“If you can’t get emotionally attached and are going to need to bail, you need to tell me now, because if you walk out on our kid and fuck up their life like my mom did to me and Link, I swear I will hunt you down and end you.”
Couldn’t she see that I was already emotionally attached and that was the problem? I was so fucking emotionally attached, I couldn’t close my eyes at night without seeing her face. Her death.
It scared the shit out of me.
I needed her to be out of the goddamn military so I could keep her safe. I opened my mouth to tell her as much, but she was gone. She’d walked out on me yet again, claiming that I needed time to think. I stared at the door, wondering what to do. I didn’t need time to think. I knew exactly what I wanted.
I wanted her.
I wanted our baby.
I wanted the white picket fence and the family holidays and portraits.
I wanted it all.
Determined to find her and straighten this shit out once and for all, I went upstairs to her room, but she wasn’t there. The space was crowded with luggage, though, so she was clearly staying.
For good?
It sure looked like it. Naomi wasn’t the kind of woman to pack heavy… at least not with luggage. But she had so many bags crowded in her room she couldn’t possibly be planning on going back to the base.
I was exhausted, but the thought of her staying invigorated me. I needed to shower and change, but I had to find her first and tell her that she had it all wrong. I was ready to do whatever she needed, buy her a house, a car, move out of the fire station… Anything, as long as she stayed. I didn’t deserve her or our child, but I planned to do everything in my power to keep them.
I just needed to find them.
Hurrying down to the common room, I found Wasp helping Trent gather up his army men while Carly walked toward the kitchen.
It still blew my mind to see Wasp with Carly and Trent. I’d never pegged him for a family man, but he’d sure made it happen. They were happy together. It was like he’d found new purpose in Carly and Trent, and I got that now. I had new purpose.
I’d been given a second chance.
“Hey, brother, how are you?” Wasp asked, taking my outstretched hand as he patted me on the back.
“Hi, Eagle,” Trent said, giving me a wave, his hand full of green Army men.
“Hey, Buddy. Hey, Wasp. You guys haven’t seen Naomi around here, have you?”
“Naomi? You dreamin’ about her now? Sleep walking, maybe?” Wasp asked with a grin.
That hit a little close to home. The old walls of the fire station weren’t exactly known for being soundproof. Quite the opposite, in fact. I wondered if someone had heard me calling out Naomi’s name last night and wagged their jaw. If that was the case, I’d have to find out who and bust their loud mouth for them.
I started to tell Wasp just how many ways he could fuck himself when his gaze dropped to the kid sitting at his feet, staring at us like we were Gods or superheroes or something. I snapped my mouth shut and swallowed back the insults.
“I saw Naomi,” Trent said. “She’s really pretty.”
“You did?” Wasp asked, his eyebrows raising in genuine surprise. “Where?”
“She came downstairs and said hi to us before she left. She wants to marry me.”
Wasp chuckled. “She told you that?”
Trent nodded. “Mom, Naomi said she’d marry me, didn’t she?”
I turned to see Carly approaching. “Hi Eagle.”
“Carly.” I gave her a chin lift. “Trent said you saw Naomi?”
“Yeah, just a few minutes ago. She seems really nice. She was hungry and said she was gonna go grab a bite.”
