Cameron, Chelsea Together We He

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.She flinched a little but didn’t shift away.Finally she turned to look at me.“What?” she snapped.“You seem really upset and I want to talk to you about it,” I said in a slow voice.“I’m not upset,” she said in a tone that didn’t convince me.“I’m just tired.I’m so tired.” She softened and leaned on my shoulder.“I know, hun,” I said, stroking her shoulder.Sighing, she put her arms around my waist.“Why do you bother with me, Max?” she said in a low voice.“Because you’re one of a kind, Trishella Grant,” I said.Using her full name earned me a pinch on my side.“Don’t make me regret that I told you my real name,” she said, looking up at me.Her eyes were wide and vulnerable.It was rare to see her like this and I wanted to hold onto this moment.I stroked her cheek with my other hand and placed a kiss on her forehead.“Your secret is safe with me, sweets.”I WAS A bitch.A cold, heartless bitch.It was a miracle I even had friends.Or a boyfriend.How it happened, I didn’t know.Max and I slept in our separate beds like a married couple from a 1950s television show.I’d never slept with Max, and not even in the resting sense.It was too intense.More intense even than sex.I’d had sex in my life, but I didn’t have a good relationship with it.Not at all.He never complained.When I first told him that there were lines I didn’t want to cross in our relationship, he agreed.No questions asked.No telling me that I was crazy and he wasn’t going to do that.Nope, he hopped right onboard my crazy train and he’d been riding it ever since.I needed to call Stryker and apologize, but when I got up on Friday morning, the last thing I wanted to do was talk to him.I just wanted to lay in bed and skip all my classes.But we were nearing the end of the semester and I couldn’t really afford to skip.Despite my “I don’t give a shit” attitude, I always got my ass to class.Stryker hadn’t struggled to get me here only to have me waste this opportunity.Max and I showered separately and then went to breakfast together.We used to dine with Lottie, Will, Audrey, Simon and Brady, but it was just the two of us today.Lottie was now living with Zan, so she probably ate omelets off his abs or something every morning.The rest of them either had wonky class schedules or just didn’t have the time today.Max was his usual sweet self, getting me coffee, passing me the syrup and smiling at me as if I was the prettiest girl in the world.Sometimes it freaked me out how much he seemed to like me.But then again, I liked him too.I just wasn’t as obvious about it.I could tell he was watching me and wanted to talk about my little shutdown-slash-freak out last night.It was a combination of things and some of those things I didn’t want to tell him.Would never tell him.I remembered not that long ago talking to Audrey about secrets.Giving her advice about talking to Will.She took it, told him that she’d had a daughter and given her up for adoption and things turned out fine.Will had even been to visit her daughter and adoptive parents.Somehow he even became friends with the father of the baby, Eddie.Go figure.But my secrets were something else.Something deeper.Something darker.Something that was the stuff of nightmares.I didn’t talk about it, even to Stryker.I never talked about it and did whatever I could to not think about any of it.The other part of it was that I had no idea how to feel about the fact that I was going to be an aunt and my brother was going to be a father.I mean, what the fuck?A baby.I couldn’t picture him holding a baby.Being a dad and having a car seat in his car and making bottles and changing diapers.It went against everything I knew about my brother.On the other hand, he practically raised me.We only had each other when our parents were drunk, or too busy cooking meth in the basement to bother to feed us.And then later when we shuffled from home to home.He was going to be a great father.I was sure Katie would step up and be a good mom, too.I bet getting knocked up wasn’t in her life plan, but if she could handle her father’s death like she had, then she could deal with a baby.Her sister was pregnant also, so they’d probably have a joint baby shower or something.She better have a girl, because she already had pink everything.I got my ass to class after giving Max a kiss and finally mustered up the courage to call Stryker in the afternoon when I had a break.“Hey, bro,” I said.“Well hello to you, my dear sister,” he said, his voice stiff.“Look, I was an asshole, okay? Do you want me to do the long apology and grovel and shit?” A girl walking by glared at me, probably for swearing, and I glared right back at her until she passed by.“Yeah, you were an asshole.This is a huge thing for me and you just bailed when I needed you to support me.I’m so scared I’m going to fuck this up, Trish.So fucking scared.” I could hear it in his voice.My brother didn’t get scared, like, ever, so this was serious.“I mean,” he continued, “how am I going to pay for this? There’s no room in this apartment for a baby.And what if it comes out and hates me? What if I don’t know what to do when it’s crying and I fuck it up and send it to therapy for the rest of its life?” I almost wanted to laugh at him.“Dude, calm down.I’m pretty sure every single father ever has had those same thoughts.You’re going to be fine.You’ll figure it out.You raised me and I turned out… well, I turned out.I’m alive and in college and that’s pretty damn amazing.And you’re not doing this alone.You have your girl.She’s strong.You’ll figure it out together.” There was no doubt in my mind when I saw them together, really together, that they were somehow meant for one another.They would work it out.He sighed.“I don’t even know what to do right now.I feel like I should go out and buy diapers or something.I didn’t want her to go to class today.”“Why?”“Because what if she trips on the sidewalk and falls? What if she gets hurt? I’m fucking losing my mind right now because I’m not there with her.” Now that made me laugh.My overzealous, overprotective brother.“Why are you laughing at me? This is serious, Trish,” he said as I tried to stifle myself.“I’m sorry.You’re just worrying about being a dad and you pretty much already are one.You don’t need to change who you are.You’re already good at it.” I didn’t often give him praise, but he needed to hear it today.“That doesn’t stop me from freaking the fuck out,” he said.“Well, you’ll get over it eventually.How’s Katie? Has she told her mom yet?” I’d met Mrs.Hallman at the worst possible time, right after she’d lost her husband, and I didn’t have the best impression of her from what Katie had told me.Their relationship was getting better, but I didn’t know how this was going to go over.“Not yet.She wanted to go to the doctor to confirm and see how far along she is.The appointment is tomorrow.” Wow.This was getting serious.So adult.My brother was a grown-up.I wanted to ask him how it happened, but I didn’t think he’d tell me, so I didn’t bother.“You going to go with her, Daddy?” I said, needling him a little bit more.“Shut up, of course I am.And don’t call me that.It’s weird and a little creepy.” I rolled my eyes, which of course he couldn’t see [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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