Page 52 of Code Violation

I swallow the water and pick up my phone.

Silas

I’m standing at your door. Can you let me in?

Me

Aren’t you supposed to be at the rink?

Silas

Fuck practice. I need to speak with you.

I’m out of the bathroom and running toward my door, every single bad thought swarming my brain when I slide the lock across and come face-to-face with a wide-eyed hockey player.

He doesn’t hesitate, stepping inside the apartment and pressing me against the wall.

My front door is still wide open, but all I can focus on is the way his body heats mine, along with the familiar scent of his pine cologne.

“Did you take the pill yet?” he asks in a rushed voice.

It takes me a second to catch up to where I am and what’s happening. Ten seconds ago, I was standing in my bathroom, filling my third glass of water.

“Did you take the morning-after pill?” Silas repeats his question, now sounding frantic.

“No,” I whisper quietly. “I was in the bathroom when you texted me, and I didn’t hear you knocking. Don’t worry; so long as I take it today, then its efficacy shouldn’t be affected.”

Silas’s attention falls to my stomach, the rise and fall of his chest way faster than I’ve seen it before. “I don’t want you to take it.”

Wait, did I swallow the pill, forget that I had, and now I’m hallucinating?

“W-what?”

Silas’s eyes explore my face before they hold me captive for what feels like an eternity. “I said that I don’t want you to take the pill we bought. When I walked out of your apartment fifteen minutes ago, I rode the elevator to the parking garage and sat in my car, unable to start the engine and drive away.”

A hand wraps beneath my ass, and I realize it’s to hold me in place because every muscle feels like Jell-O.

He kicks my apartment door shut.

“When it comes to you, I’ve held my tongue for way too long. But after last night? I can’t hold in my feelings anymore, Vesper. I’m so fucking in love with you; I have been for years.”

He chuckles to himself, and it’s almost dark, probably because he knows how fucking huge this is. Or maybe he’s scared that I’ll bolt.

Silas lifts me off the floor, and I wrap my legs around his waist, partly so he doesn’t have to take my whole weight and partly because being this close to him feels so good.

“God, Christ …” he breathes out, pressing his forehead into mine. His voice wobbles as he speaks. “I know how fucking crazy I must sound right now. How insane this whole situation is, but I have to lay all of my cards on the table. Recently, someone said that fate would show me the way with you, and I think this baby …” He rests a palm on my stomach. “If you’re pregnant with my child, this is the universe’s way of showing me to just fucking go for it with you.”

I can hardly speak, jaw agape, mind spinning out.

“Say something,” he pleads.

“Are you saying that you want to be with me or co-parent?” Where the hell I found a coherent sentence from and a reasonable question is beyond me. Maybe I’m not the hot mess I initially thought I was.

Despite the heavy atmosphere, a cheek-aching smile breaks out across his face. “Did you hear the part when I said that I’m in love with you?”

I deadpan, “Sorry, I was still caught up on the part where you declared that I should keep the potential baby I’m carrying.”

They say that laughter cures everything, and, man, does it dissolve the anxious tension burning between us.