Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 124320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
But it’s Ezra’s call.
“I knew it would be hard for you,” Ezra says, not addressing her question directly. “But we need to be civil and adult about this. How we handle the transition will affect how Noah adjusts. We’ll work out the details. You can have the house. I can stay nearby so Noah can—”
“You have it all figured out, huh?” Aiko interrupts.
“We have a child together,” Ezra says. “It would be irresponsible for me not to have considered how this will affect—”
“Two,” Aiko says, her smile dropping, her eyes hard and flat, a pane of glass over her emotions.
“Two?” Ezra frowns. “Two what?”
“You said we have a child together,” Aiko says. “But we have two.”
She turns to me, challenge and pain mixing in her expression. “I came home early because I’m pregnant.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Ezra
“You’re what?”
I’ve been careful with my words, disciplined in my emotions since Aiko walked in, but her ridiculous statement pulls the pin on my control.
“Pregnant.” Aiko looks at me, hope rising in her eyes and lifting the corners of her mouth. “A baby, Ezra. You always wanted another one.”
Kimba flinches, and I see her face again last night, uncertain in the moonlight, hear her voice shaking as she told me she may never have a child.
“Years ago,” I remind Aiko. “I wanted another baby years ago. You didn’t. It was fine. It’s not something we’ve discussed in a long time and you know it. And if you’re pregnant, it’s not mine. We’ve barely had sex all year. Chaz would be—”
“Barely is not never,” Aiko says softly. “Once is enough. And you fucked me once.”
“No, I…”
Taco Tuesday. Margaritas.
I gulp back the bile of regret and force myself to meet Kimba’s questioning gaze. She knows before I say it, grabbing her purse from the bed and leaving the room. I bite off a growl, toss a frustrated glance at Aiko and start after her.
“Wait here,” I clip out.
“It’s my home,” she yells back. “Where else would I go?”
I take the stairs so fast I almost fall down the last two. Chaz is staked out by the door with Aiko’s bags. A muscle tics in his jaw and his hands are clenched into fists at his side.
Me, too, man. Me, too.
This is about as awkward as a situation could possibly be. There is no greeting that would be appropriate, so I blow past and leave him for Aiko to deal with. Through the screen door, I see Kimba already outside on the porch, head bent over her phone.
Pulling the door closed behind me, I put my hand over hers. She snatches it back, shaking her head.
“Ezra, do not.” Her voice is steady, but her hand trembles around the phone, despite her death grip.
“Look at me.”
She doesn’t, training her eyes to the porch floor. I cup her face, locking my hands gently around the high cheekbones, feeling the tense muscles at her jawline.
“Please talk to me, Tru.”
I hear the begging in my own voice and don’t care. Nothing means anything if she leaves this porch without hearing me out, without giving me a chance. She pulls free of my hands and steps away.
“You have, let’s see.” She looks at her phone. “Three minutes before Lamont, my Uber driver, arrives. Talk.”
“You can’t let this come between us.”
She whirls around at that, her sundress flaring out and re-settling around her long legs. “Let this come between us?” She barks out a disbelieving laugh. “If Aiko is pregnant with your baby, there is no us, Ezra.”
“The hell there’s no us. You can’t say that.”
“What the fuck do you expect me to say? That I’m fine with it? I’m not. Don’t ask me to be. I can’t…” She presses her lips together and blinks rapidly. For a moment, I wish I didn’t know her as well as I know my own hands, my own heart. There’s so much hurt under her fury and I know her too well not to see it.
“I’m just hearing all of this for the first time,” I say. “Just like you. I don’t know what the hell is going on. Don’t know what’s true or—”
“But it could be true. You did sleep with her, right?”
“Once. One time in months, and we’ve lived together for ten years. You can’t actually be angry that I slept with my ex-girlfriend once weeks ago before you and I even started.”
“Not so ex.” She laughs, the sound void of amusement. “This is her home, that’s her bedroom, possibly your baby she’s carrying. Not so fast with the ex.”
“Chaz is literally standing at the door.” I take her hands, holding on when she tries to pull away. “If Aiko is pregnant, it could just as easily be his.”
“This is some Jerry Springer shit,” she says, her breath coming hard. “I don’t need this. If I were a client of mine, I would advise them to walk away and not look back.”