Page 81 of Chasing Blue

“When you came to Sydney when I was in the hospital, did you tell Sloan why I was in there?”

His head instantly snaps my way, his eyes hitting mine.

“What? No, absolutely not. I’ve never told a soul.”

I knock back the last of the wine in my glass, but keep my gaze locked on his.

“Why would you even ask me that?”

“Did you know it was Sloan who told me Eden was pregnant, and that she and Jack had got back together and were making a go of things for the baby’s sake?”

“What?” he questions, sitting himself up straighter and reaching for the bottle on the table between us.

I watch as he tops up both our glasses with the last of the wine.

“Sloan toldmeEden was pregnant and that it was Jack’s, but I didn’t know she told you,” he states.

“You never told me he came looking for me.” I try not to sound accusatory, but I can tell by the way my brother straightens in his chair, he’s preparing to defend himself.

“I had no fucking clue then that he never intended getting back with Eden. Sloan never mentioned when she told me, never told me she was already four months pregnant. When he came looking for you, I thought he’d been cheating on you and had gotten her pregnant in the process.” My brother stares into the fire as he talks.

“It wasn’t until later, a long time later, I realised he’d never gotten back with Eden. She married that other bloke from Cairns and moved up there. Left the kid with Jack.”

“I know,” I tell him. “Jack lives near me now. He told me he never got back with her. He also told me how you threatened to punch his lights out.”

“You were fucking devastated, Scar. He was seeing you and had gotten another girl pregnant. What d’you expect me to do?”

“She was pregnant before we started seeing each other.”

“So, I should’ve shaken his hand and congratulated him?”

I grind my teeth together a few times before answering.

“You never told me they never got back together.”

“I didn’t think you’d want to know. I thought I was doing the right thing. You took off to start your new life in Sydney, and I never really gave him much thought, not until the hospital called.”

I close my eyes and try to shut out the memories, tilt my face towards the night sky, and breathe in deeply through my nose.

“Jack lives near you?” he asks after a beat. “Have you seen him?”

“Yep, I’m doing some work for him. Ironically, he’s opening a bar.”

“What? I thought he was a tradie. Chippy, right?”

“Yeah, but he’s always wanted a bar. We’re doing the interiors. I had to stop at his house yesterday before you called, and Eden Miller was there.” I open my eyes and turn to face him. “She took great pleasure in telling me she knows all about ‘my secret’. She told me that Sloan told her, my question is, if you told no one, how the fuck did Sloan know?”

He closes his eyes and shakes his head. “She drove me to the airport,” he admits, his voice barely a whisper. “I didn’t tell her anything, I swear, Scarlett.” He turns his head my way, his eyes hit mine and he stares at me intently. “I wouldn’t do that.”

“Then how does she know?”

He shakes his head as he palms his jaw, and I know that means he’s thinking.

“Welp, somehow she knows something, and she went to Eden with what she thinks she knows, and she told her she got the info from you.”

“You really think I’d do that to you?” he asks me quietly.

I shake my head. “Never in a million years. But I just had one of the best and worst weekends of my life, and now I don’t know what to think.”