The Risks We Take Duet Box Set

40. Carys

CARYS

I shut my bedroom door and slide down it until I’m sitting on the floor in a sobbing heap.

I just tore his heart out and decimated mine in the process.

And I don’t know if I’ll ever recover.

I’m not sure how long I sit like that, but eventually a knock yanks me out of my desperation. “Go away,” I tell whoever is dumb enough to be bothering me right now.

“CC, I need you,” Emerson cries.

I immediately stand up and open the door to find Em on the other side, looking an awful lot like I must at the moment. “Em, what happened?”

“What happened to you?” she laughs out on a scary sob, then drops down on my bed and wipes her tears. “You wanna go first?”

I shake my head. “Nope. Your turn.” I sit down next to Em, then lie back to mirror her.

She turns her head to the side, close enough that I can smell the minty mouthwash on her breath. “I’m pregnant.”

“What?” Nothing else comes to me. No words of comfort. Just complete shock.

She nods. “We found out this morning. I’ve missed my last two periods, so Linc ran out and got me a test today. He actually bought several of them. And they all said the same damn thing. Two pink lines or one pink word— Pregnant .” She sits up and smacks the bed. “And why the fuck are they all pink? Do they think that’s a soothing color? Seriously? What the fuck?”

I sit up and stare at her, still shocked. “Pregnant?”

“Yeah, you’re gonna need to get past that word because it gets worse.” She grabs a scrap of green lace from my nightstand and wipes her face with it. “Linc asked me to marry him.”

“Oh, holy shit.” Yup. That’s all I got.

She nods again.

“Did you say yes?” I just blew up my relationship with the love of my life, and one of my best friends is getting to live out my dream. Karma is a fucking bitch, and so am I for thinking about myself instead of Emerson.

She blinks the tears away from her lashes. “I think I did.”

Oh wow. This just keeps getting worse. “Oh, honey. You think? What does that mean?” I hug her to me, and she leans her head against mine.

“He had all these good points. Like I’d be on his medical plan. And I could get his benefits if something happened to him. Which I yelled at him for even thinking. Like what the fuck, CC? I told him he isn’t even allowed to put that thought into the universe. I can’t handle that too.” The tears come back, followed by the snot. “I told him yes.”

Oh. My. God.

“Umm... okay. Did you mean to say yes?”

“Maybe?” She laughs. Okay. Good. Laughing, I can handle.

“Well, I think you need to decide that pretty soon, babe. That’s a big answer if you’re not sure.” I have no idea if this is good advice. What would Daphne tell me?

“I think Linc loves me more than I love him, CC. But I do love him. I mean, that’s okay, right? My mom always says she loved my dad more than he loved her, so she wasn’t surprised when he left. If he loves me more, he’ll never leave me like that.” Her navy-blue eyes are so heavy... so sad. I don’t know how to answer her.

“Em, do you want to marry him? Can you imagine your life without him in it?” And now, my first tear falls because I can’t imagine my life without Cooper in it. Not after months of having him, even if he was a country away. Sometimes more than a country... But my choice is for him. He deserves more.

“Right?”

I look at Emerson, who obviously just asked a question that I completely missed.

Shit.

“Have you made an appointment with an OB/GYN yet?”

She shakes her head, and my head spins. “Emerson, we need to make an appointment with your doctor. Until she tells you you’re pregnant, this could all be for nothing. Just a false positive.”

She holds four fingers in front of my face. “ Four false positives, CC? I’m pregnant. There’s no wishing this away. And I’m not terminating. But I’ll schedule the appointment.” She grabs her phone. “Will you come with me?”

“Anywhere you need.”

A week later, Emerson is officially pregnant, and my heart is officially broken.

Linc and she are getting married. I think it’s a mistake, but she’s a big girl, and this is her decision. They don’t want to wait to do it. Linc wants to be sure, if something happens to him, she’s protected. I kind of want to shake him.

First, for putting those thoughts into the universe.

And second, because she’s the daughter of one of the biggest rock stars of all time.

She’s protected.

But she’s also happy. And that’s all I want for my friend. Especially since I don’t know if I’ll ever have what she has.

I haven’t heard from Cooper, which is what I wanted. Even if ending things was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And it was. It is. I don’t know that it’ll ever stop being hard.

But here I sit at the kitchen table, going over all the last-minute things we still need to do for Emerson’s wedding tomorrow at the house. Her dad is on tour, and her mom is on a twenty-five-year-old, according to Jack. So Em just wants to do something small here and have a party afterward.

Emerson throws her arms around my neck and chokes back a cry as Linc, Jack, and Theo look around uncomfortably. Em has turned into quite the crier over the past few days. But better her than me.

“Thank you so much for everything, CC. I love you.”

I pat her back and look around at the guys. “We’ve got this, Em. You’re going to be a beautiful bride, and it’s going to be a perfect day.”