His eyes flashed to my stomach, though I doubted he could tell. I’d worn a baggy shirt in case this didn’t go well. As if leaving without telling him was actually an option. It wasn’t. It never had been. I couldn’t keep something like that from him.
His gaze burned into me, and then in two large strides his arms were around my waist, his lips on mine. My back smashed against the glass, like our wedding night and the sliding door of the beach house.
“I missed you every second of every day,” he confessed in a broken whisper. “I would’ve gone with you. Iwillgo with you.” He pressed kisses across my nose, over each eyelid, back to my mouth. Then he reached down and tore my shirt up and over my head. He tossed it on top of his. I wished I was wearing something other than this ugly black sports bra. After what I’d put him through, Ashton deserved the prettiest lingerie.
He dropped to his knees, sliding the top of my leggings down to press kisses over my belly. My fingers tangledin his shaggy hair, the relief trying to lift me off the ground like a bouquet of helium balloons.
The baby kicked him right in the nose and I laughed through my tears. “I think she just said, ‘Hi, dad.’”
He looked up at me. The adoration I remembered was back. “It’s a girl?”
“Yeah.” I nodded, gutted that he’d missed the gender reveal ultrasound. Finding out without him was the final push I’d needed to come here.
“Hey, baby girl,” he whispered, awed.
His palm flattened over her little foot. She kicked again, giving him a high five. He followed her appendage across my skin, his expression full of wonder, for at least two minutes before standing up.
Then he pulled me against his chest. “Promise you’ll never leave me again.” His tone was insistent.
“Ipromise. I couldn’t leave you again if I tried.”
Suddenly, I was off my feet, lifted into his arms.
He carried me out of the room, and with hungry eyes, lowered me to the bed.
twenty-seven
TALLY
They forgot everything the minute they were together again.
— EMILY BRONTË
We lay in the darkness staring into each other’s eyes.
“How’re the kids?” he asked as his fingertips brushed over my cheek.
“They miss you and this house.” I laid my hand over his, reveling in how a single touch can change a life. His wedding band was back on. Feeling it under my palm felt like a miracle. “Theo is almost as sick about leaving the Death Star behind as he is about leaving you.”
Ash chuckled and it made my heart flutter. “We’ll get him another.” He pressed a kiss to my lips. “Is this real? Are you really here?”
“It’s real.” I wanted to stay here forever, buttime was not on our side. I rolled over and grabbed my phone from the nightstand. His fingertips trailed across my shoulder blades. How was it already three a.m.?
“We should go?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Let me grab some stuff.”
We got up and I helped him pack a duffel. He looked around the room.
“It’s hard to put your entire life into a single bag,” I said.
“Yeah.” Then he strode to the bathroom. “Can I finish trimming my beard? I’ll hurry.”
“Okay,” I agreed, because his wonky, uneven beard would draw attention. I stood in the doorway watching him. “Anna’s going to hate me for taking you away from her. They all will.”
He lifted his chin, buzzing his neck as if talking about never seeing his family again cost him nothing. But his eyes gave it all away. “There isn’t one of them who wouldn’t do the same thing. Anna for Blue. Silas for Lemon. Holden for Christy.”
