Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 102731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
At my shocked silence, his jaw clenched, and he looked away. Then with a little huff of disbelief, he marched past me toward the door.
Reeling from his revelation, I was almost too late. Just in time, I snapped out of my stupor and I whirled. “Lewis.”
He’d pushed open the back door, but now he paused.
“I honestly don’t know if I can give you what you came here for,” I told him tearfully, “but never think that I moved on easily from you. I was … I was broken when you left.” Tears escaped before I could stop them. “I promised myself I would never love again like that. With everything. With all that I was. And I never have. There were only three men after you. The first a mistake. The second Remy and the third Gabriel. Mere distractions. Nothing more.”
“Callie—”
“I promised I’d never love anyone the way I loved you,” I reiterated through gritted teeth. “Not even you again.”
His expression fell. “Callie—”
“I’m not …” Confused and heartsore, I shrugged helplessly. “Give me a few weeks. Some space to process everything you’ve told me.” Something like hope lit his eyes, and I didn’t want to hurt him. “I can’t promise anything. Friendship or otherwise.”
Lewis nodded slowly. “Okay.”
“Thank you for being so honest with me.” It took a lot for someone to admit what he had. It had also torn me up. Because as much as I hated the idea of Lewis with anyone else, I also hated the thought of him lonely and waiting for me, watching me with Gabriel and how that must have been for him.
I was so damn confused.
“You’re welcome.” His expression softened. “So, Gabriel isn’t part of the equation?”
Rolling my eyes, I huffed. “No, he was just stopping by during his travels. For the last time.”
His reply was gruff. “Good.”
I smirked and shook my head.
“So … you’ll reach out when you’re ready?”
“I’ll reach out,” I promised.
Twenty-Two
CALLIE
TWO WEEKS LATER
Iwas going to be sick.
Which wasn’t unusual these days.
“Perhaps you’re coming down with a stomach bug,” Mum had suggested when I was sick at the bakery yesterday.
I’d thought maybe she was right when the next morning I’d upchucked my breakfast into the toilet in my cottage. Last week, I’d signed the rental agreement, and my family helped me move in. A few days after I’d settled into the home that brought with it some cozy nostalgia, I’d gotten a new car, so I didn’t have to rely on other people for lifts everywhere.
Thankfully, that morning the bakery was closed, because as I’d sat back on my heels, exhausted, my eyes alighting on the tampons peeking out of my bathroom cupboard, a cold dawning slid through me. Mum had unpacked the boxes for the bathroom. Maybe if I had, realization would have hit me sooner.
My period was late … and I’d missed my last period.
I’d been so busy settling back into the business and the village and dealing with the emotional turmoil of Lewis’s return, and then revelations, it hadn’t even occurred to me that I’d missed my period.
I’d missed my period after sleeping with Lewis.
Unable to think or talk to anyone until I knew, I cleaned myself up and grabbed my purse and car keys. Knowing that if I bought the pregnancy test in town, or nearby, it would be all over the village in hours, I drove to Inverness.
By the time I arrived in the city and purchased a pregnancy test from a large pharmacy, I hadn’t been able to wait the hour to know. I slipped into the pharmacy’s customer restroom and peed on the stick.
Nausea rolled through my stomach as I stood there. Sequestered in the stall of the loos, I listened to people come and go as I watched the test stick like a hawk. I’d paid extra for one of the digital tests.
A few minutes later, the word Pregnant appeared on the screen. And below it: 5–6 weeks.
“Oh my fucking, arsing, bloody, shitty, fucking, fuck, fuck!”
Awful silence rang in the wake of my outburst.
Then I heard a female voice joke, “Want to bet she’s either just got her period or she’s pregnant.”
Another woman chuckled.
Sometimes I really hated Scottish people. And I said that as one of them.
I burst out of the stall and marched over to the sink to wash my hands. Glaring at the two women in the mirror, I shook from head to toe. “Oh, it’s all fun and jokes out here, eh? If you must know, nosy parkers, I’m pregnant. Happy?” I threw the pregnancy test into the bin and promptly burst into tears.
A few seconds later, I was enveloped in a stranger’s arms, her perfume making me even more nauseated. But I clung to her as she soothed a motherly hand over my back. “There, there, sweetheart. It’s going to be all right.”