Page 37 of Forsaken Trail (Runaway 4)

“Sorry.” I dragged a hand over my bearded jaw.

“What are you doing here, Brody?” she asked again.

“I’m in a little bit of shock. I had to make sure.”

“A phone call would have sufficed. Or you could have not hung up on me in the first place.”

Not an option. The moment her announcement had set in, I’d had to see her. In person. I’d had to watch with my own eyes as my ears heard the word come from her lips.

Aria was pregnant. The truth settled into my bones. The world that had been spinning in one direction suddenly shifted, spinning on an entirely different axis. One that was centered around the life growing inside her.

There was a lot of shit to figure out.

“Join me for dinner.”

“I just ate.”

I checked my watch. “At four o’clock?”

She shrugged. “I eat when I’m hungry. That doesn’t happen all the time, so I take advantage.”

“Coffee? Decaf. Please.”

“What do you want, Brody?” Her frame slumped. Her voice held so much exhaustion, all I wanted was to scoop her up and tuck her into my bed for the rest of the week.

“To talk. I want to talk.”

“Okay.” She nodded. “I was just on my way home.”

“Lead the way.”

She gave me the side-eye, then shrugged on her coat. I followed close behind as she walked past me and out the front doors.

I fell into step beside her on the sidewalk, keeping up with her brisk pace. The cold air bit into my ears and nose. Where was her car?

Aria kept walking, following the curve of the street. I expected her to stop at one of the parking lots, but she kept on going.

Then we changed directions after a few blocks, starting up a side street. Step by silent step, we made our way farther and farther from the hotel and the sound of the ocean.

She shouldn’t be walking, not when she was this tired. Not at this hour. The sun was beginning to set. In an hour, it would be almost dark. Even now, the light was dim enough to mute the colors of the homes we passed.

The leaves had fallen from the trees, their limbs bare. The grassy lawns looked to have been frozen a time or twelve. It was just . . . cold. The damp chill from the humid air seeped through my suit coat and made me shiver. I clenched my teeth to keep them from chattering.

It was too cold for her to be walking every night. Alone.

“Why don’t you have a car?”

“I haven’t bought one since leaving the Cadillac with Clara. Besides, I like to walk.”

I opened my mouth, ready to debate the safety merits of her preferred method of transportation, but I stopped myself first.

Aria would argue. I would argue. It was what we did. And tonight, with so many other important topics looming, this wasn’t the argument we needed to have. So I closed my mouth and kept pace with her as she navigated us toward a two-story row of condos.

There was no need to ask which condo in the row was hers. Even in winter, she had plants on her porch while the other three condos had nothing surrounding their front doors.

Aria had two potted trees, their evergreen boughs trimmed precisely to a point. A row of red lights had been wrapped around them in a perfect spiral. Yellow lights, draped from the porch’s beam, decorated the space. In the corner, a huge pot held a bush. Its red holly berries decorated the thick green leaves.

Aria slid her key in the door’s lock and pushed inside. One step past the threshold and her scent enveloped me. Sweet flowers. A hint of vanilla. Aria. I dragged in a long breath and let the warmth of her home chase away the chill.