FAZER LOGINI find him outside my door the next morning, and for a second I think about going back in and locking it.Caskey has his hands behind his back and the look of someone a little guilty. He straightens when he sees me.âHey, Evelyn. Can I talk to you? Just a minute.âI hesitate a moment, then exhale. âOkay.ââIâm sorry about yesterday.â He rubs the back of his neck, and I realize itâs something he does when heâs nervous. âI was too forward. Youâre living in somebody elseâs house, youâre pregnant, and I came at you that bluntly, like we were in a bar. I felt awful about it all night. I hope I didnât make you uncomfortable.âHe means it. Itâs all over his face, and I find I canât be annoyed.âYou didnât,â I say, and then, because itâs half true and he deserves the full truth, I add, âBut Iâd rather we didnât talk about that kind of thing again.âHe nods at once. âUnderstood. It wonât come up again.ââThank you.ââCan I make it up to you? Maw is making apple pie, and Iâve been told youâre n
I find him outside my door the next morning, and for a second I think about going back in and locking it.Caskey has his hands behind his back and the look of someone a little guilty. He straightens when he sees me.âHey, Evelyn. Can I talk to you? Just a minute.âI hesitate a moment, then exhale. âOkay.ââIâm sorry about yesterday.â He rubs the back of his neck, and I realize itâs something he does when heâs nervous. âI was too forward. Youâre living in somebody elseâs house, youâre pregnant, and I came at you that bluntly, like we were in a bar. I felt awful about it all night. I hope I didnât make you uncomfortable.âHe means it. Itâs all over his face, and I find I canât be annoyed.âYou didnât,â I say, and then, because itâs half true and he deserves the full truth, I add, âBut Iâd rather we didnât talk about that kind of thing again.âHe nods at once. âUnderstood. It wonât come up again.ââThank you.ââCan I make it up to you? Maw is making apple pie, and Iâve been told youâre n
Lucien hasnât called since that night. I check my phone every few minutes, and each time, the screen shows the same three things: the time, the weather, and nothing from him.Just four days ago, he was whispering down the line that I was his, in a voice that made my whole body listen. Today thereâs only silence.I tell myself itâs probably just his rut. I tell myself heâs too weak to pick up the phone.But it doesnât help.I miss him already, and I hate that I do.By the fourth afternoon, I canât stand my bedroom walls anymore. I go downstairs with one hand on the banister and the other cradling my stomach, and sense a new presence.The house feels smaller than before, the way a house does when someone new is in it. My heart jumps thinking itâs him.So I hurry the rest of the way down and find them at the threshold.Mrs Greene opens her arms and a young man walks into them and lifts her clean off the floor. He is tall and broad, with hair the colour of wheat and his eyes are so blue t
She turns up at nine the next morning, unannounced, in sunglasses and a trench coat, looking like a woman about to deliver an accusation and open an investigation.Mrs Greene lets her in without a word and looks between us suspiciously. Viv waits until she takes the hint and retreats to the kitchen. I stand with my shoulders curled, looking every bit the guilty woman I am. Vivienne pulls off her sunglasses and points at the bed."Sit.""Viv, I can explain.""I certainly hope so, because I woke up to a picture of your vagina.""Please keep your voice down." I cover my face with my hands, embarrassed. "It was an accident. I was in a hurry, and I... didn't look.""I know it was an accident, Evelyn. We're close, but not 'I need to see your vagina' close." She sits across from me, crosses her legs, and examines me with the narrowed eyes of someone who likes puzzles. "What I want to know is who it was meant for."My stomach flips. "Nobody.""Nobody." She sniffs the air. Her nose wrinkles, t
My phone buzzes against me ten minutes after he hangs up, and I'm so wound up that I almost drop it on my face when I pick it up.It's from the same number I forgot to save. Only one line is written.Lucien: Send me a picture. Show me what you're wearing.My heart skips, then gallops. My thumbs hover over the screen while a very sensible voice in my head tells me every reason why this is a bad idea.I choose to ignore it and text back.Me: Do you really want one?Lucien: I'm begging.A laugh slips out of me, a little choked and breathless. I'm twenty-six, pregnant, and lying in his shirt under my blanket, and I'm about to sext the Alpha I swore I hated.I've never done this before. Well, not since my teenage years. With Thomas, I could never bring myself to.It always felt like handing him a leash to whip me with. He never made me feel good about my body, so why would he have appreciated any of my pictures?With Lucien, it feels nothing like that. This feels like someone asking to be
Her name lights up my phone at half past ten the next morning, and I stare at it so long it nearly goes to voicemail.Celeste.Speaking of bad timing.My thumb is slick with sweat when I finally pick up. "Hello?""There she is!" Her voice spills out of the speaker like sunlight, warm and breathless, with hotel noise somewhere behind it. "I've wanted to call you since yesterday, and then I thought, no, let her rest, the poor thing must be exhausted, carrying a whole person. How are you, Evie? How's my little one?"I feel sick."We're okay," I answer weakly. "We're good.""Good. I missed you." She says it so simply that it stings. "I mean it, Evelyn. This trip was all meetings and dinners with people I don't really like, and I kept thinking how much nicer it would be if you were sitting beside me instead. Just the two of us talking, like we used to."I make a small pained sound that I quickly mask as a laugh. She laughs too."Okay, so I'm flying back soon. In a few days at most. I've bo







