Pregnant, it said in an impersonal digital font.
"Oh, God." She leaned against the sink as confused emotions ran roughshod over her. There was the momentary panic that was familiar-the feeling that she'd messed up again.
Why couldn't she keep her hands off him? Why couldn't she stay away from the one man who seemingly could impregnate her just by looking at her? God, this complicated everything. Now Byron would push even harder for her to marry him and for them to live as a family-and if he abandoned her a second time, then where would she be?
She forced herself to breathe. She'd figured it out once before, and that had been without Byron. This time, she had no intention of letting him slip off into the night without at least paying child support. She was not the same scared girl she'd once been. She was an independent woman who could take care of her family. She could be a little freaked out by being pregnant-that was her prerogative. But she could do this. Alone, if she had to.
The doorbell rang, jolting her out of her thoughts. She mentally cursed at the bell, the phone-all the things that seemed hell-bent on waking up her sick child. Quickly, she shoved the pregnancy test into the box and the box to the bottom of the trash can. She would tell Byron, she decided, but she needed a plan for how to handle the marriage proposal she knew he'd make when she did. Until then, that little stick did not exist to the rest of the world.
"Yes?" she said, quickly throwing open the door in the hopes that whoever was out there wasn't about to ring the doorbell again.
"And hello to you, too," May said, taking a step back.
"Oh! May! You're here!"
"Clearly." She looked around again, as if she expected Byron to jump out of the bushes. "Is he home?"
"No, he's still at the restaurant, probably for another hour. Why didn't you call? Percy's fighting off another ear infection. I just got him down."
May looked guilty. "I'm sorry, Leona. I know I said I'd come out on the weekend, but I wanted to make sure you were okay." She shot Leona a weak smile. "I've been worried about you and Percy."
Leona sighed. "Come in, hon. I'm glad to see you. How have classes been?"
She showed May around the house and made tea. They discussed May's classes and what she was going to register for next semester. It was nice to talk to her sister without the entire conversation revolving around Percy's ear infections or why Byron was a bad idea.
"This is really nice," May said, looking out the kitchen windows. She looked wistful.
"There's plenty of room here for you." Maybe it wasn't the best idea to make the offer. But she couldn't deny that she still wanted to make sure that her baby sister was okay. May might not approve of her relationship with Byron but Leona couldn't turn her back on her sister-not after what they'd been through.
"I know." For once, she didn't sound pissy about it. "You've done so much for me...I think it's time for me to try and be on my own, you know?"
"I'll always be here for you," Leona said, squeezing May's hand. "This thing with Byron doesn't change that."
Then May turned to her, a tight look on her face. "Are you going to marry him?"
"I think so," Leona said. "I think he's going to stay."
She just wished she felt more confident about that-about all of it. She just wished he could look at her, touch her, without thinking about how she'd withheld her family's name from him.
May decided she wanted to be gone before Byron got home so, after using the bathroom, she hugged Leona and snuck into Percy's room to press a kiss to his little head. "I'll see you soon," she said as she walked out the door and Leona couldn't help but think there was something odd about May's voice.
The bathroom? Leona hurried to check the trash can, but the pregnancy test was still safely hidden in the bottom. She dug it back out and hid the little stick in her bedroom, where Byron wouldn't accidentally find it.
The weight of the day hit her hard and she sagged onto her bed. She was pregnant again. She had Percy to think of. She could not hide this pregnancy from Byron-she wouldn't.
They would work harder to get past what had happened a year ago, that was all. She had to do it for the children. And if they couldn't get past it...
No. They would. They had to. Otherwise, she'd be entering into a marriage that guaranteed pain and heartache and she couldn't do that, even if it might be best for the children. He was so good with Percy. She knew Byron would be a great father with the new baby, too.
Yes, he would be a wonderful father-loving, hands-on, full of laughter and stories. But what about her? He wouldn't take her children away from her, would he? He wouldn't make her love him only to use that against her time and time again-would he?
She couldn't believe that he would. She was going to have to take it on faith that he was not one of those Beaumonts, just like she wasn't one of those Harpers.
The next time he apologized, she'd listen. And she'd apologize, too. She would tell him about the pregnancy test. And she would accept his ring.
They had to find a way to make this work.
* * *
Leona still wasn't talking to him, but that wasn't anything new. What was new was how he'd look up from playing with Percy and catch her staring at him. Instead of the simmering anger he'd come to expect from her, there was something different in her eyes. It almost looked like fear.
For the life of him, he didn't know what she was afraid of. Yes, he'd said the wrong damn thing after the last time they'd had sex. Their messy past was not good pillow talk.
But where were his reassurances? Where were her promises that she wouldn't lie to him again-not even by omission? Where were his guarantees that she wasn't keeping her father up-to-date on his every move?
Nowhere, that's where. Instead, there was just silence.
That didn't matter, he told himself. So what if she rebuffed his apologies? So what if she rebuffed his advances? What really mattered was that every night he came home to his son. Every night, he made dinner and helped bathe his son and read bedtime stories and got up in the night with him. What mattered was that they'd scheduled an appointment with the doctor for getting tubes in Percy's ears.
Byron could live without Leona. He'd done so for a year. But he would not allow her to guilt him out of Percy's life. He was here to stay and the sooner she accepted that, the better it'd be for all of them.
Yeah, right.
That night, after he handed Percy off to her so she could do the nightly nursing, Leona said, "I need to talk to you," in a quiet, serious voice.
He looked at her but she didn't elaborate. "I'll be in the kitchen?"
She nodded.
His heart sank. The fear in her eyes, the serious voice-this wasn't a good thing.
He started making the cookies before he even realized he was doing it. What would she say? That she'd decided this wouldn't work? That she was leaving in the morning? Was that why she'd looked so afraid?
He almost couldn't bear it as he creamed the sugar. She'd decided this trial wouldn't work. What else could it be?
By the time she slipped into the kitchen, he was angry. "What?" he demanded, bracing himself for the worst.
"It's-" Here she paused. "It's been two weeks," she finished. He could tell how nervous she was and that fact only made him more upset.
He slammed the bowl down. "I knew you wouldn't stay. Just tell me why, okay? Because it can't have been what I said after we had sex. I've tried to apologize and you won't have any of it."
"That's not-"
"Then what is it?"
She exhaled hard, her eyes narrowing to little slits. "Why does this have to be so hard, Byron?"
"I don't know, Leona. Why don't you tell me?" When she didn't have an immediate response, he said, "You can go if you want, but I won't let you take Percy."
The words hit her like a body blow-he saw her curl forward, as if he'd physically hit her in the stomach. For a second, he thought she was going to start crying.
But then she straightened up, her eyes watery but mad. So damn mad-at him. "You promised me you weren't going to punish me by taking him away from me."
"I can't live without my son."
"I can't live without our son," she shot back. "You can keep trying to get rid of me so you can claim you didn't abandon me a second time, but it won't work. I'm not leaving my baby."
At least, that's what he thought she said as she turned and stomped off. But it almost sounded like she'd said something else there-babies?
No, he'd heard wrong. She hadn't said anything else about the one night the condom had broke.