He paused, and she wondered if he was going to open up to her the way she just had with him. After all, it was a safe subject. But he didn’t reply. “Michael, if you don’t—”
“Minneapolis,” he said, opening a drawer on the outside of the fridge and grabbing a beer. “I went to Minneapolis.”
“And what did you do there? I mean, you were only sixteen.”
“I was old enough to take care of myself.” He popped the top of the beer and took a swallow. “I used the skills your father taught me. You know, even though he worked on video games, the things he showed me opened my mind to what was possible. And opened doors for me in ways I couldn’t have imagined.” He paused to take another swallow of beer. “That’s why I owe him.”
She had to ask. “And why do you owe me?”
“Let’s just say that you were my guardian angel, Bella.”
Lord, she didn’t want to be his angel. “Look, Michael, you don’t owe either one of us anything. We both did what we did because we cared about you. Not because we were looking for a payoff later on.”
“Everyone wants a payoff.”
She shook her head. “You don’t believe that.”
“Yes, I do.” He opened the fridge and started rifling through it. “Whether the payoff is emotional, physical or monetary, everybody expects one.”
“Maybe that’s true of some people, but…” Her words trailed off as the dull pain in her back suddenly shot down her hips. She sucked in a breath of air and let it out slowly as the pain eased. What she really needed to do was finish her sandwich and go take that bath.
“Well, you’ve done enough for me,” she said finally. “And as soon as this storm clears, we’ll call it even, all right?”
“We’ll see.”
She rolled her eyes as she scooped up her sandwich. “Michael, I swear if you say that one more time…”
Something was happening. It wasn’t just eight-month pangs or Braxton Hicks contractions. Firecrackers were erupting in her abdomen, shooting what felt like shards of broken cut glass to every corner of her body. Her sandwich fell to the floor as she leaned over, gripping her belly as another spear of pain drove down her spine, through her hips and circled her belly.
Michael was at her side in seconds. “What’s wrong? What is it?”
“I need to go—” She gasped.
“Where do you need to go? Back to bed?”
She shook her head. “No. To the hospital. I need to go to the hospital.” She glanced up at him, her breath catching in her throat as she felt the pain rising again like a gigantic wave set to crash. “The baby’s coming.”
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