A Partridge and a Pregnancy (Holiday Brothers, #3)

by Willa Nash

How had it come to this? How was I even here? I’d asked myself the same questions hours ago when I’d been sitting on the bathroom floor with a positive pregnancy test in hand. One night. One night with Tobias. A farewell. And now I was pregnant.

“Home can have different meanings to different people. To me, it’s not four walls. It’s not a piece of land or a town or a state.”

It was the reason I’d become an architect. Designing houses wasn’t simply making them aesthetically pleasing. It was about creating a sanctuary. It was about giving others the foundation where they could grow roots that ran as deeply as my own.

If the world was ending, I’d want to be with Tobias. I’d want his arms around me through the scary nights. I’d want his strength to lean on when I felt like collapsing. I’d want his smile to brighten the dark days.

Why couldn’t she see how much sense we made? How good our life could be? How good we were together? I was a fucking fool. She’d leave me again. Just like she had before. This time, with my child.

“It’s my identity,” I told him. “I’m not sure who I am without it anymore. It saved me when I was at my lowest. And it’s more than the money, it’s my pride.”

Fuck, but I wanted her. I wanted her for good. To keep. But she wasn’t mine. She was her own woman. That was what Eddy had called her that night years ago. Her own woman. So I took one step away. Then another. And this time, I made it to my bedroom without looking back.

Tobias was magnificent. He was mine. He’d always been mine, even when I’d let him go.

“I don’t want her to stay because I asked. I want her to stay because she wants to stay. Because she wants me.”