Chapter 24

TWENTY-FOUR

FREDDIE

When he first got home, Freddie thought she was about to leave him.

It was a Friday night and everyone from the office was going out for drinks. He'd stayed for one, then battled through the mockery about him leaving early to ‘get home to the little woman'.

He didn't come home early every night. Often, she'd have plans to meet up with Rachael and Lucy on a Friday or she'd have dinner with her mother. But she'd sent him a message that afternoon to check that he'd be home and there was something about the tone of it that'd made him concerned. When he walked in to find her sitting on the sofa waiting for him, he was even more worried.

‘Hey. What's up?'

‘Can you sit down?'

Heart in his mouth, he dropped his bag beside the sofa and joined her. ‘You're making me nervous. Is everything okay?'

‘I've tried to think about how to tell you this, but I think it's easier if I just come out and say it.'

All his worst fears flashed through his mind. They'd rushed things. She'd been vulnerable because of her father. She'd just gone off him. ‘Charlotte, I?—'

‘I'm pregnant.'

Pregnant? That was not what he thought she was going to say. He froze. Scanned her eyes, her lips, trying to read her face. Was she joking? Say something. Just say something . ‘Are you sure?'

She held out her hands. ‘Pretty sure. I've done three tests.'

He brought his own hands up to his cheeks and rubbed them. He still had no idea how to react. He was twenty-three. He'd just started work. This wasn't part of the plan. Not yet, at least. ‘Wow.'

She chewed on her bottom lip; her eyes still unreadable. ‘Yeah. Wow.'

Now he realised for sure this was real, he took one of her hands in his. Letting his feelings – confusion, disbelief, uncertainty – settle, there was another, warmer sensation in the pit of his gut. Still, he couldn't read her face. ‘How do you feel about it? What are you thinking?'

She swallowed, placed the hand that wasn't in his onto her chest. ‘I think, I actually feel pretty good about it.'

The warmth started to spread through him, from his stomach, through his body, across his heart. This was crazy and yet… ‘Yes? You're happy?'

A smiled played at the corners of her mouth. ‘I actually am. But I understand if you don't…'

She tailed off as he took her other hand, unable to stop the tears from gathering in his eyes. ‘I think I'm happy too. I mean, it's a bit nuts, but…I think we can do this. I want to do this.'

Her lips widened into such a smile that it reached her eyes, lighting them with a sunshine she'd been missing for a while. ‘I think we can do this, too.'

He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. His heart swelled to see her so happy. A baby was a big step, but – weirdly – it didn't scare him. They could do anything together. Against his chest, her voice wobbled. ‘I wish my dad was here. He would make such a lovely grandad.'

He squeezed her tighter. ‘Yes, I wish my father could see this, too. Have you told your mum yet?'

She pulled herself back to sitting and shook her head. ‘Not yet. It's early days. Let's keep it just for us for now. And she's been so…difficult. About us. I want her to get to know you properly first. If I tell her now, I don't know that I'd get the reaction I want.'

He understood. It didn't matter how much he'd tried to show Joanna that he loved Charlotte, that he'd never let her down again, he could see that, in her eyes, he was a cheater she couldn't, wouldn't, trust. ‘I won't tell my mother yet, either. Like you say, let's keep it just for us for a while.'