Force of Forever (All In #0.5)

“Didn’t really have a choice, did I? My brothers would have beat your ass if I’d told them you were just a guy who knocked me up and broke my heart.”

Matt exhaled, his forehead collapsing into wrinkles. “Did I do that? Break your heart?”

“You did,” she admitted. “With everything we shared, I thought we could at least share the shock, too. It hurt, Matt, to have you shut me out when this got real.”

He nodded, jaw flexing. “I promise I will try, with everything in me, to make up for the hurt I caused.”

He was here, and that was a start, but she’d need more than a surprise appearance at Sunday dinner to move past the coldness in his voice and the false promise that he’d call.

The man had panicked, clearly, and it had taken him a whole damn month to calm down. Who’s to say how long he would have stayed away if he hadn’t run into Carol? He said he’d had a plan, but he’d also said he’d call her.

Pia dropped her hands from his, but he picked them right back up, determination in his tempest gaze.

“Remember how you had three reasons for going home with me after our Paris tour?”

She nodded.

“I have three ways to show you how sorry I am. That I’mwithyou. Come on a drive with me?”

“What, now?”

“Now.”

Alone time so they could really talk. Maybe she could get another coffee out of him, or even a milkshake, now that her stomach could handle it. Maybe, after hearing his three reasons, she could relax again in his presence. Maybe she would finally feel more excitement than fear around parenthood, knowing she might not be alone.

15

Matt punched an address into the GPS of the rental car he’d quickly picked up at LAX.

Fate had been on his side all damn day.

Pia was beside him. He was so fucking relieved she hadn’t chucked him out of her house, and even more fucking relieved she’d forgiven him enough to get in the car. But he knew he still had wounds to salve.

“Should we get some coffee?”

“We should,” he replied.

He followed her directions to a drive-through shop she liked, where he ordered her Americano, splash of cream, extra hot, without being reminded. She gave him a tentative smile from the passenger seat, a pink straw between her perfect lips.

“You call me Romeo for a reason,” he reminded her.

“Called. Past tense. Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“Full of those today, huh?”

She had no idea.

He changed the subject. “How are you feeling? Have you seen a doctor? Are you willing to tell me everything I’ve missed?”

After only hesitating a moment, Pia filled him in on her morning sickness that was not contained to mornings, her appetite that was returning with a vengeance, and about the hippie OB-GYN who wore KISS T-shirts and open-toed shoes.

“I still don’t know how to tell my family.”

Matt reached over to take her hand. “We’ll tell them together. You’re not alone. Not anymore.” He sighed, still irritated at himself for how he’d handled the last few weeks. He’d had a grand scheme to win her back, to win her period, but he should have been more communicative.

He could start now.