THIRTY
Caleb's stomach was knotted as he awaited Maddie's reaction. She entered the empty house quietly, her footsteps echoing on the hardwood floors, as she looked around the front entry way and at what Caleb planned on being the living room just beyond that. It smelled of fresh paint and sawdust. The house had been completed only a month before so Caleb considered himself lucky that his realtor had happened to show it to him. He'd gone into a bidding war with another family, but he'd won out in the end.
The moment he'd stepped into this house, he'd known this was where he wanted to make a fresh start. It was brand new. A clean slate. Something that didn't connect to his past or his family, something that was just his, something to be molded and changed. He hoped that Maddie would see that as well going into this new stage of their lives. As he watched her take in her surroundings, a foreign feeling rose in him, something that felt like panic and need and affection all rolled into one. And it scared the shit out of him, although he was used to that feeling where Maddie was concerned. She'd swept into his life and it had never been the same since.
Caleb couldn't take her silence any longer as she roamed from empty room to empty room.
"Well?" he asked, his voice unexpectedly harsh and loud. He softened his tone. "Say something."
She looked so beautiful, standing in her printed cotton dress and tights, that it made his chest physically ache.
And she's carrying your child, he thought, that same foreign feeling washing over him once again.
"It's wonderful, Caleb. Really. I just … " she trailed off, looking around.
Her expression made him frown. "You don't like it."
"It's not that," she told him, turning to face him completely. Her cheeks were tinged pink, a sign of her embarrassment. "I'm just worried that I … I won't be able to afford the payments."
"What the hell are you talking about?" he asked, brows furrowing, completely flabbergasted.
She shrugged, her soft brown eyes connecting with his. "It's a lovely house. A new house, in an upscale neighborhood. We've never discussed money before, but it seems inevitable now."
Dawning realization and then offended disbelief made him stare at her for a good thirty seconds before he asked slowly, "You think that I'll ask you to make payments?"
"Well, I-"
"You think that I expect you, the woman carrying my child, to pay me?"
"I wouldn't be comfortable living here for free, Caleb."
"You were going to do it with your mother eventually," he pointed out, glaring.
"She's my mother," she said. "My family. It's different."
Her insinuation stung, especially after what he'd told her the morning after he'd found out she was pregnant. "And our child will be my family, even if you don't consider yourself a part of it," he'd all but growled.
"Caleb," she murmured, gliding closer to him. "That's not what I meant."
"You want to talk about money?" he asked, staring down at her, still feeling the pulses of his temper and hurt. "My uncle's business was and is very lucrative. You should know that. You've seen the numbers. I've been working for him since I was sixteen and you know what I did with that money? I saved it. And then I invested it when I turned twenty-two. My uncle left me money and his business and his house, which is in the process of being sold as we speak. You know what that all means?" he asked. "It means that I've already paid for this house. In full."
Her mouth parted. "What?"
"So you can keep your payments. They're unnecessary. But even if I hadn't already paid for this house, I wouldn't accept your money and you should know that," he grated. He was still pissed that she'd imply he wouldn't take care of her financially. "We'll have a joint account and you'll use that. Once it's set up, we'll pay off your student loans so we're debt-free and then I don't want to talk about this again."
Her mouth was opening and closing like a fish and she couldn't seem to get any words out. She finally sputtered, "N-no, Caleb. This crosses so many boundaries."
He gave her a look that said try me. "If you want to keep your personal account, that's fine. But I expect you to use the joint one liberally, especially for the baby."
Maddie crossed her arms over her chest, which he couldn't help but notice pushed up her breasts. She seemed to realize that she'd get nowhere with him. When he was in this kind of mood, he could be the most stubborn son-of-a-bitch and he knew it. He got what he wanted and he was used to it.