of being insanely excited about it.”
Her lips parted. Her throat dried up. Her heart hammered in her chest. Her eyes blinked wildly. She tried to speak, but instead, all that came out was something that sounded like what people described as an owl witch.
“You want to run,” he said.
“No,” she managed. “I just expected you to say it was a betrayal to her, not me.” She traced the infinitytattoo with Petra’s name. “She meant the world to you.”
“She did, and I did love her. I won’t deny that.” He brushed his lips over Trinity’s mouth in a hot, tender kiss. “I also won’t deny that I have very strong feelings for you. That I lo?—”
Ding-dong.
“Who the hell could that be?” Keaton growled.
“You won’t know until you answer it.” She patted his chest.
“We’re not done with this conversation.” He jumped from the bed and padded across the room.
There was no way that man had been about to say he loved her. She’d simply been mesmerized by the moment. By his intense eyes. By bonding through painful stuff from the past.
Who was she kidding? She was in big trouble because the really crazy part was that she couldn’t deny that she loved Keaton Cole.