He Chose Her. I Left Carrying His Heir. novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The First Heartbeat

Ruby's POV

"That helmet on the shelf is Rhett's," Floyd said. "I should have told you years ago, girl."

I had my hand around the milk glass, and I set it down.

"Cade scraped the name off it himself," the old man said. "With a pocketknife, in my garage, the morning we buried the empty box. I found him on the floor with it in his lap."

Rhett's face did not move.

"He cried like a boy," Floyd said. "He said it should have been him. And then he got up and put the helmet on the clubhouse shelf, and he told me never to speak of it."

"He touches it every ride," I said.

"He's been talking to you for eight years, son. Not to anyone else."

Rhett stood up and took his jacket off the chair.

"Doesn't change what he did," he said.

"No," said Floyd. "It doesn't."

We went home, and we didn't speak about it, but Rhett drove with one hand on my knee the whole way.

On Wednesday I sat in a small beige room in Dunmore with a paper gown on and my feet in the stirrups.

Rhett sat on the one chair in the corner with his hands between his knees.

He had shaved the day before, and he had cut himself doing it, and I had put a bandage on his jaw without comment.

"Last period?" the doctor asked.

"About the middle of April."

"So ten weeks, give or take." She was brisk, young and kind, and she rolled the machine over and squirted cold gel on my stomach. "Dad, you can come closer."

Rhett looked at me.

I held his eyes.

"He's the baby's uncle," I said. "He's with me."

"Family is welcome." She didn't blink. "Come on, Uncle."

He stood and came to the side of the table, and I took his hand without looking at it.

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