Page 30 of Power Move

“Do you ever stop craving it?” Eva facepalmed. “I am sorry. I do not know where the fuck that came from? It’s like I am short-circuiting.”

“Me, too.” I collapsed into the chair. “Fuck. I need a smoke. Do you feel that way?”

“I have never smoked and definitely cannot right now.”

“Shit, yeah. Pregnant.”

“Look, this wasn’t how I imagined this going, Davey. I thought you’d be an interesting hookup. I didn’t believe you when you promised me a good time. And then… it lived up to expectations. But this—” She pointed between us. “This doesn’t work, Davey. You don’t end up with me. You don’t want it and I’m not promising it.”

“Did you plan on telling me?” I asked.

She shrugged. “I figured I’d wait until I knew more. You don’t get it. I’ve only made it this far once. And then I found out at my second scan the baby was gone. I amfullyexpecting to find the same, Davey.”

“That’s grim, Eva, I’m sorry.”

She’d been pregnanttwicebefore? The thought blew my mind. I heard my sister’s voice of reason telling me not to badger her, so I didn’t ask.

“I figured I’d make it to thirteen weeks and think about telling you if the pregnancy was viable, okay? But… I want you toknow I’m neither getting rid of it nor asking you for anything. The way I see it, I’m raising this child by myself.”

I set my jaw, winding up. “Eva, I am not going to let you do that.”

“So, I should get rid of it?”

“No! Jesus, I’m not asking you to do that. I’d never fucking force you to do anything like that! If you wanted to, I’d support you. It’s your fucking body.”

The surprise on her face suggested mistrust. She thought I was going to tell her she had to end the pregnancy. Instead of anger, I mustered compassion to start showing her I wasn’t the villain she made me out to be.

“What I meant, Eva, was I will help you. There is no world in which I procreate and don’t step up. I couldn’t forgive myself, and I’d hope you wouldn’t forgive me either.”

She cocked her head adorably. “What?”

“I want to provide for you and the baby and support you, obviously.”

“Davey, that doesn’t make sense?—”

“It doesn’t make sense for me to not be responsible for the thing I put out in this world.”

“I don’t need your money.”

“Does our child notdeserveit, though? I am not saying I am here to control your life.”

“Good, because we arenottogether. Not in any sense.”

It pained me to admit I still wished to go back and fix whatever I fucked up the month before. I needed to earn her trust and prove I had her best interest in mind. There was base attraction for days. I’d still have her if she let me, but it wasn’t just that. She cast me as the evil asshole who held her future in my hands. I never saw it that way. No matter how much she annoyed—even tortured—me I wouldn’t give up.

“Maybe we aren’ttogether, but we can stillworktogether.”

“Here? Fuck my life!”

“Look, it’s not ideal and I’m not saying let’s run out and say what is going on—mainly as you said, for your sake.”

“You’re not willing to take the heat, either.”

“I will be,” I promised, terrified but playing tough. “We need to be a team. You deserve that. So, whatever you need, tell me, Eva.”

“I don’t need your money. Like I said?—”

“You will. And the child deserves to be raised in a world where it has the same opportunities that Cal and Daphne’s kid will have. Should it feel less-than. Maybe you don’t see it, but this child is still David and Danna Delphine’s grandchild.”