The Road to Rose Bend, Naima Simone [jenna bush book club .TXT] 📗

“I will,” Sydney promised, carefully sliding off the exam table. “Thank you and see you in two weeks.” Since she was moving into her third trimester, her visits would increase to biweekly instead of monthly. Her stomach dipped in excitement and nerves. The steadily increasing stomach size, cravings and movements made her pregnancy a fact. But moving into the third trimester? Oh, it just got real.

“Looking forward to it.” The doctor opened the door. “Let me walk you out.”

They exited the exam room, and as they passed the closed door to her father’s office, she couldn’t help but smile. He’d popped into her appointment earlier to hear the baby’s heartbeat with her. Her mother had offered to accompany her this morning, but Sydney hadn’t wanted her mother to miss work at the shop. She hadn’t opened the boutique at all the day after Sydney had shown up on their doorstep. She and her parents had spent the day together—visiting Carlin’s grave, eating lunch, playing Monopoly (her mother was a real estate shark) and then bingeing Netflix over dinner. It’d been...amazing. And if anyone had told her when she’d crossed Rose Bend’s town limits weeks ago that she would be close with her parents again, she would’ve ordered them to stop smoking that stuff around her baby.

These past few days had been awesome. And yet, the empty ache in her chest hadn’t dissipated. She missed Cole; she couldn’t deny it. Not when she still rolled over in the morning, half-asleep, and reached for him only to find a cold, vacant side of the bed. Or when she worked on her book, and a plot twist popped in her head, but she couldn’t call him to share it. Or when she lay in bed at night, longing to be held against his strong body, wanting to be filled by him.

So, God, yes. She missed him. But nothing had changed between them. She still needed more from him, needed more for herself and her baby. For once, she was demanding all or nothing. Because they both deserved nothing less.

Even if she threatened to buckle under the loneliness and hurt.

“Have a great rest of your day, Sydney,” Dr. Prioleau said, opening the door that led into the lobby. A grin spread over the doctor’s face, and she glanced at Sydney. “Something tells me it will be,” she murmured.

Hmm. Enigmatic much?

Shrugging a shoulder, Sydney waved at the other woman and moved past her into the lobby. “Have a great...day...”

Shock robbed her of the rest of the words and her breath.

Cole.

His name ricocheted off her skull, booming louder and louder until she curled her fingers into fists at her thighs so she wouldn’t clap her palms over her ears.

Yearning so powerful, so damn visceral, wrenched within her. It almost propelled her forward. Toward him. But she stretched out an arm, steadying herself against the edge of the desk.

No. The word broke past the emotion fogging her mind, squeezing her chest. Obligation. Responsibility. They were so ingrained in him they should be added to his birth certificate. Duty as her husband brought him here, not love. And it wasn’t enough. She valued his friendship, but she needed someone who would take her heart and give her his.

Cole was not that man.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, proud when the question came out even if it was quiet.

He stepped toward her, and only then did she notice what her hyperfocus on him hadn’t allowed her to notice before. She gasped, feeling her eyes widen.

Mom. Moe. Leo. The whole Dennison clan. And Tonia’s parents, Valeria and Ramon. Crowded into the clinic lobby.

What were they all doing here?

“They’re here for you,” Cole said, and she winced, realizing she’d uttered her stunned thoughts aloud. “I’m here for you,” he murmured.

She shook her head. This couldn’t be happening. This smacked too close to a grand gesture that strictly belonged in romance novels and movies. Not to her. Not with...him.

But one glance around, noting the rapt faces of the reception staff and the patients in the waiting area confirmed that, yes, this was indeed happening.

“Look, Cole, I don’t know what you’re thinking or what’s going on, but—” she started, but he moved closer, halting just shy of invading her personal space. But near enough that his earthy, sensual scent drifted to her, teased her. Near enough that she glimpsed the dark brown flecks in his amber gaze. Near enough that she didn’t even have to fully extend her arm to brush her fingertips over that strong jaw, those full lips.

She swallowed hard. And shifted half a step backward.

His eyes darkened with pain at her movement, and she had to steel herself against it. Either that or she would’ve kicked her resolve out of the way to comfort him.

“I don’t deserve to ask you for a chance to hear me out, but I am. Because for once, I’m going to be brave when it comes to you.” He studied her for several long moments, and she could almost see that beautiful mind working. “From the moment I first saw you on that hill, I was changed. And I didn’t want any part of it. I’d been numb for so long that it was...comfortable for me. I liked my world just as it was—shades of gray where I could exist. But then you came along, and everything wasn’t just color but vivid, high-definition, Technicolor. You were so bright, looking at you, being around you, hurt. In the same way it does when a man has been in darkness for so long that the sun is painful. But I needed to grow, to thrive, to live again. You made me live again, Sydney.”

She stared at him, her heart a wild thing in her chest. It pounded, raced, desperate to throw itself at this man. You made me live again. But fear crept in underneath, warning her heart not to be a fool again. She’d been led by her emotions before and what had happened? She’d