Page 19

Chapter Nineteen

Griffin’s Beach Hailey

T he night Hailey admitted she loves Gavin was the night he gave her a key to his apartment. Things have been nothing but amazing in the week and a half since the worst thing to ever happen in her life took place.

They haven’t had sex since they decided to get back together because she still needed to process everything. It’ll be quite a while until she can say she’s fully over what happened, but she’s in a better headspace than she was.

Until two nights ago, she’d woken up from nightmares, and Gavin just held her. He didn’t ask her any questions. He didn’t want her to relive what she keeps reliving in her head. Somehow, he understands, and he just reassures her she’s safe.

He loves her, and she loves him. For the first time ever, she trusts that she can be happy. That he’d never do anything to hurt her, and they can have their fairytale ending. The type she’s been so scared of hoping for.

As she walks down the hallway, her stomach drops when she sees the waitress walking out of Gavin’s apartment, and Hailey stares at the blonde.

“Don’t worry, I’m leaving,” she says, her hands in the air.

“What are you doing here?”

“I had to talk to Gavin about something.”

Hailey stands frozen at the top of the stairs and imagines tripping the waitress on her way down. Making her roll down the stairs, possibly breaking her neck, seems more than a little satisfying, but she knows she won’t. Instead, she just asks, “Talk to him about what?”

“You should talk to him.”

She watches the waitress walk down the stairs, her stomach bouncing. The hair on the back of her neck stands on end, and she runs to the apartment when the waitress is out of view.

Gavin sits on the couch and stares at a piece of paper in his hands. Her entrance goes unnoticed, which does nothing to calm her nerves.

“What was the waitress doing here?”

When Gavin glances up, he looks terrified. He says nothing, and it only makes everything so much worse.

“Gavin, what’s going on?”

He swallows and looks back at the paper he holds. “Emme—”

“The waitress.”

“ She stopped by to tell me something.”

Her eyes widen. “You don’t need to be treated for something, do you? Oh God, what did she give you? Tell me it’s treatable.”

“No, that’s not… She’s pregnant, Hailey.”

He didn’t just say what I heard, right? There’s no way he knocked up another woman. The waitress , right? “What now?”

“She’s pregnant.”

“Okay, let’s just breathe for a second,” she says as her hands shake at her sides. “Maybe it’s not yours. You know, you saw it as casual, so maybe she did—”

“She had a paternity test done,” Gavin says and waves the paper in the air. “I’m the father.”

All she can think about is how similar this feels to how she felt when she fell off the monkey bars at the park months ago with the kids, and she knocked the wind out of herself. She can’t breathe, and Hailey falls back, catching herself on the kitchen counter.

“I don’t know how this happened,” he says and shakes his head. “I’m always careful. There was never a time I wasn’t covered.”

“Condoms are only ninety-eight percent effective.” She stares out the sliding door, unsure why she sounds like she’s reading a pamphlet they hand out at the free clinic. “How’d she get your DNA?”

His head turns to her. “What?”

“To do the test. How’d she get your DNA? Did you know she thought the kid could be yours and gave her a sample without telling me?”

“What? No! I… I don’t know how she got it.”

“So, maybe it’s fake?”

It’s dangerous to feel this hope. Every time Hailey hopes for anything, it disappears, but she can’t help it. If there’s even a small chance that Gavin isn’t having a baby with someone other than her, she has to cling to it.

“I’ll call her,” he says and puts his phone on speaker.

“Hello?”

“How’d you get my DNA to do the paternity test?” Gavin barks.

The waitress sighs into the phone. “I have a master key to your building. I used to sleep with one of the maintenance guys, and he gave me a copy because we’d hook up in empty apartments.”

“You broke into my apartment?”

“I swapped out your toothbrush to get your DNA.”

There’s really no reason for her to lie about this. Especially because she knows the locks will have to be changed on every apartment. The baby’s his.

“I want to do my own test,” he says. “I want to see the results myself.”

“I’ll call my doctor and set up an appointment.”

He hangs up, and Hailey can’t move. She knew better than to hope, but she couldn’t help it.

“Hailey—”

She holds a hand up. “I… Don’t.”

“I love you.” He stands and walks towards her. “I just got you. Really got you, and I don’t want to lose you.”

Tears sting her eyes, and she blinks. “Gavin…”

“Don’t tell me you’re leaving me. Hailey—”

“I need some time to process this. I have to go.”

“Baby, please,” he says, but she can’t look at him. The way his voice breaks hurts even more. She can tell he’s on the verge of tears himself, and if she sees him crying, she can’t hold hers back. “Please… I love you.”

Licking her lips, Hailey opens the apartment door. “I love you, too, but this… You’re having a baby with someone who isn’t me, Gavin.”

“At least tell me what you’re feeling right now. Mad? Pissed? Sick?”

“That last one. I don’t have a right to be angry.”

He reaches out and takes her hand as she steps into the hallway. “You do have a right to be mad.”

“No,” she says and shakes her head. “I don’t. I just need… time.”

“Promise me that you’ll talk to me when you’ve taken some time to process this. Please don’t just leave and never come back.”

His fear is more than warranted. “I promise I’m not running away. This is just… really big, and I don’t know exactly how I feel right now. You’re having a baby… with the waitress… and I’m finding it really difficult to breathe.”

“Hailey—”

“Is she keeping the baby?”

Why didn’t I think to ask that right away? Maybe this was all for nothing. Maybe she’s—

“Yes.”

Closing her eyes, she can’t stop the tears anymore. “I have to go. I’ll call you. I promise.”

She runs to her car and sits, taking a few deep breaths before driving towards her house. How could this happen?

I know how this fucking happened. His dad’s going to kill him.

Griffin’s Beach Gavin

L aying on his bed, Gavin stares at the ceiling fan spinning above him. Hailey left twelve hours ago, and she hasn’t reached out to him since.

“It’s probably going to take longer than half a day to process, idiot,” Gavin says to himself. “It’s not like it’s life-changing or anything. I just got her back. Why can’t the world fucking work out just this once?”

Gracie just gave birth to a son, and now he’s having a baby with a woman he doesn’t know if he really even likes. Not with her clothes on, at least. Which makes him the biggest jackass in the world.

Dad’s going to kill me.

The front door opens, and Gavin leaps off the bed, his feet unable to move fast enough as he runs to find Hailey standing in the entryway.

She didn’t run away. She said she’d call, but she showed up. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Hailey says.

Her face is pale, and her eyes are bloodshot and swollen. Crying. Again. And this time, it’s because of him. He hates that he’s done this to her. Was it too much to ask to be happy for more than a week and a half?

“How are you holding up?” Gavin asks, his face pinching as he realizes how stupid the words sound.

“Not great,” she admits with a forced smile. “I can’t get something out of my head.”

“What’s that?”

Her eyes gloss over as she locks them with his. “This was supposed to be you and me, not you and the waitress.”

She wants to have my baby? “It was?”

“We were the ones who should be planning a future and having a baby together. Maybe two. Down the road, of course, but it was supposed to be us.”

“I’m so sorry.”

Sniffling, she rolls her shoulders. “I was going to call, but I thought we should probably do this in person. It’s not a phone conversation.”

His heart pounds in his ears, and he feels sick. “Hailey—”

“I talked to Lex about this. As much as I wanted her to tell me what to do, she didn’t. She let me come to the conclusion on my own, but she did say something.”

“What… what was that?” Gavin chokes out.

“Ky’s going to kill you.”

He snorts against his will. Nothing about this is funny. “Yeah, I know.”

“Lex asked me what I want in this scenario. Realistically. Obviously, if I could have what I wanted, the waitress wouldn’t be carrying your baby right now, but only I can decide which pain is worth it.”

Pain. “I’m sorry. God, Hailey, I’m so fucking sorry.”

“I know. It’s hard because I really fucking hate the idea of you having a baby with her, but I think I’d feel that way with anyone who isn’t me. If it was me, this would be so much easier. There’d be more skin in the game.”

Swallowing, he keeps eye contact with her. “What are you saying, Hailey?”

“I’m saying I have to follow my heart. There’s no option that doesn’t hurt, so it’s a matter of which level of pain I can endure.”

Baby, please, spit it out. Put me out of my misery.

Hailey sniffles again and plasters a smile on her face. “I guess we should probably start clearing out your extra room.”

“What?”

“You’re going to need a nursery for the baby.”

“I’m confused,” Gavin says, shaking his head.

Slipping off her jacket, she sets it on a stool under the island.

“The baby needs baby things. We’ll have to get a crib and diapers and a change station.

You’ll have to talk to the waitress about the plan for feedings.

Will she give you milk when the baby stays here, or will he or she be a formula baby? ”

“Wait, you’re saying we have to get things for the baby. You’re not leaving me?”

“I thought about it,” she says, her voice a whisper.

“This wasn’t the plan, and this isn’t my baby.

It really hurts knowing you’re going to experience all of this with someone else, but when I thought about leaving you again after everything that’s happened, I couldn’t breathe.

It felt like my world was collapsing on me. ”

Falling to his knees, Gavin lets out a breath of relief. “Thank you.”

“I also can’t ignore my part in this whole situation. If I hadn’t been so stupid, you, hopefully, wouldn’t have climbed into bed with her. I can’t really hold something you did while we were apart against you.”

“I never planned on this,” he says. “I love you so much, Hailey.”

“I love you, too. We’ll figure this out. Together.”

He stands and cups her face. He hasn’t felt anything but pure panic since Emme appeared at his door earlier today, and he kisses Hailey as he pushes back the tears. He wants to laugh and cry at the same time.

She deepens the kiss, and he tastes her tears on his tongue. This isn’t how they imagined this going, but she wants to do this together. She’s not leaving him, and he knows he can do this as long as she’s beside him.

“Hailey—”

“Just love me,” she whispers.

Picking her up, he carries her into the bedroom and lays her on the bed. It’s their first time back together since Emme walked in on them, and he wants to take things slowly. He needs to make sure she’s really ready after what’s happened.

He climbs onto the bed with her, kissing her as he slowly slips his fingers beneath her waistband into her panties. There’s no resistance from her, and she unbuttons her jeans to give him better access as his fingers toy with her clit.

“Are you sure you’re ready?”

As much as Gavin doesn’t want to stop, he knows he’d never forgive himself if he just took advantage of her emotionally vulnerable state.

“I’m sure,” Hailey says and squirms out of her pants. “I need you.”

“I love you,” he murmurs.

They both shed their clothes, and he kisses down her body until he’s settled between her legs. She moans as his tongue laps at her need, and he was worried he’d never hear this again.

“I plan to show you how much I love you tonight and every night from now on.”

His hot breath on her wet pussy makes her shiver. “I love you, Gavin. More than I ever wanted to. You have me. I’m not running away.”

He needs to hear her moan again. His heart rate won’t calm down until he knows he’s given her another feeling other than pain.

The next few months will undoubtedly be difficult, but they’re going to do this together. He only wants her, but more than that, he needs her. Forever.