Defensive by J.D. Rivera Read Free Book Online Page A

wasn’t going to say anything but I need to tell someone. Cynthia’s pregnant.”
    “Why do you care?” he asked with his brows furrowed. Either I was in a worse mood than I thought or he was really stupid.
    “Because I’m the dad. The night before I moved here, we slept together one last time. She called yesterday morning and told me.”
    “Shit.”
    “Yeah. I’m scared of how Vanessa will react,” I told him.
    “Don’t tell her. Pay Cynthia off to keep it quiet.”
    I looked at him. Why the hell are we still friends? “What’s wrong with you? I’m not that type of guy. If I’m a dad, I’m going to be a dad.”
    Our food arrived and we both ate in silence. I devoured my burger quickly and moved on to my fries. I was going to have to run later and hopefully I’d clear my head enough to calm down and figure out what to do.

Vanessa
    As soon as play practice was over, I drove over to Jackson’s on autopilot. I tried to think of ways to tell him I was pregnant but nothing seemed right. I should’ve told him the previous night but I was tired and he started kissing me and then that led to other things. I just couldn’t quite work in “oh, by the way, I’m pregnant.”
    I pulled up to his place, sitting in the car and just taking deep breaths. He was a sweet, caring man who also claimed to be in love with me. He’d understand. I got out of the car and walked slower than I ever had in my life to his door. As soon as I put my hand on the doorknob, I thought of bolting and calling him later to say I was sick. I quickly changed my mind, though, knowing he’d rush over to my place to take care of me anyway.
    When I opened the door, Jackson walked to me quickly from the kitchen. He placed both hands on my cheeks and kissed me. Hard. I opened my mouth, letting him kiss me deeply. I grabbed onto his hair and kissed him back, equally as hard.
    He pulled back after a bit. “I missed you.”
    “I missed you, too.”
    “I got us spaghetti take out. I hope that’s okay,” he said, pulling me toward the kitchen table.
    “Yeah. It smells great,” I told him before sitting down and noticing that he seemed nervous. He was never nervous. Always calm and collected. Even when I had pushed him away because I thought he had been with his ex. Knowing he was nervous made me anxious because I knew it had to be bad.
    He busied himself getting our plates full of the spaghetti and then finally sat down. “Enjoy,” he said before taking a big bite. Something was definitely up with him. Tonight probably wouldn’t be the best night to tell him about the pregnancy. He quickly devoured his meal while I still had several bites left.
    “I need to tell you something,” he blurted. My heart started beating fast.
    “Okay.”
    He took a deep breath. “So… this is going to sound… bad… but it’s not.” He grabbed my hand and squeezed it while I took a calming breath and tried to slow my heart rate. He continued. “Cynthia, my ex, called me yesterday. She’s um… shit… she’s pregnant.”
    I sat there and tried to understand what he was saying. Then it hit me. Hard. “So you cheated on me?” I pushed back and stood quickly, but he grabbed my shoulders.
    “No. I would never cheat on you. Just sit down and let me finish explaining.”
    I sat down as he did the same. He ran his hand through his hair. “Okay, so like I said, she’s pregnant. And I’m the father.” I felt like I was going to pass out. He was having another baby with another woman? I had no words. I couldn’t really even think. “Vanessa, I swear this changes nothing for us. I love you so much and you’re who I want to spend the rest of my life with, but I still feel like I need to be an active father.”
    I was finally able to think and I cleared my throat. “So if you didn’t cheat, how are you the father?”
    He took a deep breath. “The night before I came here, I slept with her one last time. We’d been broken up for a while but I met up