She looked at me, blinking again, then let her head fall back against the pillow. “You’re making it hard to say no.”
“That’s the idea.”
Truth be told, I hadn’t slept much last night. Even after all the fucking we did, draining me, my mind was running wild. Autumn was pregnant and had me out here overthinking, wondering if I’d pushed too hard. If I fucked up somehow.
Meanwhile, she was carrying my seed and dealing with that reality on her own. I’d never been scared of a damn thing in my life, but the second she hit me with that “I’m pregnant,” it was like time froze. It wasn’t just sex and feelings anymore. A whole life was forming inside her. And for her to even consider not telling me? That shit had me tight.
Before I could get caught up in my thoughts, she said, “So… I don’t know if you remember me saying that I usually spend Christmas with my dad, but…”
I nodded slowly. “That’s cool. I can drop you off and pick you up.”
She looked at me sideways. “No. I want you to come.”
I raised a brow. “You tryna take me to meet your pops?”
She raised her own brow right back. “I already met your mother.”
I smirked. “At my grandmama’s. That shit don’t count.”
“How doesn’t it count? Your mother didn’t even like me until the very last second of Thanksgiving.”
“She fucks wit’ you,” I laughed, reaching over to pull her closer to me again. “I’ll come. I done already got him a gift, too.”
She blinked, like she didn’t think I would say yes. “Really? You just… came prepared, huh?”
“You know that. Got all your gifts too.”
“Okay, Mr. Serious,” she teased, fingers brushing across my chest. “But fair warning. My dad is… overprotective in a sense. And a little nosy. He’ll probably pull you to the side and give you some man-to-man speech. Please do not tell him about the baby. I wanna do that after I go to the doctors and everything.”
I leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose. “I respect it, baby. I gotchu.”
She grinned, then softened. “You sure about the cabin, though? We don’t have to do all that.”
I lifted her chin gently, forcing her to look me in the eye. “We’re goin’. I know we’re still figurin’ shit out,” I continued, voice low, “but I need this time wit’ you. No distractions. No bullshit. Just peace. You and me. Aight?”
She nodded slowly. “Okay.”
I kissed her soft lips, then pulled back. “Now go ‘head and get that time off work. I’m tryna see you in that hot tub wit’ snow fallin’ while you ride this dick.” We both laughed. I laid back, her hand resting on my chest. “You know,” I said, voice low, “we could switch it up.”
Autumn looked up at me with her eyebrows raised. “What do you mean, switch it up?”
“You said you wanted to see your pops Christmas Eve, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So let’s just have him come up to the cabin.”
Her head tilted to the side. “You… you want my dad to come to the cabin?”
I nodded once. “Why not? That back and forth gon’ be too much. The cabin’s already booked. You cook. He pulls up. It’s cool.”
She stared at me for a second, eyes narrowed like she was trying to figure out if I was for real. “You’re serious?”
I looked her dead in the face. “Don’t I look serious?”
She blinked like I caught her off guard. “I just didn’t expect that. At all.”
I shrugged. “It ain’t ‘bout nothin’ gorgeous. I know what you need right now, and it ain’t stress.”
