Tears filled her eyes. “I made a baby.” Her blue gaze lifted to mine. “With you.”

I stared at her. Confused. “What?”

“That night, I got pregnant.”

I hopped up as if the rock was made of lava. Walked away, then spun around and came back. “You… we… what?”

She cried now, but I couldn’t go to her. Not yet. I didn’t understand.

“I found out I was pregnant after I moved into the dorm. But I miscarried a few weeks later.”

The feeling… fuck. There was a piece of me I didn’t even know I had inside that revealed itself now. It hurt. Throbbed. Ached.

I went to her, dropped down onto the grass in front of her feet. “Baby girl. Oh God.” I ran a hand over my face. She’d been pregnant. Alone. Lost the baby. And me. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

I pulled her into my arms so she was in my lap. I held her tight as she cried, as I mourned the loss of a baby I’d never even known we’d made. Then it all became clear.

“Claire would be the same age.”

She nodded against my chest, wiped her nose on my shirt.

“You saw Claire and not only thought I’d been with someone else, but that she could have been ours.”

I held her then, giving her the comfort she’d needed from me all those years ago. The summer breeze blew past us, the sound of it rustling the tall grass. What she’d endured and lost was so much greater than I’d imagined. I ached for the child we’d made and would never know. I remembered seeing Claire for the first time. Her bald little head, the tiny fingers. I’d thought I’d made her then. Only an hour later I’d learned the truth. I hadn’t cared. I couldn’t change that she’d become mine the instant I laid eyes on her.

But Sarah had carried the baby inside her. Loved it before she even knew what it was. Because we’d made it that night. Together.

“I wore a condom, but obviously that had failed. But I’m glad.”

“That the baby died?” she asked, tipping her head up to give me her confused eyes.

“That we made something that was a part of both of us. Our baby was loved, baby girl.”

Tears lodged in my throat. I’d had a child, and I hadn’t even known it. The loss was sinking in. I kissed her, wanting to be as close to her as possible. To let her feel me, know I was holding her. That we were meant to be, that I craved her. Not just her body but her heart. The child she’d carried for us. I, too, was grieving the loss of what could have been. The child we’d lost.

“I loved you,” I told her, dotting my lips across her brow. “Then. I love you now. Nothing can replace the baby we lost. Not Claire, not any baby we make. But I promise I’ll be with you from now on. Nothing will keep us apart.”