Catching Preeya (Paradise South Book 3) (25 page)

And apparently Gigi had Rod,
the
father
.

While Preeya had goddamn
no
one
.

Don’t you dare say it, Preeya. Don’t say it out loud and make Gigi feel horrible—as horrible as you feel.
She locked her jaw down tight to abide by her inner instruction.

“Did you hear me, Preeya?”

Deer in the headlights.

“I said that your dad won’t let you or your child go without.”

She didn’t need anyone for the money. Well, except for school, but she’d already set it up to pay her dad back. No, going with her plan—
busting ass
in school, then residency, then practice—she’d support herself…and this
potential
baby.
Money’s not the missing piece
here.

Ben
is.

“…so do you get that your
grand
plan
has got to fit a baby now?” Gigi asked, sitting her down at a sitting area they’d come to—across from a fucking maternity outlet.

Preeya sat but pulled her hand back.

No more discussion. No more wasting time.

And no more fucking advice from someone who…who had
Rod
and ultra
baby-joy
and who had no earthly goddamn idea what Preeya was about to be up against.

Eyes on the ground, Preeya licked her lips—dry and cracking, she just realized, from her ongoing
puke-fest
. “I need to sign up for my goddamn classes, Gigi.” She stood up and stormed off toward the parking garage, leaving Gigi to explore the goddamn Maternity Warehouse.

Or her best friend would sit there on the hard mall bench in sheer shock, crying—but Preeya wouldn’t know because she refused to look back over her shoulder.

CHAPTER 36

F
ootsteps and heavy
breathing echoed against the dark cement of the parking garage.

“Hormones are already going crazy, Pree. I
get
the roller coaster of emotions,” Gigi said through gasping breath as she caught up to her in the B2 section.

Hormones.
“Not in the fucking mood, Gigi.”
Now where the hell is
B4?

Gigi picked up her pace to keep up. “No more swearing, Pree.” Practically panting now. “The embryo can hear and
feel
that energy.”

Ignoring Gigi, now…and searching for B4.
Ah,
B3…now where’s
B4?

“Seriously, Pree. Stop, already, would you?”

Preeya stopped and spun on her heels. “What, Gigi. What!”

Gigi’s eyes glistened with impending tears—and mean as it was, her dear friend’s loss for words felt like heaven.

Preeya sighed and shook her head. “Sorry, Geej, but…I’ve just…got to go.”

Gigi snatched Preeya’s car keys. “I’m driving you, then.”

Her best friend took the
huff-away
-
in-ludicrous
-anger baton, hit the keyless remote to find Preeya’s car, and marched to it in the next row.

*

On the way to campus Preeya scanned each street corner for a drugstore and stayed
atomic-silent
as Gigi drove and talked. And talked and
squeed
.

That irritating goddamn enthusiasm.

Preeya rolled her eyes.

This is so like us.
Either she or Gigi could be scorching pissed—at each other or at the universe, whether justified or not—while the other hit
fast-forward
to the point
after
making up. It’s what happens when unconditional love glues two people together. For them, making up was a given—actually, the only
given
either of them could ever count on. So, per their routine, Gigi rambled on and on despite Preeya’s underlying fit of jealous rage, however unwarranted.

Because, damn it, she should’ve been happy for Gigi.
Happy
that Gigi was happy.

Opposite of her dismay. And terror. But the involuntary fury that flooded her brain sent her mind flying
light-years
to nowhere.

Because this was too much all at once.

Her hand glided over her belly and tears welled then plummeted down her cheeks. She’d pushed him away. The one good thing in her life—finally, a really good thing—and she shoved him off. To Central fucking Mexico.

Fists clenched, knuckles white, she felt insane. Paralyzed. Her heartbeat pulsed everywhere, pummeling her from the inside out. She had to shelve the jumble—
Ben, baby, lost, found, alone
—because there wasn’t a thing she could do to find him and fix this, other than what she’d already done. A sharp heat hit her right temple and began to spread across her skull.

Focus and shove it down fast, Preeya.

But she couldn’t. Gigi wouldn’t shush for her to
focus
and
shove
. Baby plans and nutritionists and special yoga classes, all the way to cribs and playgroups. And the new head pain shooting across her forehead.

“Gigi, stop! Just stop talking, please. First I need to get through this day.”
And maybe be sure that I am carrying my
ex-lover
’s child.
“My plans. I just need to focus on my—there. Pull in there.” A
big-box
drugstore.

Her seat belt hadn’t fully recoiled before her feet hit the pavement. “Be right back.”

“You know I’m right,” Gigi called before she’d reached the entrance.

Yeah, I know you
are.

*

Gigi knew, yes, but she cried anyway when Preeya came out with the pink plus sign showing.

Preeya sighed, swallowed, then gave Gigi the slightest of smiles. Then through brimming tears and nervous tremors running up her neck, she cleared her throat to hear herself say the words out loud. “It’s a fact.”

The reality had nearly settled in her palpitating chest from the drug store women’s room to the register to the car. She was having a little baby girl or boy. Yeah, it nearly, almost,
not-at
-
all-in
-
her-wildest
-surreality had settled in. That she would have two heartbeats within her soon or already…unreal.

Gigi reached over the console and pulled Preeya into her. “Whatever happens, Pree, you will not be alone in this. I am here for you every ‘baby step’ of the way.”

“Until you’re a balloon like me…and in labor like me, and sleepless and raw nippled—”

“
Like you
. Yes, but Rod will help—” Preeya could feel Gigi’s breath hitch through their embrace. Her friend’s guilt hit her like static electricity.

“It’s okay, Geej, really. I’m weirdly…not scared to be alone in this now. Somehow, I know it will work out. Before the baby comes, I’ll get through a solid eight months of school. Added to the year I’d already finished, I’ll only be, what, a quarter of the way through?” She broke down laughing, just from the ridiculousness of it. “Hey, I can leave Baby Nameless with you and your little psychic wonder through my entire residency, right?” She winked.

“Yes! I wouldn’t have it any other way. Our girls are going to be sisters.”

“Girls? Gigi Donlow, please don’t tell me you just told me the sex of my child.”

“No, no. It hasn’t been decided yet.”

“Geej, you
will not
be telling me the sex of my child. I want to be surprised. When you know, you promise me you won’t?”

“Sure. Of course. I’m just being
hopeful
that they’re both girls, is all,” Gigi said, crossing her heart and smiling. “I won’t tell you the sex of yours
or mine
.” She hugged Preeya with all her might.

“Listen,” Preeya said in Gigi’s ear, still stuck in their tight embrace, “I know you’re here for me as much as you can be, and I am for you too…I love you, Geej, and your little peanut.”

“Oooh, our little peanuts.” Gigi giggled.

“Yeah, our babies.” Preeya pulled away and looked down at her belly, at the mystery growing inside. She shook her head. How unbelievably crazy. And amazing.

Amazingly scary, yet thrilling.

God, she wanted Ben to be with her now to feel the thrill and craziness of it all
.
“Gigi…while I don’t need Ben here, in this, with me, with us…I really just…want him. I want him in my life, with our child. That…that would just fit. He made me so happy, fulfilled. Want to be better, you know?”

“Preeya, let’s find him, then. Let’s find Doctor Ben…Ben what?”

“Trainer. Dr. Benjamin Trainer.”

“Heck yeah, let’s find Doctor Benjamin Trainer.” Eyebrow waggle. “Good name…sexy and solid.”

Preeya smirked. Yes, sexy and solid.
And sorely
missed.

CHAPTER 37

R
egistration was a
process, and when Preeya finished the papers and lines and all, she was exhausted.

“Home to rest?” Gigi looked tired, too.

Preeya looked at her new working watch.
Two fifty.
“Yes, that sounds—
shit
.” Sudden panic pressed on her chest. “Evan!”

“Preeya…language.”

“Sorry, Geej, not gonna happen today.” Silence. Then a sigh. “
Any
way, I’d forgotten that after registration, I’m meeting Evan for coffee. Three p.m.”

Gigi gave her a sideways glance. “Evan, huh? Why exactly would you ever want to meet Tight Ass for anything…ever?” Again, Gigi’d never loved Evan, and now they were stuck in one car too far from the mall, with the 405’s bridge traffic preventing Gigi’s escape.

And while Preeya still wanted to make things right with Evan, shed her guilt—and no, she wouldn’t, couldn’t stand him up—she wanted nothing more than to go home, crawl up in a ball, and sleep away the tumult of her day, or her life. Even the hunt for Ben, Gigi’s new mission, felt heavy and draining to her. Just thinking about the unknowns, the danger Ben faced, and then the possible, probable rejection she’d face if they did get a hold of him. Shivers shuddered through her and she blinked to reset. “Just tying up loose ends, Geej. That’s all. Putting it to bed so Evan can move on.”

“First off, I never again want to hear the words
bed
and
Evan
come out of your mouth within a minute of each other. I’m pregnant, Pree, and I don’t need the stress.”

Preeya just shook her head.

“Second…
grrr
…fine, we’ll do this. I’ll just…read…at my own private table.” Gigi gave her a crooked,
half-assed
smile. “You so owe me.” Gigi grabbed a stick of gum from her purse while the light was still red. “I mean, between Josh and Evan, your gamut of assholes is baffling.”

Preeya glared at her then laughed. But her laugh was a hollow one. After all those “assholes,” she’d finally found her partner in crime, in life—her
just-right
, brutally honest, sharply intelligent, wholly humble and humbly sensual and loving match.

All she had left of him was a tiny remnant of
them
glowing and growing inside her.

Ben Trainer, damn it… Come back to me.
To
us.

CHAPTER 38

E
ven with Gigi
driving as slow as a damn grandmother—“We’ve got the babies to think about now,” she’d said—they got to the Ave. at 2:59 p.m.

She texted Evan—
Just parking
—and anxiously scanned up and down the street for vacant spots.

“Relax, Pree.”

“I just don’t want to be late.”

“He knows you’re always—”

“Not anymore, Geej. I’m not like that anymore.” She gave her best friend a stern, almost too stern, stare. She had changed. Evan seeing that would confirm it for her.

He was early as usual, coffee already in hand at their table in the far back corner where the aroma of the grinders was strongest. Handsome to a fault—a familiar flash of heat welled below her belly—he stood up and waved to her.
Well-built
and
clean-cut
in his sexy rimmed glasses, she wanted to spin around and leave.

No.
“Hey, Ev.”

“You look amazing. Glowing, almost. And punctual?” He tucked his chin to look over those sexy frames and, once sure Preeya wasn’t an imposter, he winked with condescending approval. “Impressive, Pree.” He kissed her cheek then pulled her chair out. “Really impressive.”

“Oh, thanks. Um…” Gigi had conveniently hidden behind her so she reached and took her arm to pull her forward. “You remember Gigi?”

“How could I forget? Hello, Gigi,” he said with an unconvincing smile then kissed her on the cheek as well. They’d always kept a healthy arm’
s-length
distance from each other during Preeya and Evan’s
short-lived
stint. He was a reporter, a news guy, a facts man. And Preeya’s best friend, though punctual, was anything but
fact-based
and black and white.

“Good to see you, Evan. And on the anchor desk now…congrats.”

“I didn’t know you
watch
the news, Gigi,” he said as polite as his sarcasm would allow.

Gigi hunted for a smile, gave Preeya a nod, then spun around, making her way to a table on the other side of the coffee house. “Come and get me when you’re ready,” she called to Preeya over her shoulder.

“So…” his deep voice hummed new confidence as he sat down across from her.

“So?” She smiled then flicked her eyes down at the table.

“Our old table…weird, right?”

An awkward chuckle and nod filled the next beat.

“Shoot, how rude. Can I get you a latte? No, you’re a
grande-mocha
girl, right?”

“Right, but, um, not today. Already pretty strung out. Registered for classes.”

“Classes? Wow, Pree. I mean, who is this newly ambitious and
put-together
woman?”

Patronizing much?
She found her fakest FA fake smile because, wow, she’d forgotten, or maybe hadn’t even realized, how condensing to her he was. And always had been. “I guess, you know, my gut was right on, Ev. We both needed to fly our separate ways in order to ‘spread our wings’.”

Evan’s look of shock sent a slight thrill through her—but she was there to tie up loose ends, to help him move on. Nothing more
.

She sighed and shook her head. “Listen, Ev, it’s been a…day.” She puffed a laugh,
such an understatement
. “I have some explaining to do, you know, with how I left things. You deserve—”

“Don’t, Pree. No need. Water under the bridge. Seriously, no hard feelings.” He slid his hand across the small, round table and took her hand. “I want good things for you, Pree. All good things. Always.”

While he stroked and played with her fingers, she felt a tinge of nausea rise up in her gut. Was it repulsion or was it the few cells of baby—or both? Whichever, the thought of fleeing the table, The Bohemian Coffee House, the city of Seattle, all sounded like
good
things.

“Preeya, did I lose you?”

“Sorry.” She snickered. “What were you saying?”

“No, I was just saying that I grew a pair and landed the position. But it was you who influenced me to do it. You gave me the
wake-up
call, you know? And the motivation. I realized that to become the man you need, I had to rise.”

“Oh?” She cleared her throat then swallowed. “Hey, uh, I think I will grab a drink, maybe just a water?” She started to stand up. “Can I get you another—”

“Nothing for me, thanks.” He patted his trim waistline. “The camera adds enough, you know? But, hey, let me grab the water for you.”

She nodded because the queasiness had become more real. “Thanks. Room temperature if they have it please.”

He smiled and left her there.

Alone for the moment, she let her mouth relax into a neutral line. This was harder than she thought. But more confirmation of her extremely right call in ending things with Evan Chambers.

She startled when a warm, moist hand gripped her shoulder and squeezed, then a bottle of spring water lowered down in front of her.

She relaxed her jaw. “Thanks, Evan,” she said, shifting in her seat from the awkward vibe. She opened the water and pounded it fast. His eyes widened with every loud gulp.

“Like I said, it’s been a day…or
twenty-five
.” She smiled and puffed a light laugh without meeting his
too-intense
,
too-close
-
to-seductive
gaze.

“When did you get in?”

“Yesterday, so I am all out of sorts.”

“From where this time?” he asked, leaning a few inches closer, playing with her water bottle cap.

“I was in Berkeley visiting Prana and, well, my dad and his new wife…then before that, Puerto Vallarta.”

“Hope your family’s doing okay, and the new stepmother, huh?”

“Yeah…she’s a nice lady.”

He smiled at her warmly but with a suspicious look in his eyes. Probably—no, most definitely—not expecting such a neutral reaction to
anything
relating to her father. Evan had known how torrential things were with her dad and her aunt.

“Wow, you really
have
changed.” His head tilted, then he reached his hand under her chin and lifted her face to meet his. “And, as if it were possible, you’re even more gorgeous than I remember.”

Preeya rolled her eyes and sat back in her stylishly uncomfortable coffeehouse seat—putting space between her and Evan’s
not-at
-
all-subtle
advances.

“So…Vallarta? Oh, right! Amy’s wedding. You’d gotten that route special. How was it?”

Indeed,
how was it?
She didn’t know.

She told him the entire saga except for the
Ben
specifics, of course, and it turned out to be a good way to bring the interaction between her and her ex back to the necessary level of superficial.

And as she recounted her recent weeks’ adventures to Evan at their little
two-top
, something happened. She realized that Evan had always been more of a cardboard cutout of a person. And she would have become one, too, if she had stayed. No doubt in her mind. With every nod and wink and polite laugh he guffawed in his perfectly pressed collared
button-down
, there was no question in her mind. Even with the totally awkward
come-ons
, she felt good. Her chest inflated while the guilt eased out her toes. Closing this chapter the right way had been important, as much for her as it had been for Evan. If not more.

Then she actually started enjoying herself. Evan was a total character. Comical, even. His
self-importance
, his chauvinistic air and his cheesy advances started to make her laugh rather than cringe.
Weird
.

Or not. Magical Vallarta—with Ben and even after he’d left—had transformed her. Made her
truly
go with the flow. Just thinking about the person she’d found there—the more accepting,
open-minded
, braver Preeya—swelled her heart. Her nausea even faded for the most part. Yeah, her stomach settled and her tensions eased as she ran through the events of the past weeks in her mind as she chose which
real-life
movie scenes to share with Evan and which precious ones to omit. And God, were there so many—too many—scenes to omit.
Mind-blowing
,
earth-shattering
,
soul-filling
omissions—especially the fake honeymoon, the Marietas, the falls.

The
falls.

Oxygen swept in like a gust of warm sea air off the bay.
That’s where it happened.
The falls. She and Ben, together, as close as two people could be. Behind the magical cascade of purity and pleasure and perfection. That was when the moment overtook them. She stroked her middle—their baby had been created there and then. At those falls.

*

She had to cut it now, get going. Get to finding Ben. She sat up straighter.
Get to the point and go, Pree.
“I know you said water under the bridge, but still, Evan, I owe you an official apology.”

“That’s ridiculous—”

“No, I need to.” She grabbed her purse from the
chair-back
and held it on her lap in preparation to go. Because,
Ben.
He took her over—mind, body, heart, soul. “I was selfish and less than honest. I should have shared my true feelings. And you
also
deserve the best. Better than I…was. And—”

“Wait, Preeya. As far as I’m concerned, this is the
better
you. You have changed so much.” He grabbed her hand again. “I can see it. Everything about you is lighter, Pree. You are more complete, anchored. You leaving me, taking time for yourself, it seems to be
exactly
what you needed. What
we
needed. And now, maybe this is a clean slate for us? Our second chance?”