Over Before She Loved Me novel · Chapter 3 of 24
Chapter 3: Two Seats to London
Joelle hides the pregnancy test, Barrett lets himself in with a key and shows her a booking for Dustin and another woman, and Dustin knocks for his last box.
Joelle Hartigan got home from the hospital at six that evening, and the townhouse was empty.
She stood in the front hall with her coat still on.
For three years she had come through this door to a man in the kitchen who asked if she'd eaten.
Now there was only the refrigerator humming.
She took the small white bag out of her coat pocket and set it on the hall table.
Inside was a pregnancy test with two pink lines, and a bottle of prenatal vitamins the pharmacist had rung up without looking at her.
She had taken the test in the staff bathroom at work, the morning she collapsed.
She had been standing at her desk with her hand on the edge of it when the floor went soft.
She had told the ER doctor everything, and she had made him promise to say nothing to anyone.
Nine weeks.
The anniversary night.
She pressed her hand flat to her stomach.
She had not planned any of it.
She had gone to his side of the bed because she could not stand one more night of lying still and listening to him breathe.
Two years of loving him, and she had never told him.
Joelle laughed once, quietly, in the empty hall.
He had asked her, the morning after, to tell him it wasn't gratitude.
As if her whole body had been a thank-you note.
She had said, "What else would it be?" because the alternative was saying yes, it's love, and watching him look relieved that the contract was ending.
The doorbell rang.
She wiped her face and pushed the bag deep into her coat pocket.
The front door opened before she reached it.
Barrett stepped in, shaking rain off his shoulders, a key in his hand.
"I hope I'm not intruding. You gave me this when you were moving boxes in, remember? Dustin asked me to lock up."
She remembered nothing of the kind.
But she had been tired for nine weeks, and she nodded.
"I brought soup." He lifted a paper bag. "From the place you like. I didn't want you eating crackers."
"That's kind of you."
"It's the least I can do. Sit."
He heated the soup himself.
He found the bowls without asking where they were.
She noticed it and did not think about it.
When she was halfway through the bowl, Barrett set his phone on the table and slid it toward her.
"I wasn't going to show you this," he said. "I changed my mind. You'll find out anyway."
On the screen was a travel confirmation.
Pittsburgh to London Heathrow, Friday, first class, two seats.
The names were Dustin Rayburn and Kendra Moss.
Joelle read the second name three times.
"Who is Kendra Moss?"
"Someone from the London office." Barrett's voice dropped. "I've known about her for months. I told him to end it cleanly with you first. He said he would."
Her spoon was still in her hand.
"He asked me if I thought you'd cause trouble over the papers." Barrett rubbed his eyes. "I said no. I said you'd never make a scene. God, I'm sorry, Jo. I should have said something sooner."
Months.
The late meetings.
The week in March when Dustin had flown out for the firm.
She had been so careful not to ask him for anything that she had never asked where he was going.
"He told me about the hospital," Barrett said, very gently. "He said he felt bad, but he'd done his part."
The words went through her one at a time.
His part.
A contract, and he had done his part.
"I signed those papers in four minutes," she said.
"You did the right thing. You gave him no reason to feel guilty."
She put the spoon down.
Her stomach turned over, and not from the nausea.
Nine weeks pregnant, and the man who'd fathered the child was boarding a plane with another woman.
"I'm not going to tell him," she said out loud.
Barrett's face stayed perfectly still.
"Tell him what?"
"That I'm tired. That I'm sick." She stood too quickly. "I don't want him staying because he feels sorry for me."
"Jo. You don't have to say anything to anyone."
"Thank you for the soup."
"Let me help you pack."
"I'm fine, Barrett. Please go."
He took his time putting the bowls in the sink.
He slid the key back into his pocket.
The doorbell rang again, once, as he was reaching for his coat.
Joelle opened the door.
Dustin stood on the porch in the rain with his jacket dark at the shoulders.
He didn't look at Barrett.
He looked at her.
"I came for my last box," he said.
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