Chapter 78: WHY SO SENSITIVE

LAURA

Is he mine?

Blood rushed into my ears as the words clashed against my auditory nerves.

My chest tightened and my vision swam.

Fuck.

I’d pictured this exact moment so much that I should have been prepared enough for whenever it played out.

Yet...Tristan had ruined it with the suddenness and seriousness he’d just displayed.

And I was tongue-tied, dumbfounded, tickled in the worst way possible.

I mean...whatever gave him the idea in that thick head of his, that Eli could be his?

Suspicion instantly flared in my chest. Dread flowed right alongside it. Does he know something? Did he go around asking questions? Who could have told him?

"Laura.." he took a step towards me, and I backed away with Eli, pushing my son behind me. "What do you mean?"

Thunder cracked in the skies above us, like the celestials could tell what a horrible evening this was about to be.

My plan had always been to lie so easily if this moment ever happened, but now...I struggled with my words.

"I’ve just been thinking about it, Laura." He shook his head, looking as agitated as I felt deep within me. "That night...we never used condoms, and I foolishly assumed you were on the pill." Guilt flashed in his eyes as they burned into me, darkening. "I couldn’t ask because of how much I desperately wanted you—"

"Enough, Tristan," I snapped, lips trembling. His eyes moved down to Eli who was poking his head out behind us, and I shoved my son’s head to my side. "Don’t kid yourself, okay? Eli is my son, and his age is of no business with you."

A cynical voice barked inside me, the impossibility of conceiving a child all by myself.

But I pushed it away.

"So why is it so hard to tell me, then?"

The skies cracked again, this time harder, a warning to us both.

Tristan glanced up after a moment, shoving his fingers through his hair. "You know what? We can talk about this in the car. Get in, I’ll give you a ride home."

I grabbed Eli’s wrist in mine and fixed Tristan with a defiant glare. "We are not getting in your car."

As I began to storm away, Tristan grabbed onto my arm and stopped me. I whirled on him, anger flaring inside me. "What is wrong with you?"

"Get in, Laura. Don’t be so stubborn. It’s about to rain."

He was right. And I hated that he was.

Soon enough, the skies would open—with the amount of warning it’d given already—and rain would begin to pour. It looked like it was going to pour in torrents, and no doubt, Eli and I would be caught in it.

Would a single ride with this man hurt?

I glanced up and down the streets. Parents who didn’t have cars were hurrying into the available cabs with their kids.

Everyone had this sense of urgency which I seemed to be lacking.

"If you don’t want it that much, you can do it for your son." His eyes flicked to Eli one more time—who still watched him with curiosity, which made me wonder if he could understand what was going on.

"I’d hate for the handsome little lad to get caught in the rain," Tristan added with a wry smile. And as for me...the last thing I wanted was for my son to catch a cold and get sick.

Then he turned to his car and pulled open the backseat door without waiting for my response. Lightning struck and sent shivers running through my spine.

It got my legs moving quickly, shoving Eli towards the backseat. As I moved to get in after him, Tristan caught my arm. "He needs to lie down. You stay in the front with me."

I glared at him. Eli did not necessarily need to lie down, but I also wanted to stay in the front with Eli. Even though I knew we might have to talk about what I’d been avoiding...what I was nowhere near ready to talk about...something I wasn’t sure I was ever going to talk about.

As I settled into the passenger seat and he got in the driver’s seat, I took a deep breath with my eyes shut, reminding myself to keep my head above the temptation and hormones that would be swimming within me in the next 20-30 minutes.

An idea struck me as soon as he ignited the engine.

There may be a way to avoid the uncomfortable conversation, after all.

Without having to think twice about it, my arm darted out and reached for the music player. I turned it off and tuned to a radio channel that played R&B.

Camillo’s Havana blasted through the speaker, and Tristan quickly turned down the volume, shooting me a look of half-amusement and half-suspicion.

"We don’t have to talk if you don’t want to," he murmured.

"Really? That’s better." I folded my arms across my chest and looked out the window for the rest of the ride.

Thankfully, Tristan kept to his word and did not say a word to me. He just kept asking Eli every now and then; "you okay there, buddy?"

And Eli always answered with excitement, "yeah!"

I kept rolling my eyes at the exchange, my chest tightening, until we arrived at my apartment and Eli had already dozed off.

The car was silent for a moment, after Tristan turned off the engine. Except the little drops of rain that had begun to hit the roof of the car.

Then I turned to him. "Thank you for the ride."

He looked at me, then nodded. "Anytime."

I rolled my eyes and got out of the car. Did he have to say, ’anytime’ ? Why couldn’t he just say ’you’re welcome’ and be done with it?

I was struggling with pulling Eli up and also handling my bags, when Tristan poked his head in and said, "I can help with one, if you like."

Without a word—and too tired to speak anyway—I shoved my bags at him and lifted Eli with ease.

He looked at the bags for a moment, with a wry smile on his lips. Maybe he was getting the hint that I wouldn’t let him put a hand on my son.

Then he followed me up the front stairs to the front glass doors.

I paused at the door and turned to him. "You can leave the bags here. Thank you, once again."

He tilted his head, eyes crinkling at the corners, even though the blue irises were dark as the storm that was brewing. "If you insist." His eyes strayed to the mop of Eli’s dark hair. "Let me just ask one thing." He wasn’t asking for permission. Not with his eyes, not with his words. "Why are you so sensitive about your kid?"

I stared up at him with a racing heart, trying to appear as calm and collected as possible. I couldn’t let him see how affected I was by the situation.

"Because Eli is mine, and I owe you no explanation."

He stared at me for a long moment, then he said, "We leave for Milan in two days."