7. Anna Marie

Chapter 7

Anna Marie

" H enry, I'm at work. I can't talk to you now." I back away from his touch. I can't do this right now—not after finding out only moments ago that I'm pregnant with his baby.

"I'll watch your patients." Caity gives me a look and I nod letting her know without words that Henry is the father of my baby. "I think you two have a lot to talk about."

"But…"

"No buts. You're still on orientation anyway. It's fine. We can talk about it on Thursday night, the next shift you work."

Caity's not so subtle remark on my work schedule isn't lost on Henry, "Good. We have a couple days to talk about the future."

I want to scream and yell at him that he gave up the right to any future with me when he kicked me out of his hotel room all those weeks ago, but the thought of the little life growing inside of me stops me from making a hasty decision.

"Fine, but we're going back to my place." The thought of going to Henry's hotel room makes my stomach roll again. If we're going to have a discussion about our future and the baby, I need it to be in the safety of my home. He can be the one to be dismissed into a waiting taxi.

The silence was almost maddening as I drove us back to my apartment. Now, sitting next to Henry on my couch, I would give almost anything to go back to the silence of the car instead of the awkward tension I'm faced with now.

Henry breaks the silence first, "I want to start by saying I'm sorry for everything I said the morning after we…"

"Fucked." He cringes at my choice of words, but I don't let that stop me. I need to get this off my chest so I can move on. "Is that the word you're looking for Henry, because it most certainly wasn't making love. Making love implies mutual feelings for each other."

"Whatever you think of me or the things I said, for me it was making love." He shifts his body to face me and takes my hands in his, "I was scared. You were making me feel things I thought I would never feel again. There you were this sweet, young, incredibly sexy virgin, offering yourself up to me on a silver platter, who could say no to that."

"So, it's my fault you had sex with me then regretted it the next morning?" I try to pull my hands out of his grasp, but he holds them tighter.

"No, I'm not blaming you. You are perfect. What I experienced that night was magical. The feelings I felt and still feel for you that night scared me. They were stronger than anything I felt for Jolie's mom."

"That doesn't explain why you pushed me away the next morning, calling what we had done a mistake."

"You're so young. You have your whole life in front of you and I didn't want to hold you back from experiencing that." He sounds so sincere but I'm not going to let him off so easily.

"What made you change your mind? Did you get horny and want another booty call?"

"I deserved that." A faint smile crosses his lips. "Before you it had been a few years since Emily, and I were intimate. I was working all the time, and she was tired a lot. We fell into a comfortable routine. We were best friends growing up. It was only natural we get married and have kids. Our families expected it. When Emily died, I mourned the loss of my best friend and mother of my child, but I realized that was all she was. I loved her but I wasn't in love with her."

I blink back the tears, listening to his confession. I squeeze his hand silently encouraging him to continue.

"When I saw you that first day of college, you were so sweet and shy, but there was something else. I brushed it off because you were just so young. Over the next few years I asked Jolie about you. I'm not proud to say but I stalked my daughter's social media in hopes of finding a picture of you."

"And d-did you find any?" My voice cracks thinking of this strong, proud man searching the internet for a glimpse of me.

He releases one of my hands, pulls out his phone and begins to scroll through it, "I did. They're all in here. Every single one I could find I have here. I watched you grow through photos from a shy teenager into a sexy woman I couldn't stop thinking about. I never planned to act on it, but when Jolie asked me to bid on you at the elf auction something inside me snapped. You were mine, but I foolishly let you go. Will you ever forgive me."

I take in the worry lines on his forehead and I long to brush my finger over them and tell him I forgive him, but there's something I need first, "Make love to me."