KIERAN’S POV
Celeste’s words clung to me, long after I hung up, like a stain I couldn’t scrub out.
‘We’ll finally officially get engaged.’ ‘I want children—several.’
She’d rattled them all with such bright certainty, as if my agreement were already carved into stone.
And I’d said what Celeste wanted to hear just to get her off the line.
But the moment I’d hung up, I found myself pacing the narrow stretch of deck outside the cabins, restless, the briny wind doing little to cool the uncomfortable heat pressing down on me.
I didn’t understand why I was feeling this way.
Marriage, children—they were all things I wanted with Celeste, so why did the thought make me consider getting seasick medication of my own?
Not because I didn’t want more children. Gods, I wanted them—a bigger family, a home alive with laughter. But…
I couldn’t understand why the image of Celeste swollen with my child felt…wrong. Foreign. Hollow.
I ran a hand through my hair, letting out a frustrated curse.
