Page 144 of Heartbreak & Cupcakes
Losing Alex.
Finding out I was pregnant.
All of it just crashed over me.
“Hey, it’s okay. I’m here, now.” He patted my back gently.
Normally, I bristled at his overprotective ways, but not right now. Right now, he could overprotect me all he liked.
“Did they take your keys? If they did, you need to get the locks changed,” he said as we all began walking to the steps, his arm still wrapped around my waist for support.
“Already done.” Charli lifted a set of keys I hadn’t seen. “Alex took care of it last night. These were delivered to me this morning. The bakery has new locks, too.”
Right. Since he owned the building, he could easily have the locks changed.
“I think I like Alex.”
Charli and I shared a look between us. Great. Alex was the first man who managed to garner my father’s approval and he’d gotten the seal of approval on the day we broke up.
Just as we got to the edge of the steps, the bakery door flew open.
“My sweet girl!” Yana flew out, her hands lifted in the air. “You gave me heart attack.”
I’d spoken to her the night before, while I was in the hospital, and she’d told me that she was going to open and take care of everything for the time that I was out of commission. It was such a great feeling knowing that my baby was in good hands. My baby. I put my hand over my stomach.
The bakery wasn’t going to be my only baby soon.
“Do you want me to bring you up some strudel? Or I can make you some soup.”
“Oh, your soup would be great!” I enthused. It sounded like exactly what the doctor ordered.
“I made you egg salad,” my dad said as he helped me up the stairs.
Egg salad had always been my favorite dish as a kid, and just like Yana’s soup, it sounded like exactly what I needed.
Whatever the future held, I’d be okay. I had people that loved me. That would drop everything to take care of me. Who would kill and hide a body for me. I had Yana’s chicken soup and my dad’s egg salad.
So even if Alex wasn’t up to having this baby with me, which I would totally understand considering the circumstances, we’d be fine. I had a family. It might not be conventional, but it was mine.
