Page 21 of The Destruction You Desire

"That makes two of us. I… I think he did look after me last night. But then this morning…" I trail off, my cheeks burning.

"No point trying to cover it up. I'm in the room right next door. I have a very good idea of what happened."

"Jesus, Lee. Not necessary."

He shrugs. "Sounded like my kind of punishment," he admits dryly.

A weird noise rumbles up my throat at his admission as he chuckles beside me.

"Don't worry, I've got no reason to punish you," he says with a smile, clearly sensing my unease.

"Christ," I mutter, dragging my hair away from my face as a thought hits me. "Have you two both been with Letty?"

"Uh… She tell you that?"

"N-no, Luc did."

"Huh." He scrubs his jaw as he thinks.

"What? Isn't it true?"

A smile curls at his lips. "Yeah, it's true. We've done a lot of stupid shit over the years. Most of it probably would never have happened if you never left."

"Is that a good or bad thing?" I ask despite the guilt already tugging at my insides.

"Who knows? Some of it's been fun. Other stuff not so much." Our conversation is cut off as he places our order. "He was never the same once you left, you know. You took a part of him with you. No one else saw it, or if they did, they didn't appreciate just how bad it was. Pretty sure there's not a day that's gone by where he hasn't wished you were still beside him."

"I don't know about that. It's not like he wants me here now."

"He does," Leon says confidently. "He's just working through whatever shit happened. Last night should be proof enough that he still cares."

I mutter some kind of agreement as he moves toward the window to pick up our order.

"It was too late for breakfast," he says handing the bag over as if he's only just realized that he ordered for me only minutes ago.

"It's fine."

Without wasting a second, I dig into the bag and stuff a handful of fries into my mouth.

He laughs at me as he pulls into a space in the parking lot and takes the bag from my lap, pulling out his own food.

"Time to start talking, Peyton."

I bite down the fry in my hand as I fight my internal battle about whether to confess or not. In the end, my mouth decides for me when the words just start pouring out.

"A few weeks before we left town, I told Luca something that I'd overheard my mom and sister talking about."

"Right," he says lightly, taking a huge bite of his burger as if I'm not about to turn his world upside down.

"She told Mom that she was pregnant."

"Holy shit," he splutters, damn near choking on his food.

I wait for him to swallow before I land the final blow.

"Libby told her that the father was…" Leon looks me dead in the eyes, I can almost see the wheels turning in his head trying to work it out.

"Luc?" he breathes.