Page 4 of Not Because You Loved Me

Everyone told my mom and dad they were ruined when she got pregnant with Gideon and me in high school. They were seventeen, broke, and terrified. But my dad didn't hesitate. He stepped up, dropped out of school to start digging foundations, married my mom, and built Prescott Construction from the dirt up. Growing up, they were solid. The kind of relationship that people often commented on. They turned a sudden twist of fate into a real family, real love, and a life they were proud of.

My dad always said that was what a Prescott man did. When responsibility called, you didn't run. You built a foundation.

Kat and I hadn't been dating for years. Nine months was still early. We hadn't even dropped the "I love you" bomb yet, mostly because I was always too choked up or too hesitant to say it out loud. Maybe she thought I was just a casual guy. Maybe she was terrified I’d bolt. And she’s headed for a grueling two weeks for work, I realized, my chest aching with a sudden, desperate urge to protect her. She had a high-stress job, traveling with a professional sports team, dealing with elite athletes and relentless schedules. She was probably panicking, trying to figure out how to handle this on her own.

I paced her small living room, the pregnancy test still gripped tightly in my hand.

I could call her the second she landed. I could demand answers.

No. I forced myself to stop. Don't overwhelm her.

If she took the test this morning, she was probably still processing it. She needed space. She was leaving for two weeks; I could give her two weeks to digest the news, to figure out how she wanted to lay it out for me. If I called her now, I’d just freak her out more.

I had to be calm. I had to let her tell me on her own terms. When she got back from the road trip, she’d break the news, and I would be ready. I would show her, without a shadow of a doubt, that she wasn't alone. I was in this one hundred percent.

Carefully, I set the test back into the trash can, right where she’d left it. I stood up, washed my hands, and looked at myself in the mirror. Hands shaking, I smoothed down my work shirt, my pulse still beating a steady, heavy rhythm in my throat.

When I walked out of her house and locked the door behind me, the world looked completely different.

I climbed into my truck and started the engine, heading straight for the current job site where my dad and Gideon were framing out a two-story home.

When I pulled up, Gideon was leaning against the bed of his truck, scrolling through real estate listings on his tablet while my dad yelled instructions to a drywall crew over the roar of a saw.

"Where have you been?" Gideon called out as I hopped out of the truck. He grabbed a coffee from the tray beside him and handed it to me as I walked up to him. "Dad’s about to lose his mind over the delayed delivery."

"Sorry," I said, my voice sounding distant even to my own ears.

Gideon narrowed his eyes, studying my face. "You look like you just got hit by a semi. What happened? Are you already missing your kitty Kat?"

"She gave me a key," I blurted out, because I wasn't sure if I could share the other news without Kat feeling like she could share it with me.

Gideon raised an eyebrow, a grin spreading across his face. "Damn, brother. Moving fast. Look at you."

My dad walked over, wiping sweat from his brow with his sleeve, looking between the two of us. "What's going on?"

"Trent got a key to the kingdom," Gideon joked.

My dad gave me a proud pat on the shoulder. "Good for you, son. She’s a great girl. Keep your head on straight and treat her right."

"Yeah," I murmured, "I’m gonna treat her right."

As I walked toward the framed structure of the house, looking up at the wooden beams coming together against the crisp September sky, my mind was spinning, and for once it wasn’t about work.

I had to show Katerina what I had obviously failed to show her until this moment. I could be, would be there for her.

She was scared, and she didn't know how to tell me yet. But I would prove to her that she didn't have to do this alone. We were going to be a family; she just had to come home and say the words.

CHAPTER 2

Katerina

October 28

I wiped a towel across my forehead, catching my breath as the last song of our spin class faded out. My legs were warm, heavy, and pleasantly exhausted, the exact feeling I chased whenever work stress started piling up.

"If we don't get carbs in the next twenty minutes, I’m going to pass out on this studio floor," Stacey grunted.

Robin laughed, tossing her water bottle into her gym bag. "Something new or the deli down the street?"