She Fell for Her Stepbrother, Then Found Out She Was Pregnant novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Terms

We had breakfast at a diner off the highway, in a booth by the window.

We sat on opposite sides of the table.

My legs ached in places I hadn't known I had.

Caleb ate his eggs with total concentration and did not look at me.

I stirred my coffee for a full minute.

"We should talk," I said.

"We should."

"Not here."

"The car, then."

"The car is worse. Here, with a table between us, is safer."

He put his fork down.

"Okay," he said. "Rules."

I laughed, because it was the most Caleb thing he could have said.

"I'm serious," he said. "If this happens again, and I want it to, I want us to know what it is."

"What is it?"

"A secret." He lowered his voice, though the nearest customer was a trucker asleep over his pancakes. "My mother and your father are happy. I won't be the reason that stops."

It was the first time he had said he wanted anything about the future.

I tried to stay cool and my face got warm anyway.

"Fine," I said. "Rule one. Nobody knows."

"Nobody."

"Not Mara. Not your mother. Not my father."

"Agreed."

"Rule two." I pointed my spoon at him. "At work you do not go easy on me. If you ever let me win a meeting out of guilt, I will never forgive you."

"I'd never."

"You'd better not. I want the real Caleb in a conference room. The one who tells me page eleven is wrong."

"Page eleven was wrong."

"Page eleven was fine."

"That's rule two," he said, and a smile pulled at his mouth for the first time since the night before. "Understood."

"Rule three. Never at the house in Bexley. Not at Sunday dinner, not in the garage, not anywhere our parents sleep."

His face fell a little, which made me want to laugh.

"Not even a little?"

"Not even a little."

"Brutal."

"Rule four." I put down the spoon. "It ends the day either of us says done."

The smile left his face.

He looked at me across the table for a long moment, and I made myself hold his eyes.

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