I turned to my dad. “It’s telling me I need to always be one hundred percent honest with her.”

“Then, you know what you have to do, son.” Dad brought me in for a hug. “I love that girl like she’s my own daughter, Josh. Your mother feels the same way. The moment she walked into this house, she captured all of our hearts. You fuck this up, and I’ll kick your ass!” My dad pulled away from me and winked.

“Jesus H. Christ, Dad.” I shook my head and made my way into the house.

I walked into the kitchen, and my mother was on the phone.

“She said she would be upstairs, waiting for you in your room,” Mom said with a sad look on her face.

I quickly left the kitchen and went up the stairs two at a time. When I opened the door to my room, I found her standing at the window, looking out at the pasture. The horses were all out, and from the few days she’d stayed with us, I already knew how much the horses could calm her down.

She knows.

“Heather—”

“What happened between you two? And when did it happen?”

Her voice was so cold and distant that it gave me chills.

How the fuck does she know? “Um…it was the first day I woke up.”

Heather spun around and looked at me.

I waited for her to say something or ask me something. When she didn’t, I just went on with my confession. “She was taking me down for the brain scan, and when we got into the elevator, she started to kiss me and touch me with her hand. I asked her to stop kissing me, but I didn’t…I didn’t stop her right away from…” I couldn’t even finish. I wanted to throw up.

I watched as Heather closed her eyes. When she slowly started to sink to the floor, I ran over to her and grabbed her. I sat down on the floor and pulled her onto my lap. I held her as she began crying. Ah hell. I should have listened to my dad. All I ever do is hurt her.

I could tell she was having a hard time breathing, so I stroked her hair. “I pushed her hand away. I didn’t come. I swear to you.” I was trying to reassure her, to let her know that I didn’t want Victoria.

“Breathe, baby, just breathe,” I whispered in her ear.

She grabbed on to my neck with both arms and clutched on to me tightly.

“Is that all that’s happened between you two?”

“Yes! The whole time, all I could do was picture you, and I was so fucking confused.” I held her as close to me as I could.

“She didn’t…she didn’t use her mouth, did she?”

Oh Christ. Why the hell is she asking me that? “God no, Heather. Why the hell would you even ask that?”

She pulled away, and her eyes met mine. The tears on her face made me want to punch myself in the stomach. I never want to be the reason she cries…ever again.

“That day at the hospital, she told me in the restroom how much you loved blow jobs and how good she was, and I’ve never done that with you, and—”

“Stop. Please don’t say anything else. Heather, I never want to hurt you or be unfaithful to you. No matter what happened in my past, it doesn’t matter anymore because I only love you. You’re the only one I want to hold in my arms. You’re the only one I want to wake up to every morning and kiss like it’s my first kiss all over again. You’re the only one I want to be with.”

She stared at me, stunned. “What did you just say?”

“Uh…do you want me to repeat all of that? I thought it sounded pretty damn good the first time. I’m not like Gunner. I don’t think I could repeat it exactly even if I tried.”

She shook her head and laughed. “No, did you say you love me?”

I smiled as I placed both my hands on her face. “Yes, I love only you. I think I knew it the moment you looked at me with those breathtakingly beautiful blue eyes of yours.”

I lowered my lips to hers. I slowly started to get up, and her body moved right along with me. When I backed her up to my bed, she started to lie back. Never once did we break our kiss.

The passion and love I felt in her kiss was making my heart beat a mile a minute.

Then, right on cue, there was a knock on my door.

I stopped kissing her when she started laughing.

I smiled as I looked down at her. “I don’t think the gods are on our side today, princess.”

I jumped up and pulled open my door. My mother was standing there with a shit-eating grin on her face. Then, she looked around me at Heather, and her smile disappeared. She snapped her head back to me and pushed me out of the way.

I turned around to see Heather crying. What the hell? She was just smiling and laughing a second ago!

“Oh, my baby girl. What did he do to you?”

“Wait a minute! Mom, everything was fine until you knocked on the door. Heather, baby, why are you crying now?”

She looked at my mom and smiled.

Oh Jesus, I’m so confused. Is she crying ’cause she’s happy? Because my mom stopped us from doing something? What the fuck is going on?

“Elizabeth, Josh is perfect! He…he just said…”

After quickly getting up, Heather ran and jumped into my arms. I held on to her as she cried.

Thank God I took two pain pills earlier.

“What did you say to her?” my mom asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. Hell if I knew!

“I love you, Josh Hayes. I love you so much!”

She kissed me, and I kissed her back, even with my mom sitting on my bed.

Heather pulled away and looked at my mom. “He called me princess!”

My mother jumped up and screamed. “Shut up!”

“I know!”

Okay… now, I’m really fucking confused.

My mother walked up to me and hugged me.

Heather looked behind me and ran past me. I turned around to see Heather jumping into my dad’s arms. “He called me princess!” Heather squealed.

“Mom…” I said, still confused.

My mother moved her mouth to my ear. “Her father called her princess, and that’s what you called her, too. You called her that the first time you ever kissed her, Josh,” Mom whispered. “I think she’s slowly bringing you back to us again.”

I pulled away from my mom, and I watched my dad spinning Heather around in the hallway. I smiled, knowing I made her that happy. I wanted to make her that happy every single day of my life.

Dad put Heather down and winked at me. “Come on, let’s go to dinner. My treat!”

As soon as we started to drive out of my parents’ driveway, Luke fell fast asleep. I was so nervous. How am I going to tell Jeff I’m pregnant? Then, I remembered that Heather had said Jack would be DJing at Josh’s party tomorrow. I couldn’t help but grin.

“What are you smiling about over there?” Jeff asked, glancing over at me.

“Um…nothing.” Oh shit, I can’t slip up.

Jeff laughed. “Come on, Ari. I know when you’re thinking hard about something. Spill it, baby.”

Before I even knew what I was saying, it was out of my mouth. “Heather’s pregnant!”

Jeff slammed on the brakes and then let off of them when he realized what he had done.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Jeff! Give me damn whiplash, why don’t ya?”

“Well, what the hell did you expect? You just threw that out at me, Ari! Does Josh know?”

I rolled my eyes. “Pesh…no! She just found out this afternoon.”

“How?”

“Well, you see…when you make love and the man comes, he spreads his seed in the girl, and then all those little sperms move on up in there and look for the egg.”

“Funny! I meant, when did this happen? No, don’t answer that. I know it was before the accident. Oh fuck. How far along does she think she is? I thought they were on birth control?”

“You remember when she was so sick, right before the accident, around when Alex was born?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, she was taking antibiotics, and some antibiotics can negate the pill. Her doctor obviously didn’t bother to mention that to her. She knows the exact date it happened! She’s probably a month or so along.” I smiled, thinking about our own little baby growing in my stomach.