Breathe With Me (Playing For Keeps #5)

by Becka Mack

A swipe of my finger, and something sick and anxious swirls in my stomach as I stare down at my inbox, the subject line that reads Pregnancy Results. I curl my fingernails into my palms as I fight with myself, tell myself I have more self-control than this. That I can’t let this, this journey, all the heartache so far, change me. That I won’t. But as I reach to lock my phone, the tremor of my hand catches me off guard. This hand isn’t supposed to shake. I’m not supposed to shake. Maybe that’s why I jab my finger against the email before I can change my mind. Before I can talk myself out of it. I wish I’d talked myself out of it. My throat seizes as my eyes fly over the words that feel a lot more like a sentence, a lifetime one for a crime I didn’t commit. Tears gather in my burning eyes without my permission, and I shake my head, like I can shake them away. I can’t, though, and when the patio door slides open and Emmett slips inside, it feels like my chest cracks wide open. He stops before me, not paying any mind to the phone in my hand, the screen now black. “You looked,” he says gently. “I’m sorry,” I whisper, the words hoarse as Emmett’s face blurs. His hand closes over mine, pulling the phone from my grasp, tucking it in his pocket. He takes my face in his hands, midnight eyes dancing with agony as he watches tears free-fall down my cheeks. “Never apologize. Not for this.” He presses a kiss to my lips and my hand to his heart, and I feel it, the way he loves me, the de...