Accidental Pregnancy, page 19
I look sharply at Amanda. We haven’t spoken about middle names or last names. But it appears Amanda was thinking about it anyway. She said the name surely, as though she had decided this a long time ago.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Amanda adds, glancing at me. “But I know how much you loved your mother. I wanted to honor her in some way.”
I press a kiss to her forehead, sweeping hair off her face.
“It’s perfect,” I say, my voice rough. I clear my throat. “But, Thompson? You don’t want her to have your last name?”
“It’s fine,” Amanda says. “She’s technically your heir, you know. It’s better for her to have your last name.”
“Is this your way of asking me to change your last name, too?” I tease.
Surprisingly, Amanda doesn’t laugh. She flushes and looks away, and butterflies erupt in my stomach.
“Not…quite,” she says awkwardly. “But it doesn’t sound like a bad idea, anyway.
I stare at her. I’ve thought of marrying Amanda, of course, especially in the last couple of months. We’ve only been together for nine months, at this point, which was the entire length of the pregnancy.
But, hearing her saying that she’s interested in the idea… Only the fact that proposing to my girlfriend in the delivery room after she’s just had a baby is incredibly unromantic stops me from dropping to one knee.
I tell myself to calm down. I’ll stick with my original plan. I want to wait a little while longer and see how we go as a couple now that the pregnancy is no longer the defining factor of our relationship. If we can last through looking after a newborn baby together, then we’ll definitely be good to get married.
Still, I can’t leave Amanda’s words alone. I know she’s waiting tensely for a response.
“When the time is right, and when we’re not in this hospital… I’m going to ask you to marry me,” I promise, grinning. “Just wait for it.”
I stand and kiss her softly. At the movement, little Rose lets go of the breast with a cry. A nurse hurries forward with a smile, and Amanda and I break apart, chuckling.
I step back as I watch the nurse show Amanda how to hold and burp Rose. The nurse and doctor are all so supportive. I glance down at my phone. I should turn it on to send some messages out. I know Alicia, Alan and Maria are all waiting for news. The last update I gave them was an hour ago, when I told them we were getting closer, despite how long it had been at that point.
“Hey.”
I look up as I turn my phone on. Amanda is now cradling the quiet Rose in her arms. She looks beautiful.
“Yeah?” I ask.
“I love you,” Amanda says.
I smile. Hearing those words from Amanda is enough to make my day, no matter what else has happened. I stride back to the bed. I kiss her, and then kiss Rose gently on the cheek. The baby’s skin is incredibly soft.
“I love you, too,” I say. “Both of you.”
Amanda presses her forehead against mine. I know things won’t be perfect in the coming weeks. Looking after a baby will be very hard, and everything I’ve read said that sleep will be a luxury. And that’s not even talking about nappy changes, crying fits and burping.
But, right now, all of that is still a distant concern. Here, with my two girls, life is utterly perfect.
Excerpt
I want my best friend to raise my daughter!
Georgia would make the perfect mother for Lily.
My life has been messy since my ex-wife left.
And Georgia is with me every step of the way.
She’s all I have.
Her soft skin intoxicates me.
I can’t ruin our friendship by trying to claim her.
I can’t be that selfish.
Especially since my ex-wife has returned.
She’s threatening to take Lily away.
Abandoning Georgia is the only way out of this mess.
What will I do if I have to choose between her and my daughter?
Georgia
I blink awake groggily, staring upwards. For a moment, I can’t comprehend why two grinning faces, one young female and one older male, are staring down at me, and I frown at them, yawning as I slowly wake up.
Then memory hits and I gasp as my eyes fly open. I fell asleep on the couch!
“Ethan!” I say. “You’re home!”
“Yeah,” Ethan Howard says with a grin, sitting back. Beside me, Lily, her hair as black as her father’s, blinks her twinkling green eyes awake and yawns widely. “Sorry I’m home so late.”
“No, it’s fine,” I say instantly, shaking my head. He’s staring at me with his warm blue eyes, and they turn my insides to mush, as they always do. I would do anything for this man. I glance at Lily. “Looks like both Lily and I needed the sleep.”
Lily huffs and closes her eyes again, snuggling against my side. I hear the telltale click of a camera and I raise an eyebrow at Ethan just as he tucks his phone away, pretending innocence. Ethan has so many photo albums of Lily after ten years that the poor girl’s going to need an entire room to store them when she eventually leaves home.
“What time is it?” I ask with a yawn, moving carefully and laying Lily down on the couch.
“Midnight,” Ethan says, moving back so I can stand. “The television was still on when I came in, and the two of you were lying there.”
“It isn’t the first time we’ve fallen asleep while watching a movie,” I say, amused.
“I have the pictures to prove it,” Ethan agrees with a quiet laugh. “I’ll take her to bed.”
He reaches out and carefully pulls his daughter into his arms. She instantly turns toward him, her forehead pressed against the crook of his neck, and a small, fond smile curves at Ethan’s lips. There’s so much love in his eyes that my heart aches.
Then he disappears down the hall and I draw in a deep breath, closing my eyes.
Ethan and I have been friends since we were children. There are pictures that Ethan’s father liked to show, of the two of us throwing sand at each other, when he was twelve and I was only eight, giggling madly. Our parents, who worked at the same company, introduced us to each other at a business picnic. From then, at almost every moment of my life, from school to graduation, to my first relationships, to getting my first job, Ethan has been by my side.
Once upon a time, when I didn’t know any better, I staunchly pretended that Ethan was my older brother figure. By the time I was fifteen, I had worked out that the feelings I had for Ethan were not sisterly at all.
Which started my downhill slide into being hopelessly, obviously in love with my infuriatingly oblivious best friend.
“Georgia?”
I look up and smile at Ethan as he returns, Lily down in her bed. He looks more relaxed than he did when he left, as I had hoped; I make it a point of coming by at least once a week to forcibly babysit for him for a few hours so that he has the chance to go out for a little while.
“Thanks,” Ethan says, heartfelt, and I almost wish that he wouldn’t say anything else. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“Go mad,” I joke with practiced ease, grinning at him.
Ethan gives me a soft, fond smile that breaks my heart. I’ve known Ethan for twenty years, and not once has he ever looked at me as more than just a friend. Other than…
I shook the thought out of my mind. I swore I would never think about that.
“It’s late,” Ethan says, and I know what he’s about to offer before the words leave his mouth. We’ve done this too many times. “Do you want to stay in the guest room?”
I should say no. I should go home to my bed, curl up and get myself under control before the next time I see Ethan. Being around him these days is almost a special form of torture, but I just can’t seem to stop drifting toward him.
“Sure,” I say with a smile.
Ethan flashes me a grin.
“You know where the towels are,” he says as he heads toward his own room.
I just laugh. Of course I know where the towels are. I know where everything in the apartment is. After all, I helped Ethan unpack most of it when he first moved in.
The guest room is right beside Lily’s room. I peek in at the girl’s room, taking in the clutter of toys on the floor, and smile at seeing the ten-year-old girl curled up under the covers, sound asleep. She pouts in the morning about missing the end of the movie, or not seeing her father when he gets home.
Then I head into the guest room. It isn’t even much of a guest room; so many of my belongings are strewn around it that it might as well be mine, since I’m the only one who uses it on a regular basis. I flick the lamp on beside the table and look around.
This is the sum total of my life. A guest bedroom in a home I sit on the edge of, beside a man who will never love me. Why do I do this to myself?
I turn away determinedly and get dressed for bed. Sometimes, these moods hit me when I’m tired and not sure what I’m doing with my life, when I wonder if it would be easier to just leave Ethan and Lily behind and find my own happiness somewhere out there.
Then, in the morning, Ethan will smile at me, or Lily will excitedly ask me about the newest news story I’m working on, and I’ll forget why I wanted to walk away in the first place.
I slide under the covers, roll over and close my eyes. Like always, things will look better in the morning.
Of course, I dream.
I know better than to allow my thoughts to lapse for even a moment back to that awful time ten years ago, when Ethan was a mess, Lily had only just been born and I had no idea what to do about any of it. When I relax, I remember how terrible everything was.
And I remember what I gained…and lost.
Ten years ago
At first, everything feels disjointed and out of place. I remember holding Lily for the first time, Ethan flashing me a tired, strained smile that spoke of panic and confusion; he has no idea what to do with a child that was never planned. Somewhere in the background, I remember Polly, too, even more strained than Ethan; perhaps that should have told us, then, that she wasn’t going to last at this.
Then there’s the day Polly left. It’s an ordinary day, and the phone call from Ethan interrupts me as I’m engrossed in a very good book. I couldn’t imagine what would happen next.
“She’s gone!” Ethan tells me hysterically. In the background, Lily is crying. “She just left a note!”
“She might be visiting some friends,” I remember suggesting calmly.
“No…the note says she’s leaving!”
Nothing seemed to make sense at all. Polly is gone? She abandoned Ethan and Lily? I never liked Polly, but that was more to do with my own jealousy than anything. Yet she’s just up and left?
It didn’t make sense.
Then there’s Ethan. Slowly, as the months pass, he looks more ragged, too exhausted to do more than collapse in bed at the end of the day, only to drag himself up again as Lily cries for attention. I do my best to help him, but it doesn’t feel enough.
One particular moment stands out. Polly has been gone nine months at this point. The memory flashes through my mind and lingers. Ethan is standing on my doorstep. It’s raining outside. Lily is clutched in my arms.
“I don’t know what to do,” he says, and he’s crying. I’m crying with him, and Lily is fussing in his arms. “Please help.”
He’s trying so hard, but he just can’t do it anymore. He’s at the end of his rope. I shove the memory away. It’s the lowest moment I’ve ever seen him at. I’m so afraid for him.
And then…there’s that fateful day, one year after Polly leaves. The memories pause and then settle, throwing the world into sharp clarity as I open the door for Ethan once more, this time no Lily in sight, his shoulders slumped and his clothes hanging off him.
I look at Ethan’s bloodshot eyes and I sigh, stepping aside.
“Come in,” I say gently.
The man looks like he’s about to cry as he scurries past me. I feel a flash of anger. Ethan has always been proud and confident, but the last year has torn all that away from him.
“Are you okay?” I ask as I lead him to my living room.
He collapses on the couch.
“What do I do, Georgia?” he asks desperately.
I was expecting that question. He’s asked the same thing several times over the last year, each time more urgently than the last. I wish I knew what to tell him.
“I don’t know, Ethan,” I say dutifully, as I do every time. “What do you want to do?”
“I want to find her!” Ethan says, suddenly flaring up, but I don’t even twitch. He slumps back, momentary fire gone. “No one’s telling me anything.”
I reach out and rub his back soothingly. It’s the same pattern, always, ever since Polly Truman left him one year ago. I wish I knew what to say to him, but her disappearance was as sudden to me as it was to Ethan. As far as I knew, Ethan and Polly were very much in love, both before and after Polly’s pregnancy.
Then little Lily was born and, three weeks later, Polly packed up and left, abandoning her boyfriend and daughter.
“She probably just wasn’t ready to have children,” I say. It’s a poor excuse, but it’s all I have. “Though she should have said something.”
I wish Ethan would be angry at Polly. More than once, I’ve had to hold my tongue from saying something less-than-nice about the woman, but Ethan won’t hear a word against her. He’s angry at her family who won’t tell him where Polly is. He’s angry at the situation that led to Polly leaving him. On occasion, he’s even angry at me, for being there when Polly isn’t. But he hasn’t yet gotten to the stage of being angry at the woman he loved so dearly.
Ethan sighs and slumps down on my shoulder. I try not to freeze at the feeling of his breath against my neck, but it’s hard when he’s so close. I push away my own feelings and gently run my hand through his shaggy hair, as he used to do for me when we were children.
“That’s nice,” Ethan murmurs.
He scoots in closer, his body pressed against mine. All my nerves are on edge and I feel like crying; Ethan has no idea what he does to me.
“Where’s Lily?” I ask, trying to distract myself.
“Mom has her,” Ethan sighs, his breath wisping against my over-sensitive skin. He pauses and then suddenly sits up, looking me dead in the eye. “Sorry… I didn’t even ask if you wanted me over tonight.”
“It’s fine,” I assure him. This is different, and my heart unwillingly races at the intense look on his face. “You’re always welcome.”
“Yeah, but you’ve been putting up with a lot lately,” Ethan argues. “I keep coming over and whining about Polly, and you’ve been helping me with Lily…”
“As I said, it’s no problem,” I say firmly, putting my hand on his shoulder. “You and Polly were together for four years before this. I’m not surprised you’re a mess. I want to help you get back on your feet.” His face crumples. “Ethan?”
“I’m not sure I will,” Ethan confesses. “It’s so hard; I keep expecting to wake up. I miss her so much but she isn’t there anymore. The loneliness is the hardest part, even with Lily.”
I don’t like that. I’m here, and I always will be. I turn to face Ethan and grip both his shoulders in hard hands. He looks at me in surprise.
“You’ll never be lonely,” I swear. “Not as long as I’m around.”
It’s too much, I know. The desperate love I feel for Ethan leaks into my words, and his eyes are searching mine, trying to figure out what has suddenly made me so intense. I stare back at him, willing him to understand how strong my feelings for him are; even if he never loves me the way I do him, he’ll always have a place in my heart.
I think I move first. The moment is too perfect, too overwhelming, and I can’t help myself. Ethan’s sad eyes are breaking my heart, and I want him to know that he is loved, no matter what. When I realize what I’m doing, my lips are already pressed to his.
It should have ended there. But Ethan was lonely and he needed to know that there was someone out there for him right now. His hand rises and tangles in my dark curls, pushing closer into the kiss as his mouth opens, touching his tongue to mine. Any panicked thoughts I might have had about pulling away before this gets any more awkward immediately disappear.
I’m not going to pull away from this, not when, for whatever reason, I’m finally getting something I’ve only dreamed about for years. Ethan’s hands are on me, his lips are crashing against mine and it awakes a strong, fervent lust within me, one that I’ve spent so long stamping down on.
I half expect him to pull away and apologize. But he doesn’t. Instead, Ethan’s hands tighten in my hair, and the kiss becomes harder, more desperate. I kiss back with equal fervor and my hands find his shirt, scrabbling at it as I force it up over his abdomen so that I can touch more of him.
At this moment, things like Polly and Lily and what will happen next don’t matter anymore. It’s just Ethan and me, sitting on this couch, our world narrowed down to only each other.
Finally, we pull away, needing to breathe. I take in huge gulps of air, and a tiny bit of logic finally wriggles into my mind. What the hell am I doing?
“Ethan,” I pant.
Ethan ignores me, lowering his head to press kisses against my neck, his stubble, which he hasn’t bothered to shave for some time, scratching against my skin. His tongue flicks out and licks my pulse, and my entire body shudders. I struggle to rein in my thoughts.
“Ethan, stop,” I try again.
But there’s no conviction in my voice. I don’t want Ethan to stop, not now. Part of me knows that we need to stop, because this could ruin everything for me. Ethan doesn’t love me, he doesn’t even want me. He’s just lonely and desperate and needing the physical comfort that I’m all too willing to give him.
I know all this. But the larger part of me, the part that longs and hopes and futilely dreams, doesn’t really care.
Except for the fact that Ethan’s friendship is the most important thing in the world to me.
