Insulting my bakery and pregnant with my boyfriend’s child? Wait, Gabe wasn’t technically my boyfriend. He was …
I shook my head to clear it. “You’re pregnant with Gabe’s child,” I whispered what had been rattling around in my head. Then my heart shattered into a million pieces.
“You’re a slow learner,” Faith observed. “Gabe and I have known each other since we were children and loved each other just as long. You’re a cheap piece of ass to him. Flat on her back with another woman’s man who just happens to be pregnant with his son.”
Gabe’s son.
“You’re together?” I gripped at my head, trying to hold my brain inside my skull because it felt like it might explode. How did I let something like this happen to me again? There had to have been signs that I missed. I should have stuck to the plan, focused on the failing bakery. If I had, then maybe I wouldn’t be staring at the apparent love of Gabe’s life.
I choked out a laugh then swallowed it. Hard. The lump in my throat was full with my unshed tears. “What do you want, Faith?”
“That should be glaringly obvious. I’m starting to think you’re not very bright. Did you even go to college?”
As she spoke, she stroked her belly again, then skewered me with a scorching hot glare that could have melted the skin from my face had it contained laser energy. My mind reeled, darting around the truth. Evading the inevitable. Gabe had impregnated this woman and neglected to tell me about it.
A woman who could actually get pregnant.
Was this what he wanted? Was this why he’d kept himself so closed off? He’d never really spoken about his past and I’d been an assuming idiot. Now, I realized I knew nothing about Gabe’s family. Outside of our flaming chemistry, I didn’t really know Gabe at all.
“I have no idea what you want. I have no idea about anything right now,” I murmured. Standing. Staring.
Immobile.
This morning, everything had been perfect. I’d made love to the man of my dreams. A fireman. Then, I drove home with a mind overflowing with creative ideas on how I could save my bakery. A new hopeful outlook on my entire life.
Faith was silent, sitting there in the cold with her fox-lined jacket across her shoulders and those massive breasts heaving. She had a small frame, so they had to be fake. She reeked of money and class and privilege. I wondered what else was artificial besides her chest and her smile.
I tore my gaze away from her and stared out the window at the snow-lined sidewalk. Not much foot traffic at this time of day and it was cold too. “What do you want?” I asked again in a much firmer tone.
“I want you to stay the hell away from Gabe. Actually, I want the ground to open up and swallow you whole,” she purred, twirling her fingers as if she held a magic wand that would encompass the entire bakery and make me disappear in a poof of evil smoke. “But … I’ll settle for you ceasing all contact.”
I wanted to agree instantly. Not because she deserved it with her jealous, possessive attitude and callous demeanor. She couldn’t possibly think that I knew about her baby’s existence and had slept with Gabe anyway?
“I can’t believe this is happening.”
Had I said that out loud? They were the only words I could choke out.
“Why? Did you really think you were special enough to get more than a couple nights from him?” She placed a hand over her mouth and stifled a giggle. “Get real, sweetheart, look at you. You’re a cheap piece of white trash who samples too many of your own cupcakes.”
My heart pounded in my ears so hard, I could feel my own eardrums. Nausea bubbled up.
“You need to leave,” I stammered.
“Not before I get that promise from you.”
“No!” I snapped. The shock floated away for a blissful second, but then I found only nasty jealousy seething beneath it. He’d made love to this woman and given her his child. Something I’d never be able to do. He’d known her for years and he loved her.
Her. Not me.
Pregnant. It was so fucking final.
“Then I’m afraid I can’t leave yet,” she replied, squishing back against the chair. Wiggling her perfectly small ass. “Go fetch me a pillow, will you? My back’s having a spasm.” Faith flashed me a grin that was whiter than cream cheese frosting.
“I suggest —” The words died on my tongue.
Gabe blew through the front door like the fires of hell nipped at his boot clad heels. The bell tinkled overhead, destroying my chance at a perfect retort. His smile flickered and then he frowned as he looked from me to Faith.
She gave a merry wave. “Hey, handsome. Just thought I’d pay your harlot a visit. Glad you could join us.”
“What are you doing here?” Gabe growled at her. He stared as if he couldn’t believe Faith actually sat in the chair of my bakery spewing her venom.
“Can’t you see? I’m going to have a cupcake and chat about our son.” She stroked her belly with both hands now. That seemed to be her favorite pastime. Apart from blowing the remaining shards of my normal life sky high.
“Allegra —” he started, but I held up a hand to stop him.
“So that’s the whore’s name?” Faith interjected, the words like honey on her foul lips. “It suits her. Allegra. Are you sure you’re not a stripper?”
“Faith,” Gabe snapped. “Shut up.”
“Aren’t we touchy,” she murmured, then winked at me like we were best friends. I’d never been in the ring with a woman who could insult and manipulate like Mike Tyson boxed.
“I can’t believe you’ve done this,” Gabe spat at Faith, then turned his panic filled eyes in my direction. Pleading. “You have to hear me out, Allegra. You don’t understand.”
“I think I understand just fine,” I countered, then looked at Faith. Her smug expression bordered on wicked. She licked her lush lips and jumped back into the conversation.
“No, sweetie, she understands perfectly. I explained everything to her and I didn’t spare any details. I’m the mother of your unborn son and heir. Oh, and don’t let me forget the most important part. Allegra’s a home wrecker.” She beamed at him.
“What?” Gabe took a step forward. “A home wrecker. We’re —”
“Stop it,” I whispered, then raised my voice. “Please, just stop it. I didn’t sign up for this. I don’t want to be involved. I’d never destroy a family.”
“You heard her,” Faith said, jerking her thumb in my direction.
I sank into a nearby chair because my rubbery legs simply could not support me anymore. Red. The color of my face and neck. I wouldn’t be surprised if I broke out in hives from the shock and stress. I felt every hope and dream I’d had about Gabe going up in smoke, just like that night my oven had caught fire.
I wanted answers from him. No. I didn’t want anything from either of them. I just wanted to be alone to lick my wounds and see if any of the razor sharp pieces of my shattered existence could be glued back together.
I held my cold palms to my heated cheeks and glanced outside again. My eyes were more comfortable anywhere else than on either of them — the pair of archers who had driven their hate-filled arrows straight to the center of my heart. The bakery was empty of its usual smells and sounds. Sunlight glanced off the snow outside, a gap in the grey clouds that had deposited the drift on the street. Cars and people crunched by, making dirty tracks in the white.
“Get out,” I stammered and nodded toward the door. “Both of you. You need to leave.”
“I have to get up without my cupcake? I was so looking forward to trying the Dark Chocolate Decadence. How inconvenient,” Faith groaned, then braced her palms on the table and made a big show of shifting her bulk out of the chair.
Oh my God.
The night we’d made cupcakes and then made the most incredible love of my young life came crashing back in painful waves. Dark Chocolate Decadence. Gabe licking the rich frosting from my naked body. I’m never going to bake that flavor again.
A
nd a son. He was about to be a father.
I looked up at Gabe. “You too,” I rasped. I wouldn’t let either of them see me cry. Especially her.
Codsworth ambled out of the kitchen with a pert meow. He rubbed against my leg and curled around my ankles, blinking up at me with yellow eyes.
“Come on, darling, let’s go,” Faith said, patting him on the arm as she ambled past. “I’m allergic.”
“Allegra, please, hear me out.” Gabe clenched his fists, released and then clenched them again until his knuckles were white.
“No.”
Chapter 22
Ally
“I’m not leaving.” Gabe glared at me, letting the fists go and stepping towards me with his palms outstretched. “I can’t until you hear me out.”
“Gabe, let’s go,” Faith called from the doorway, holding the glass door back with her palm. “You promised me we’d go to Pacifier and shop for a crib set.”
“Faith …” he warned. “Wait in my car. We can come back and get yours tomorrow.”
“We don’t need to, silly. I used a driver.” Faith rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh, then ambled out of the front door and into the snow, clutching her cloak around her shoulders and pulling the soft fur around her neck.
I licked my lips and stared after her, then shifted my focus back to Gabe. “I told you to leave.”
“And I told you I can’t leave. I need you to listen to me, Allegra. You have to know that what we have is real and that this won’t come between us.”
“Won’t come between us?” I repeated, letting the disbelief drip from my tone. “This isn’t like me finding out you’re a fireman instead of a broker. That you rescued me from a burning building and didn’t let on. This, is a full-fledged relationship with a woman carrying your son.”
“That’s bullshit.” He took a step forward and ground his heel into the floor.
“What? Are you denying it?” I fired the question, incredulous. “Gabe, unless she’s sporting one of those weighted sympathy aprons, I’m pretty sure we can’t argue that Faith is pregnant.”
“I’m not dating her, Allegra. I’m dating you. I care about …”
“Don’t you fucking dare say that to me,” I exploded, shaking from head-to-toe. Doused in anger. And sorrow. And shame. Because they were coming.
Please, God, let them stay away until I’m alone. The tears.
Codsworth gave a disdainful meow and wandered back into the kitchen. He didn’t approve of loud noises or arguments. He was a cat. He didn’t approve of almost anything.
“It’s the truth.”
“So you’re not dating her,” I replied. “She said you’ve been together for years and that you love each other. Is Faith lying? If she is, I guess that means you just knocked her up then. And what now? You’re going to raise the child together? Get married?”
“I know you’re angry at me. I didn’t plan for this to happen.”
I nodded. “Yeah, well. I’m not sure what else you want me to say.”
“Allegra, stop,” he grunted, holding out his palms in surrender. “Please, just listen to me.”
“You can beg and plead until you’re blue in the face. In spite of my humble beginnings, I’m not the kind of woman who would do something like this. You have to know that if you’d only disclosed it, none of this would have happened. We could have avoided that ugly scene in the middle of my place of business.”
The scene I’ll remember every time I help a customer as I wait for the pain of your betrayal to wash over me.
“Would it have made any difference if I’d have told you about Faith?” he retorted. “You’ve been waiting for an opportunity to get away from what we have from the start. You would have just used the information against me.”
“You’re absolutely right.” I sighed and backpedaled, putting as much distance between myself and his magnetic pull as possible. How could I still be physically attracted to a man I now despised? Didn’t trust?
Gabe blinked at me, then shook his head. “Allegra, I …”
“I’m fucking delusional. I thought whatever idiotic attraction I felt for you was more than just a passing phase. I thought it ran deeper.”
“It does,” he insisted, taking a huge step forward to close the gap between us.
I leaned right, towards the empty glass counter where I usually displayed the cupcakes so I could avoid him. I ran my fingertips along the smooth glass, grounding myself in the present so I didn’t dwell on the torment knifing through my gut.
“Actually, it’s nothing. What you and I had is nothing and this entire conversation is pointless. I don’t want —”
The bell over the door tinkled and an old woman stepped into the bakery, clutching her purse in front of her. “Hello dear, I was wondering if I could get my hands on one of your Red Velvets?”
I looked at Gabe, then back at the customer. “I’m sorry, ma’am, we’re closed until further notice. But if you leave your name and number, I’ll contact you as soon as we open up again. You can have a Red Velvet on the house.”
“Oh, well that’s all right,” the woman said, then patted at her grey curls underneath a plastic rain bonnet. She reached for the pen and pad I left handy on top of the counter, near the cash register. Leaving one there was a habit I’d gotten into when taking big orders over the phone. I’d almost lost a wedding cake because of the gaffe and I never make the same mistake twice. Which was why Gabe needed to get the hell out of my bakery.
“Yes, and we won’t be closed for much longer. A huge chunk of my schedule has just cleared up,” I said as I shot Gabe a withering look. “And I intend on using every second of it to get my doors back open as soon as possible.”
“That’s great news, dear. You give me a call when you’re open and I’ll bring my entire bridge club,” the older lady said with a wink.
I nodded and waved her out, smiling as if my insides weren’t the approximate consistency of Vanilla Vixen batter. She shuffled her way out of the bakery in her rubber snow boots. I stared at her retreating down jacket as long as I could. Avoiding.
“Allegra,” he murmured.
The door swung shut behind the sweet lady and the bell tinkled overhead again. Codsworth gave a doleful meow from the kitchen. Maybe he was out of water, or he wanted a kitty treat. Or, he hated Gabe. I turned towards the kitchen.
Gabe hurried around to my side of the counter and blocked my path.
I froze mid-stride, staring past him because I couldn’t look into those perfect blue eyes now. If I did, I’d burst into the tears I’d been trying mightily to hold back for the past thirty minutes. Since Faith had waddled her very pregnant body in here. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of telling her that I cried. Sobbed. Wailed a torrent of black mascara tears.
“Why are you lying to me?”
“I thought my dad would force me to marry her. He’s always had a soft spot for Faith and made it clear that she’s the one I ‘belong’ with. According to the patriarch of the family, I thought we’d end up together because of this. But that’s not what I want. You’re what I want.”
I recoiled from him. His touch. His very presence.
“I don’t care.”
“I truly believed my fate was sealed, even though I’ve never loved her. Not in that way. Faith’s like a sister to me. I was set to marry her anyway and resign myself to a loveless marriage in order to be a good father to my son,” he said, reaching out to clasp my shoulders. I backed out of his reach again. I couldn’t let him touch me. Weaken me. “After I rescued you from the fire and felt our strong connection, I started dreaming and hoping. I realized that I don’t always have to do what’s expected of me. Especially, if it’s not what’s best for me.”
This was the most he’d opened up in all the time we’d known each other. But it was too little and too late.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about or what you mean.”
“Let me explain. Please, can’t we sit down and talk? Jus
t give me ten minutes. I promise I’ll go after that.” He offered me his hand and bobbed his head in the direction of the chair that Faith had vacated. The memory of her sitting there and gloating stabbed at me. “Allegra … if I don’t get the chance to tell you this, I won’t be able to live with myself. I can’t end things this way.”
“Why should I care about what you want, Gabe? What about what I want? What I deserve?” I injected ice into my tone, straightened my spine and glared up at him.
“You don’t mean that,” he replied, raw emotion tearing the words from his chest. He cared for me on some level, but it couldn’t have been that deep if he’d been willing to lie about Faith.
“Yes, I do. It’s over.” I straightened and moved past him, towards the kitchen and the sanctity of my apartment upstairs. The one he’d saved me from, where it had all began. I had to get away from him and the turbulent ball of emotions about to start rolling downhill. I had to protect myself.
“It can’t be over.”
“It is.”
His expression skewered through me, the utter pain which flickered across his chiseled features were the very same ones that graced my own.
I spun on my heel and strode through the kitchen, up the stairs and into my apartment, leaving Gabe and his perfection behind.
Chapter 23
Ally
“You didn’t have to come over,” I said as I enveloped Kelly in a bear hug. I called her fifteen minutes ago and in the midst of an ugly cry and between heaving sobs, I stammered out the news about Gabe and the heavily pregnant Faith.
“Of course I did,” Kelly replied as she bustled into my tiny kitchen carrying a homemade apple pie and two steaming Styrofoam cups which smelled of coffee. Perfect winter comfort food.
I wrinkled my nose and sighed. I didn’t feel all that festive today, but there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d let that pie out of sight without putting a dent in it. I was great at cupcakes and Kelly was the master of the apple pie. Or the cherry pie. Or anything with a crust, recipe or no recipe. She just had a knack for it.
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