Food he could do. He’d take her to McDonald’s if that was what she wanted. As long as she stopped crying. He couldn’t do that. If she cried all the time, this was going to be a long few months until she had this baby.
Buck up. She’s the one who has it worse. He had to remember that. She was going to push a tiny human out of her body.
“Uh, I don’t know.”
“Go get cleaned up and we’ll go out.”
She sniffed again then left him in the kitchen. He cleaned up a little while he waited, then was ready by the front door. She stood halfway down the steps. “I’m sorry, Amedeo.”
“You have nothing to apologize for, sweetie.”
She looked better. Calmer. “Where are we going?”
“There’s a breakfast place we can walk to if you want? It’s a nice morning.”
“You won’t be late for work?”
“I own the place, honey. I can walk in whenever I want,” he said.
“Oh, okay.”
She walked down the rest of the steps. He took her hand, leading her out the door. He interlaced his fingers with hers. Like a lover. Hopefully she’d feel safe this way.
“I’m sorry about the kitchen,” she said.
He kissed her cheek. “No worries. No damage and it’ll clean up.”
“I’ll clean it when we get back.”
“No, you have to come to work with me, today. Remember?”
“Oh, right. You asked me to find your hacker. I almost forgot. Okay, I did forget.”
“You okay to do that today?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”
She did seem back to normal.
Chapter6
Violet had no idea what had happened. They walked to the restaurant. Amedeo had looked at her for a time as if she was going to erupt. Now she felt okay, but she wasn’t a crier. What had happened?
Pregnancy hormones. Now she was starving. Was that the problem? Had she waited too long to eat this morning? She couldn’t keep doing that. She wasn’t normally a breakfast person. Guess she had to start eating.
“You okay?” Amedeo said.
He’d been very sweet. She might have thrown herself out on her ass for that behavior. “I’m better, but I can’t wait for those pancakes.”
He smiled. “You don’t have to cook for me. I like that you do, but if you ever don’t want to, I can cook and we can get take out. Please don’t put some much pressure on yourself,” he said.
Could he get any nicer? She’d turned his life upside down all because of a one-night stand and he was letting her stay in his house. He was paying her bills. He needed to stop. She was going to get used to it and miss it when it was gone. No one had ever taken care of her.
“Okay. I’ll remember that. My brain is just a fog lately.”
“I think it might be that way the whole time.”
“What do you know about pregnancy?” Violet said.
“Well, I’ve been listening to Dante talk about his wife who is pregnant right now. Due soon, I think. He said she was not herself either. It’s normal.”
“I feel bad that you have to deal with this.”
“I was there when you got pregnant. Remember? I also want this child and to know this child, so it’s what I have to do.”
He was so realistic. Why hadn’t she called him? Why hadn’t she pursued him? Probably because they didn’t talk much during their night of passion. She didn’t get to know him at all. She was glad he was the father of her baby.
She had to admit that she was beginning to toy with the idea of keeping the baby. Would Amedeo really want to be part of his life? He said he did, but at this point the whole idea was abstract. Would he feel the same when she was showing? When he knew there was an actual baby involved instead of them just playing house and having sex?
“You don’t look as if you believe me,” he said.
“It’s hard to imagine a bachelor wanting a child.”
“I was engaged, remember? Having children was a sticking point. Tory didn’t think she wanted them and I wanted to be with her enough to let it go. She did me a favor.”
“You wanted children?”
“I did and I forgot that. I remembered it when you told me you were pregnant. I would have been in a marriage and not true to myself,” he said.
She was so independent that she couldn’t imagine doing that. She only had herself to rely on for most of her life. Her mother hadn’t been useful in that sense. Or maybe she had since Violet knew how to survive on her own. Maybe her mother had done her a favor.
“Did you want children?” he said.
“I never planned on getting married and girls in my neighborhood got pregnant to hold onto a guy.”