Fighting for Love (Second Chances #4)(65)
“Tell me about it. I’ve lived with you for almost ten years now. I kind of grew attached to you.” The sound of someone yelling his name in the background came through the phone. “All right, babe, I have to go. Call me later, okay?”
“Okay,” I said before he hung up.
I’m glad he took the news well. There wasn’t a reason for him not to, but even I was sad knowing I wouldn’t have him around to talk to when I needed advice, or if I needed a shoulder to cry on. He would always still be around, except now things would be better; I would have Matt by my side.
He was all I needed.
MY BAG WAS PACKED TO go to Matt’s for the weekend, and I printed off several pictures of houses for sale that I thought would be perfect for us to go look at; especially, one that I had put stars on, marking my favorite. Once I turned off all the lights in the house, I was ready to go. I locked the door behind me, and by the time I put my bag in the car and had sat in the driver’s seat, Lexi pulled up in her black Jeep Cherokee.
I didn’t know she was coming by. I glanced down at my phone to see if I missed a call or a text, but there was nothing.
Getting out of my car, I waited on the sidewalk by my front steps for her. When she finally got out, I knew something was wrong by the way she ran toward me; her blonde hair was a tangled mess and she was dressed in a pair of Hello Kitty flannel pajamas. Eyes red, cheeks flushed, she rushed over to me and flung her arms around my shoulders, bursting into tears.
“Lexi, what’s wrong?” I asked, holding her tight. Out of all the years I’d known her I had never seen her so upset.
“Shelby, I have to talk to you, now! Please, we have to go inside, we’re running out of time,” she shrieked.
She let me go and rushed up the steps to my door with me on her heels. “Lexi, you’re scaring me,” I said, fumbling with my keys to get the door unlocked.
As soon as the door was opened, we went inside and I turned on the lights. All the while, dread settled in the pit of my stomach. The way she stared at me with heartbreak and devastation written all over her face was a look I had seen only one time before, and never wanted to again.
With my heart pounding in my chest, I held onto the kitchen counter and swallowed hard. “Lexi, please, you have to tell me what’s going on. You’re really scaring me right now.”
“I’m pregnant,” she blurted out.
Gasping, I closed my hand over my mouth in surprise. Out of all the things she could’ve told me that was the last thing I was expecting. Her and Will were getting married within the next year, but I couldn’t understand why she would be so upset unless they were trying to rush and move the wedding up.
“That’s great, isn’t it?” I asked, trying to smile. “I’m taking it that you just found out?”
Shaking her head quickly, she closed her eyes and cried some more. “No, I’ve known for a few weeks. I just didn’t know how to tell you because of … of what happened to you. I didn’t know how …”
Oh, no! She’s worried about me?
“Lexi,” I shouted, making her jump. She tried to open her mouth to speak again, but I cut her off, “Hey, I’m sorry, I don’t want to interrupt you, but you have to stop. Are you saying you’ve kept this to yourself because you were afraid of it making me upset?”
She nodded in reply, her chin trembling. Her sorrow made my heart break and I broke down with her.
Reaching for her hands, I pulled her in for another embrace. “Oh, Lexi, the last thing I want is for you to be scared to tell me these things. I’m your best friend. We’re supposed to share the joys and sorrows together. Yes, what happened to me still hurts my heart, but it’s life and it happens. One day I’ll get another chance.”
Sniffling, she hastily backed out of my arms, her eyes wild. “I know, but that’s not what I’m upset about,” she exclaimed. “You have to let me get this out without interrupting me.”
Gasping, I held up my hands and backed up. “Whoa, calm down, it’s not healthy for the baby to be getting this upset. I’ll listen, okay?”
She was so wound up I didn’t know what to do other than sit down and stare at her with my mouth gaping wide open. What I wasn’t expecting were the words that came out of her mouth next.
“Hayley knows,” she cried loudly. “She called me and told me everything that happened between you two, and that she also knew about the baby … Matt’s baby.”
Almost instantly the blood drained from my face and I thought I was going to pass out. That information in the hands of Hayley and Kyle would destroy me … and Matt. “How does she know about that?” I shouted, jumping out of my chair. “Did you tell her?”
“No,” she hollered back. “I didn’t tell her, not intentionally. She overheard me talking to Will a couple of weeks ago.”
“Why were you and Will talking about it?”
Fisting her hands in her hair, she dropped to her knees and doubled over on the floor. “Because I thought I was going to lose my baby, too,” she wailed. I sucked in a ragged breath and rushed over, falling to my knees beside her. I couldn’t bear to see her go through what I did.
“It was last week,” she began. “I’m ten weeks right now and the morning sickness has just recently started giving me problems. It took all I had to pretend that nothing was wrong. Anyway, only Will and I knew, and he’s been so happy about the baby. When I started bleeding all I could think about was you and how devastated you were when you lost Madelyn. I told him I had seen what it did to you back then, and that I didn’t want to go through that. Little did I know that Hayley was right outside the door, listening. I told Will it was Matt’s baby.”