“That is true,” she whispers, nothing but love shining in those beautiful eyes of hers.
I admit, “Though I won’t be looking forward to watching you go through all that pain again, I am looking forward to making the baby.”
She laughs as she pushes me away, then demands, “Get your ass on that chair, mister, I want to continue my work.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I say cockily and jump on my tattoo chair as I remove my shirt.
Ashley looks at me, biting her lip as she takes me in, which makes me smirk, before she shakes her head and grabs her tattoo gun, because yes, I bought her one and taught her how to ink.
She climbs on me, straddling me, making me grin before she dips the gun and leans forward, continuing her words – her love poem she gave me on our first anniversary when we were eleven to be exact – over my heart underneath her name.
Cole’s name is large down my arm.
I sigh as the needle hits my skin and she murmurs, “I’ve missed you,” and my heart soars, “I feel like we don’t spend much time together at the moment.”
“Then we need to make time, ” I murmur as I gently rub my hand on her thigh.
“Tomorrow night, can we have a date night?” she asks, lifting the needle off my skin to dip it. “Just you and me,” she says, looking at me, “I want to tell you something, but I want to do it in a nice romantic setting.”
“And you can’t tell me now?” I ask with a smirk, but she smiles widely and shakes her head.
My romantic girl…
“I actually have two truths to tell you, but I want to do it right, please…” She whispers, and I nod, making her smile go even wider if that is even possible.
“Good,” she whispers before she leans forward and presses a gently chaste kiss to my lips, that one touch sending sparks across my whole face before she pulls back and places the needle on my skin again, buzzing sounds surrounding us, and contentment fills me.
It is times like this I hate the resentment I feel sometimes. Times like these I fucking cherish because this woman, she is my life, and the thought of not spending it with her, it fucking kills me, and I know I won’t survive.
I may not have had the time to sow my oats and all that shit, but I did find my forever girl, and I’m damn lucky that I have.
Chapter 2
Ashley – Age Twenty Seven
“Thank you for letting me have yesterday off, Nat,” I say to my supervisor as I restock the shelves in the candy aisle, and she smiles my way from where she’s crouched filling the bottom shelves.
“Of course, did you get in to see the doctor?” she asks, shoving her light purple hair out of her face as she looks at me with apprehension and I nod. Knowing I have to tell her and not only because she’s been one of my closest friends since I started working here at eighteen but because I’ll most likely have to quit which I know Ty will be extremely happy about.
The man hates that I still work here but in my mind, it’s the principle of things.
“I’m thirteen weeks,” I admit with nerves, and she grins wide as she squeals and does a little shimmy from her position onthe floor, clearly happy for me that I can’t help but smile back despite the nerves I’m feeling.
I doubt my husband will be happy, despite what he said yesterday, after his dad asked when we were going to have another child because if he really wanted another baby, wouldn’t he have brought it up way before now?
I could have told him last night while I was tattooing him, but I just, I chickened out. I was scared of seeing the look of horror I did when I announced I was pregnant with Cole.
I chew my bottom lip as I continue to restock the shelves before clocking off and meeting Tyler outside for our first date night in a while, just the two of us.
He’s barely home, barely spends any time with our son or me, always at the clubhouse or at work, trying to prove himself to the club.
I feel like we’re a burden to him despite the fact he got everything. I put my career on hold, looking after our son, working here in the evenings, just so he could complete school and open Rebels Arts, heck, he doesn’t even know that I’ve been going to school every day for the past six years. I’ve been bringing Cole with me to my classes and placing him in the daycare on campus until Ty’s mama suddenly wanted to be on baby duty after spending the first three years of his life looking at him and me like we ruined her son’s life.
I didn’t want to jinx things when I got accepted to Wincher University so I never told him even though they offered free childcare with the scholarship and then he was never home, and it just never came up I guess.
I feel like we’re drifting apart, that he’s getting bored with being a husband and father, that he wishes he sowed his oats. That is one hell of a scary thought when he is my entire universe, my family, my only family because I got disowned from mine for choosing Ty.
I sigh silently. Over the years, I noticed he had a wandering eye, always checking women out, probably hating that he never got the bachelor life, but he never touched. Which is why I let it go, but I am so scared he’s going to go down that route, especially if he finds out we’re pregnant again and if he does, I won’t stay, I can’t.
