7. Theo
CHAPTER SEVEN
THEO
I watch her walk out of the bakery. Scratch that, I watch her bolt out of the bakery like a bat out of hell. She rushes away with her head down, and I’m about to follow her, but my whole body feels like a lead weight.
I’m pregnant. The words she whispered play over and over in my head.
I blink. That is the only thing I think I can do right at this moment.
The blood rushes to my head. My chest feels like it’s about to crack itself open.
My ears are ringing. Then I can hear myself starting to pant.
The back of my neck tingles, and I wonder if I’m going to faint.
I put my hand on the table to hold myself up, trying to get my whole body back under control.
It feels like I’m in a dream. I close my eyes and force them open again, expecting to be in my bed.
But the rude reality is that this isn’t a fucking dream.
“Where did Collins go?” Everleigh stops beside me with a white box in her hand.
“She—” I put my hand on my leg, and wonder if she can see how fucking freaked out I am. “She—”
“Oh, good god, Theo, did you insult her?”
“What?” I move back as if she hit me. “Why would I ever insult anyone?”
“You insult me all the time,” Brock jokes, claiming the chair Collins just sat in. He picks up another lemon square and pops it in his mouth as if my life didn’t just fall off its axis. “I’m surprised, though. I didn’t think Collins was your type.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” I ask, insulted.
“It means she’s not the normal girl you go for.” He picks up a donut, acting like he didn’t insult me indirectly.
“Would you stop eating everything?” Everleigh hisses at him.
“Baby, I’m starving.” He doesn’t even pay attention to the way she’s glaring at him. It just falls off him.
“I’m going to go and pack a box. You can take it to the station and drop it off for Collins.” She walks away from us, and I turn back to Brock, who is taking his second bite of the donut like he hasn’t had anything to eat in a year.
“What did you mean by that?”
“I mean, she’s not the normal type you go for.” He swallows. “It’s pretty self-explanatory.”
“Who do I normally go for?”
“Yeah, you like to surf the coast but not get too close to the shore.” He takes another bite and then chews twice before he continues. “Trust me, I know what that’s like.”
“I don’t even know what the fuck that means.” I sit back in the chair.
“It means you aren’t looking for anything serious, so you go home with these random women from out of town so you won’t have to look over your shoulder when you go out,” he explains. “Everyone knows—”
“People talk about this?”
“Dude.” He chuckles. “Where the fuck do you think you live? People talk about nothing and everything.” He finishes the donut and looks over at the piece of pie, contemplating whether he’s going to have room to eat it or not.
“With that said, I think you should stay away from Collins.” He leans forward, and his tone is tight and almost dangerous.
“Actually, scratch that, stay the fuck away from Collins.”
The hair on the back of my neck tingles. “Yeah?” I snarl. “And why the fuck is that?”
“Because she’s not your type.” He holds up a finger.
“She’s 1,000 percent my type,” I defend myself, because she is.
From her eyes to her amazing mouth to the way she smiles, which she doesn’t do enough if you ask me.
It almost makes me want to go out of my way to do something to make her smile.
Something she hasn’t done with me the last two times I’ve seen her.
“I don’t mean her looks. It’s a given that she’s a knockout,” he states.
My eyes go into slits. “I thought you were married.”
“I’m not dead.” He side-eyes me. “She also doesn’t need your brand of trouble.”
“I’m going to tell you that it’s time you stopped talking.” The hand on my leg balls into a fist.
“Well, no surprise, I’m not going to.” He chuckles.
“I’m going to do you and Collins a favor, something this town doesn’t do enough for her.
Just drop it and move on. I get it, the thrill of chasing someone who says no is exciting.
But you are going to move on, and she’s going to be the one who people talk about. ”
I want to ask him what he means by that, but Everleigh comes back out with two boxes in her hands.
“Here,” she says, handing them to Brock, “you can drop this off at the station. Give one to the guys there and then make sure Collins gets that.” She taps the box on the bottom. “I think she works three to three.”
“For you, baby”—he gets up and grabs the boxes from her—“anything.”
“He just called Collins a knockout,” I report, and Everleigh laughs.
“Well, she is.” She shrugs her shoulders. “She always was.”
“Yeah,” Brock agrees with her, and I hate it when he’s in a playful mood.
“I like you better when you’re broody and angry,” I tell him, “and not this.”
“You fuck with Collins, you’ll get a very angry Brock, and he’ll fuck with you like you’ve never been fucked with before.” He looks at Everleigh, who looks at me with her eyes widening.
“Oh no.” Everleigh shakes her head. “You can’t go there. Leave her alone. She’s been through enough.”
“What?” I ask, confused, looking at both of them. “What do you mean?”
“See?” She points at me. “Right there is reason number one why you need to just go bark up someone else’s tree.
You should go to Thatcher’s tonight. I heard there is a group of girls who are in town for a team-building exercise.
They came in here this morning, just your type. Not from around here, bubbly and cute.”
“I’m going to go before I get really insulted by you guys.” I push away from the table. “I’m a respectable man.” I put my hand on my chest. “And what happens between Collins and me is between us. We are both two consenting adults.”
“Does one of you want two broken legs?” Brock glares at me. “I’m not talking about her.”
I roll my eyes. “I have to go now. This has been so much fun. We should never do this again.” I turn and walk out of the bakery, looking right and left, but I know she’s long gone.
All I can do is picture Collins and her wild eyes as she sat in front of me, so nervous and scared shitless that it radiated off her.
I should have known it was as bad as it was.
She was shaking when I got here. She did start to calm down, but as soon as someone came into the bakery, she started trembling again, like she wanted to crawl out of her skin.
Truth be told, I don’t think I would have been as brave and quiet as she was when she told me the news.
I would have come in guns blazing and shouting down the rooftop.
“Dude,” Brock says. I groan and turn my head, rubbing my hands over my face. “Seriously, don’t be stupid. People probably started the phone chain when they saw the two of you sitting together. Take it from me, don’t do that to her.”
“I’m not doing anything to her.” I put my hands on my hips. “We literally just had coffee.”
“That is not what everyone else is going to say. It’s going to be you being the victim, and all eyes will be on her, and buddy, I’ve got to tell you. The eyes are not going to be kind.” My back goes straight at his words.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” My tone is tight, and he just looks at me.
“It’s not my story to tell. Just let it fucking go and leave her fucking be.” He doesn’t give me a chance to say anything. Instead, he just turns and walks away, heading down to his garage.
I put my head down, and I can hear her voice again: I’m pregnant. My head spins as I walk to my truck.
I get in at the same time the phone rings, so I put it to my ear. “Yeah.”
“Hey,” Caleb says, “can you do me a favor?”
I look out the window of my truck at the people walking down the street, my eyes still stupidly scanning for her. “Yeah, what do you need?”
“Can you go to Sierra’s house and pick up a couple of things for her?”
“What?” I ask, not sure I heard him. “What kind of things? Like clothes and shit?”
“Yeah.” He laughs. “Sorry, I’ll call Lilah.”
“That would be a better idea. I didn’t even want to touch anything in there yesterday when I was looking for your shirt,” I tell him.
“So it’s safe to say I’m not going to be doing that ever again.
If you want me to bring you food, I’m the guy.
I can even arrange to have shit cleaned up or fixed, but I’m not going through drawers and shit. ”
He laughs. “Got it. Okay, are you coming by today?”
“I was there this morning when I brought everyone coffee,” I remind him. “You were going to pull your hair out of your head when Sierra refused to listen to you and stay in her bed.”
“This morning feels like a year ago,” he laments.
“Tell me about it.”
“Everything okay with you?”
No, I almost say, but the last thing he needs right now is me raining down on him.
Plus, what could I possibly say? I had a one-night stand two months ago, and now she tells me she’s having my baby.
I close my eyes. “I’m good. I’m going to be you today and pretend to work, and drive around to the worksites. ”
“Go fuck yourself.” He laughs and then dead air.
The screen is back to my screen saver, a picture of the lake right behind my parents’ house, with the rising sun reflecting on the water.
I took it on what was supposed to be the best day of my life.
It ended up being the worst. Now it’s a reminder to never let myself feel the way I did that day.
I’ll never put myself out there like that again.
I exhale as I pull away from the bakery.
I go through the motions of the day, stopping at the seven worksites we have.
When I finally get home, I park the truck and get out. As the door slams shut, a red car pulls up at the curb. I squint to see who the fuck it is.
The driver’s side door opens, and a woman with curly black hair slides out. Her eyes come to mine when she smiles.
“I thought that was you.” She closes her door. “I’m shocked you’re back in town.” She walks around her car. She’s wearing a pair of jeans with a tank top. Her long hair is over her shoulder and hits the middle of her stomach.
“Um, Claire,” I say as she walks up the driveway. I’m surprised because I’ve never once brought a woman here. “How did you know where I lived?”
“I saw your truck when I was leaving my friend’s house.” She points to the corner. “Don’t you want to invite me in?” I think she just actually batted her eyelashes at me.
“Not really.” We shared a night four months ago, and each time I saw her after that, I made it pretty fucking clear it was never going to happen again.
Apparently, not clear enough from this conversation.
“I’m sort of seeing someone.” I know it’s a bit of a stretch since I literally just saw Collins today, and I have no idea what is going to come next.
However, I’m 1,000 percent certain that I’m not going to go there again with Claire or anyone until we talk things out.
The shock fills her face. “You said you didn’t have time to date,” she reminds me. It’s the excuse I used when I saw her in town over a month ago. “That you were busy with work and stuff.”
“It started recently.” I want nothing more than for this conversation to be over and to get her far away from me.
“Well, I’m okay with being in the mix.” She swings her shoulders back and forth. “Since it’s new and stuff. I—”
“I’m not,” I say quickly to stop her from talking. “I never will be. I’m really sorry that you—”
“So you were just going to string me along?” Her eyes go into slits.
“What?” I ask, shocked. “We hooked up one night four months ago, Claire. Since then, have I ever said anything that would make you think it would be more?” She cocks her hip to the side. “I haven’t, so with that, I’m going to say good night.” I turn to walk away.
“You’re going to regret this,” she snaps out. She storms back to her car and peels away.
I look up to the sky and put my hands on my hips. “This is shaping up to be a clusterfuck of a day.” I then take both hands and rub them over my face before turning on my heel and heading inside.
I kick off my boots and step into the house. I’m standing at the fridge. It’s half empty, and what is in it needs to be thrown out. I close the fridge and go over to the couch, collapsing on it. My eyes go straight to the big-ass television set that hangs above the fireplace mantel.
I replay the conversation with Collins in my head again.
I have been replaying it all fucking day long.
When I was in my truck, driving from jobsite to jobsite.
When one of the workers was filling me in, I randomly saw Collins’s face in my mind.
I hated myself for not getting a word in.
For not immediately going after her. All I did was sit there and stare at her like I wasn’t in my body.
I mean, it’s not every day you are told you’re going to be a father.
Especially after one night. A night when I made sure to protect myself.
Shit, I’ve never been without protection since I knew I didn’t want this exact thing to happen.
I wanted to do this the old-fashioned way.
Find a woman I couldn’t live without, marry her, and then the two of us would decide that we are going to have children.
Not a one-night stand with a stranger and then, boom, the two of us are now going to be parents.
Stuck to each other for the rest of our lives.
The idea is so out of left field, I’m in a daze.
I have no idea what to feel. How to feel.
I know one thing, though. I will never let a child, my child, be without me in their life. That will never happen.
I grab my phone to call her, and then close my eyes, gently using it to hit the middle of my head. “You don’t even have her fucking number,” I hiss out. “You are a tool.”
I head upstairs, taking a second to look around and see how empty the fucking house is.
In my bedroom, I fall onto the king-size bed, staring up at the white ceiling.
“She’s pregnant,” I say to myself. “She’s going to have a baby.
” I put one hand on my stomach. “My baby.” I sit up.
I fall back down on the bed and say the last words I thought I would ever say today, this week, this month, this year. “I’m going to be a fucking dad.”