The Wedding He Stole Was My Great Escape novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Is That a Rule or a Lawyer

I could not sleep on his couch.

It was a good couch, with a folded wool blanket and a pillow that smelled like cedar and sawdust.

At midnight I gave up and went into the shop in a borrowed T-shirt that came to my knees.

Jasper was at the bench with a lamp on, rubbing oil into a brass winch handle.

He did not look surprised to see me.

"Pregnant," I said.

He kept his eyes on the handle.

"She told me she couldn't have children," he said. "Three years ago, the week before she left. She said the doctors had told her. I held her while she cried about it."

"Maybe she was lying then."

"Maybe she's lying now."

"Maybe she's carrying Preston's baby, and she was wrong about the doctors."

"Maybe," he said.

He put the rag down and finally looked at me.

"Does it matter to you which?" he asked.

I thought about it.

"No," I said. "A baby is a baby. What they did to me is still what they did."

"That's what I thought you'd say."

"Why?"

"Because you asked about the baby before you asked about the money," he said. "You didn't even notice you did it."

I had no answer to that.

I walked around the bench and stopped a few inches from him.

He smelled like soap and metal.

The lamp lit the side of his face, the beard, the line of his jaw, the gray in his eyes.

"You stood at the back of that room today," I said. "You never opened your mouth."

"You didn't need me to."

"I wanted you to."

I did not know I meant it until I said it.

He went still.

"Mireille."

"I'm not asking you for anything," I said. "I'm telling you I wanted you there."

I reached out and put my hand flat on his chest.

His heart was going hard under my palm.

← Chapter 7 · All chapters · Chapter 9 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend