Witch World Read Online Free

back together, which, in her bizarre mind, was the same thing.
    It didn’t matter. The elephant standing in the room had just quietly roared. It could no longer be ignored. Jimmy and I had to talk—soon, and alone. But I felt too nervous to say it aloud. I stood and caught his eye, and headed toward my room. Jimmy understood, he followed me and shut the door behind him.
    Before I could figure out where to sit, or what I should say, he hugged me. The gesture caught me by surprise. I didn’t hug him back, not at first, but when he didn’t let go, I found my arms creep up and around his broad shoulders. It felt so perfect to stand there and listen to his heartbeat. Yes, that word again, I could not be free of it when I was around Jimmy.
    The hug was warm but chaste; he didn’t try to kiss me. He didn’t even move his arms once he had ahold of me. Although we were standing up, we could have been lying down together, asleep in each other’s arms. I don’t know how long the hug lasted but it felt like forever . . . compressed into a moment.
    Finally, we sat on the bed together. He was holding my hands, or trying to, but I had to keep taking them back to wipe away the silly tears that kept running over my cheeks. He didn’t rush me to speak. But he never took his eyes off me, and I felt he was searching my face for the answer to a question he had carried with him a long time.
    Of course, I had my own question.
    “Why?” I said. The word startled me more than him. It felt so blunt after our tender moment. The question didn’t offend him, but he let go of me and sat back on the bed, propping himself up with a pillow.
    “Do you remember the day we drove to Newport Beach?” he asked.
    “Yes.” It had been during Christmas break, a few days before the holiday. I wasn’t likely to forget because it was to turn out to be the worst Christmas of my life. He dumped me December 22. Then I hadn’t known what to do with the presents I had bought, or the ones I had made for him. In the end, I hadn’t done anything. I still had them in my bedroom closet. They were still wrapped.
    “When we got back to Apple Valley, Kari was waiting at my house.” Jimmy paused. “She said she was ten weeks pregnant.”
    I froze. “We were together ten weeks.”
    Jimmy held up a hand. “I never slept with her once I was with you. I never even kissed her.”
    “I believe you.” And I did—he didn’t have to swear. Jimmy was incredibly rare; he didn’t lie. I added, “Did you believe her?”
    “She had an ultrasound with her.”
    “That doesn’t mean it was yours.”
    “Jessie . . .”
    “Saying, ‘I’m pregnant, Jimmy, you have to come back to me.’ That’s like the oldest trick in the book.”
    “I know that. I know Kari’s not always a hundred percentstraight. But I just had to look in her eyes. She was telling the truth.”
    I crossed my arms over my chest. “I don’t know.”
    “And she was showing a little bit.”
    “At ten weeks?” I asked.
    “It might have been twelve.”
    “And it might have been a folded-up pillowcase.”
    He hesitated. “No. She lifted her shirt. It was for real.”
    “And she wanted to keep it.”
    “Yes. That wasn’t an issue.”
    “She wanted you back. That was the issue.”
    He lowered his head. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
    It was a lot to digest. It was a minute before I could speak.
    “You should have told me,” I said.
    “I’m sorry. I wanted to, but I felt it would hurt you more to know she was having my baby.”
    I shook my head. “You’ve been good so far, real good, but that, what you just said, is nuts. Nothing could hurt worse than that call I got. Do you remember it? ‘Hello, Jessie, how are you doing? Good? That’s good. Hey, I’ve got some bad news. I don’t know exactly how to tell you this. But Kari and I are getting back together. I know this is sort of sudden, and the last thing I want to do is hurt you, but Kari and I . . . we’re not done yet. We