Beyond Broken (The Bay Boys #3) (33 page)

“Maddie, wait,” he started, reaching for her.
 
But she swatted his hands away, her face turning red.
 
She snatched up her purse off the desk and made her way towards the door.
 
Right when she got it open, he grasped her arm and slammed the door closed with his palm so hard that the doorframe rattled.
 
He pressed his body against hers so she wouldn’t be able to leave.
 
He needed some time to
think
.

“Let go of me,” she seethed, struggling against him.

“Will you just stop and let me process this?” he grated, boxing her in.

“I’d never had sex with anyone before you,” she said, still beyond angry.
 
“And you have the nerve to question whether or not the child is
yours
?
 
Who the hell do you think you are?”

He blew out a breath, feeling his temper rise.
 
“You caught me off guard, Maddie.
 
How the fuck did you think I’d react?
 
Did you think I’d be
happy
about it?”

“No, but I at least expected you to take some form of responsibility!”

“I am!” he exclaimed.
 
Trying to reign in his frustration, he murmured, “Shit, Maddie, I am.
 
Just give me a goddamn second, okay?”

She went silent, but Caleb didn’t move an inch.
 
He wanted to make sure she stayed put so he could work through what she’d told him.

The condom must have broke.
 
Despite his words, he knew that Maddie wasn’t the kind of girl to sleep around.
 
She’d only ever been with him and he hadn’t checked the condom afterwards, he realized.
 
He’d been reeling from seeing the blood, from finding out that she’d been a virgin, that the state of the condom had been the last thing on his mind.

And the condoms.
 
Hadn’t Maddie said something about his condoms when she’d been over at his house?
 
That they would need replacing?
 
The condom he used the night they had sex had been from that box and he didn’t even remember when he’d put it in his wallet.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

Fuck.
 
This was all his fault.
 
And now, they would both pay for it.

A child.

I’m going to be a goddamn father and I can’t even get my shit together
, he thought bitterly
.

He peered down at Maddie and saw how exhausted she looked.
 
This had been more than hard on her.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
 
“We’ll get through this.
 
I promise.”

“This isn’t something you just ‘get through,’ Caleb,” she told him.
 
“This is a
child
.
 
This will change both of our lives.
 
Irrevocably.”

He ran a hand through his hair, seeing his options clearly laid out for him.
 
If his uncle was still alive, the old man would have demanded that Caleb made an honest woman out of Maddie and married her before the child was born.
 
John had always been an old-fashioned son-of-a-bitch.
 
Although marriage was a little extreme, Caleb could see the old man’s logic.
 
The thought of Maddie pregnant and alone didn’t appeal to him.
 
At all.
 
Thoughts of his own childhood, his parents, the broken family he’d come from rose into his mind, even though he’d long suppressed those memories and it made him want to vomit just thinking about it.

No, he didn’t want his child to go through what he’d gone through.

And if he was being honest with himself, Caleb wanted Maddie, and not just because he lusted after her either.
 
He’d driven himself mad these past two months, ever since she’d left him.

He made his decision in about three seconds.
 
He only had to convince Maddie that it was a good idea.

Blowing out a breath, he told her, “I bought a house in Walnut Creek last week.
 
We’ll move in over the weekend.”

Her brow lowered in confusion, “We?”

“You should end your apartment lease and give them notice you’re moving out.”

“What in the world are you talking about?”

“You’ll be moving in with me,” he informed her.

Her jaw dropped.
 
“No, I won’t be.”

Caleb just raised a brow that said,
Oh, you’re not?
 
Try me.

Maddie got flustered.
 
“Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean this changes anything between us.
 
You can be in the child’s life obviously, but we’re better off
not
together.”

“Bullshit,” he said.
 
“This changes everything, princess.”

*
   
*
   
*

He couldn’t be serious.

Maddie gaped at Caleb in complete disbelief.

“Look at you, Maddie,” he said, his gaze raking down her body.
 
“You’re not taking care of yourself.”

She felt herself flush, but she couldn’t deny his words.

“And now, I’ve just become
very
invested in your well-being.
 
And how exactly did you think you’d be able to manage this pregnancy if you couldn’t even afford car repairs?”

Maddie knew that he wasn’t being malicious, just pointing out facts.
 
It still didn’t stop her from feeling like shit.
 
And when she lowered her gaze, he cupped her cheek.

“What were you planning to do?” he asked softly.

“I’m going to stay in school,” she murmured.
 
“The baby’s due in August.
 
I’ll be on summer break by then and I can take the fall semester off if I need to.”

Caleb shook his head.
 
“I know how much school is important to you, Maddie, but you can’t get too stressed out.
 
It won’t be good for either of you.”

“You can’t tell me whether I’ll stay in school or not, Caleb,” she snapped.
 
“I’ve already made
my
decision.”

He stared down at her, assessing.
 
His thumb swiped her cheek and he got a strange look on his face.
 
“And I’ve made mine.”

She frowned.
 
“I’m
not
moving in with you.”

“Think what you want,” he said, the picture of confidence.
 
“But I guarantee that you will be.
 
If you want to stay in school, fine.
 
But you won’t be working on campus anymore, you won’t be throwing away money on your apartment lease, and you’ll be living with me so I can keep an eye on you and the baby.”

“I will no—”

“Have you eaten today?” he asked, eyebrow quirking.

“I…”
 
No, she hadn’t.
 
Her stomach had been in knots all morning just thinking about coming to tell Caleb that she was pregnant.
 
Food had never even crossed her mind.

“That’s what I thought,” he said, temper rising.
 
“It’s past
four fucking o’clock
, Maddie, and you haven’t eaten anything!”

“I didn’t know how you’d react,” she mumbled.
 
“And I was in classes this afternoon.”

“This is exactly what I’m talking about.
 
Jesus.”
 
His lips pinched down into a scowl.
 
“Let’s go.”

“Go where?”

“To go get food in you.
 
And lots of it.”
 
He pulled both of them away from the door so he could open it and Maddie knew better than to argue with him when he was in this kind of mood.
 
Maddie had gone through a lot of different scenarios in her head when she imagined telling Caleb the news.
 
But one of them had not been that he’d be pissed over her health and demanding that she move in with him.
 
Out of all the things he could’ve done—from yelling at her, to denying that the baby was his, to simply walking out of the office—this caught her off guard…this overly attentive Caleb.

Maddie trailed after him as they went down the stairs, passing Caleb’s employees and a confused looking Brian.
 
Peter was just entering the garage as they were exiting and he looked at Maddie in surprise, then at Caleb.

“I won’t be home tonight,” Caleb told him.
 
“Make sure you set the alarm before you go to bed.”

Peter only nodded and watched as they trailed past him towards Caleb’s SUV.
 
Maddie could feel everyone’s gaze on them as they walked across the parking lot and climbed into the car.

“What was that about?” she asked him quietly when they drove out of the lot.

“I found him sleeping in a closet about a month ago,” he said, still sounding a little pissed.
 
“And then I found out that his son-of-a-bitch father has been beating him where no one could see for the past
year
.
 
Needless to say, he’s been staying with me.”

Her heart both softened towards Caleb and went out to Peter.
 
“Oh my God.
 
Is he okay?”

“He’s fine now.
 
His parents haven’t come looking for him yet.”

“You think they will?”

He cut a look over to her at a red light.
 
“I don’t know.
 
They don’t seem to give a shit as far as I can tell.”

Maddie held his eyes until the light turned green and then he was speeding towards the freeway, hand clenched on the wheel.
 
She didn’t know what made her do it, but she reached over to clasp his hand.
 
“You did the right thing, Caleb.”

“Did I?
 
Because he’s been enduring that for a year and no one did anything about it.”

“How could you have known unless he told you?” she argued.

“He told me he had problems at home.”

“Anyone could see that he did,” she said.
 
“But who could have known they were that bad?”

“The signs were there,” Caleb insisted.

“Don’t blame yourself for what happened to him.
 
It wasn’t your fault.
 
And now, you’re doing the best you can to help him.
 
It can’t be easy taking in a teenager.”

“He’s a good kid.
 
He’ll be moving in with us,” he said, like he was distracted, and then his eyes strayed to the speedometer and he cursed, letting off the gas when he saw he was going almost 90 miles per hour.
 
“Jesus, you’re fucking pregnant,” he murmured to himself.
 
“I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing anymore.
 
Fuck!”

“Caleb, it’s okay,” she said, trying to calm him down.
 
The news was finally hitting him.
 
And it was hitting him
hard
.
 
He was beginning to fully realize the extent of their situation.

His hands were shaking when he pulled off at the next exit and into an empty parking lot close to the freeway.
 
And when he stumbled out of the car for fresh air, Maddie watched him helplessly as he paced back and forth near the hood, hands raking through his hair.
 
It was cold out, but Caleb only had on a thin cotton t-shirt.

She unbuckled her belt and got out of the car, wrapping her arms around herself and slowly approaching him.

“Caleb,” she said softly.

“Get back in the car,” he grated, not pausing in his pacing.

“Caleb, come on,” she said, shivering.
 
“Let’s go.”

“I said get back in the goddamn car!”

Maddie liked to think that she had pretty good intuition when it came to Caleb.
 
She knew when to back off and when to push.
 
And right now was a time to push.
 
He wasn’t angry at her.
 
He was angry at their situation, as expected, and she knew that he blamed himself, that he somehow thought this was his fault.
 
He was probably a little scared, like her, and when he was scared, he lashed out.

So, Maddie went right up to him and put her arms around him.
 
He stiffened in her embrace for a moment, but then blew out a breath and crushed her to him.

“Why don’t you ever do what I tell you?” he rasped in her ear.

“Because I think you like to be kept on your toes,” she responded, echoing words that he had once told her.

His gaze told her that he remembered those words well and Maddie’s breath caught in her throat at the expression on his face.
 
If she ever thought that he hadn’t had feelings for her, all those doubts could be completely erased in that moment.

“Fuck, I missed you, princess,” he murmured, threading a hand through her hair.

Even though she knew that she shouldn’t say it, she found the words slipping from her mouth.
 
“I missed you too.”

And then his mouth was on hers and they were kissing like mad.
 
It was the most intimate, intense, vulnerable thing she’d ever experienced, even more so than being tied naked to a desk.
 
She started crying halfway through, but it didn’t stop them.
 
All their fears, frustrations, and hurt came out in that kiss until nothing was left of either of them but their feelings for one another.
 
Completely exposed.

When Maddie finally broke away, she wasn’t cold anymore and Caleb’s skin was unbearably warm.

“This keeps happening,” she whispered, pressing her forehead into his chest.
 
“Why do I keep letting this happen?”

“Why fight it?” he whispered in her ear, pressing a kiss just below it before inhaling her scent.
 
“I’m done fighting it.”