3 Seconds (Time for Love Book 6) by Bethany Lopez Page B

sister-in-law’s voice came out of thin air.
    “ Sasha ,”
Victoria admonished as she walked by, catching Sasha’s question to
her husband. “There are children present.”
    Sasha just
rolled her eyes good-naturedly and tossed her brilliant red locks
over her shoulder.
    “Please, Tori,
these kids can barely make gurgling noises, let alone understand
what I’m saying.”
    Victoria
conceded, but had still shot us all a warning look as she continued
on past us.
    “Yeah, everyone
was really nice,” Bronagh answered, pulling me back to the present.
She seemed off; in fact, had been very quiet most of the
evening.
    “Is everything
okay?” I asked, concerned. “Did someone say something that upset
you? Was it Abby?”
    “No, everyone
was great. I’m glad I had a chance to meet them.”
    “Then what is
it?” I asked, my throat closing nervously when she indicated that I
should sit on the couch, while she sat in the chair across from
me.
    “We need to
talk.”
    Now, I may not
have been in a relationship before, but I’d seen tons of movies,
and I knew it was never a good thing when your girlfriend said she
needed to talk. I began to rack my brain to try and figure out what
could have upset her, so I could come up with a rebuttal and stop
the fight before it started.
    “Okay,” I
managed, my mind spinning, but unable to come up with any reason
why she’d be angry with me.
    “You said you
didn’t want children…” she said, more like a prompt than a
question.
    “Ah, yeah,
that’s right,” I replied, still unsure of why that would cause a
problem.
    “Why not?” she
asked, pushing her hair off of her face and leaning in, like she
needed to read my every movement when I answered. “Is it the job?
The music? Do you just not want kids now … or ever ?”
    Sensing the
importance of my answer, I laid it all out.
    “I never really
thought about it growing up, having kids and becoming a dad, but
when I got older, I realized it wasn’t something that I wanted to
do. To bring kids into this world, and then possibly leave them the
way my parents did … Like I said before, I’ve been without my
parents almost as long as I was with them. I don’t remember
anything about the first five years of my life anyway. I barely
remember the nine years after that. I remember my mom taking me to
soccer practice, and that my dad used to love to try and make her
laugh, but that’s about it. I can’t remember what they look like,
or how being with them made me feel … All I have are a few
pictures, and my brothers.”
    “So, you’re
saying you don’t want to have kids because you might die and leave
them?” Bronagh asked, and I don’t know if she tried to come off as
condescending, but that’s how I took it.
    “It may not
sound rational to you, but that’s how I feel. I don’t want to do to
a kid what was done to Brock. He had his whole life ahead of him,
and everything changed in an instant. That’s a lot of pressure for
a kid.”
    “But the
chances of that happening…”
    “Yeah, I know,
I get it. It’s slim, but there are enough kids out there, that
whether or not I have any doesn’t really tip the scales. I’m happy
to be an uncle, and to live my life without children of my
own.”
    Bronagh had her
head down, and when she lifted it, the look on her face caused my
heart to stutter.
    “Well, I’m
not.”
    “What are you
saying?” I asked, suddenly terrified of her answer.
    “I’ve always wanted kids, but I wanted to be established and have
a career first, so I focused on that. When I got married, I thought
we’d start a family right away, but he was always career-minded and
wanted to wait. When he eventually wanted to start, I was having
doubts about our marriage, and didn’t want to bring children in to
a shaky relationship … Then we got divorced. Now, I’m thirty-five,
and I feel my opportunity slipping away. Even if I met someone and
we decided in a few years we wanted to have kids, I’d be