She rolls her eyes at me and smiles.“I’m fine.Stop worrying, nothing hurt, it was all good.See?”She puts her hands on my ass and rocks her hips forward, pushing against me.I growl from the friction she’s causing with me still in her.
I playfully bite her neck; she gasps, and I slowly pull out of her, gathering her in my arms with her back against me and the rest of her between my legs.
She laughs and looks over her shoulder at me.“What?”
“I love you.”
She puts her hand on my cheek.“I know, but things are not perfect.I’m willing to try.I know what making this choice means for us all.”
“So do I,” I say against her skin, kissing her shoulder and holding her tighter.“I love you.I love you.I love you.”I am never letting this woman go.She’s the one I’m going to marry and spend the rest of my life with.She doesn’t know it yet, but our future is already written in the stars.
I pull the covers back over us and stroke my hand over her stomach.It feels good to be able to freely touch her and have her in my arms.
“Nick?”
“Yeah?”
“Were you with her in this bed?”
Should have known this was coming.“Yes.”
“I hope it wasn’t on these sheets.”
“No, it wasn’t.I’ll throw them out and burn them if you want.”I’ll count myself lucky if that’s the only cost for my stupidity.
“Throwing them out is good enough.Buying new sheets would be a great idea.”
“I’ll throw every single sheet I have out and buy a closet full of new ones, ten thousand thread count, in every color of your choosing.”
“I don’t think they make ten thousand thread count sheets.”From her profile, I can see the smile on her face.
“If it will make you stay here with me, we’ll find them.If they don’t have any, they’re going to start making them.”
“You don’t have to go to those lengths to make me come over.”
“I don’t want you to come over.”
She turns her head and looks hurt.“I thought—”
“I want you to stay.Move in with me.”
Hurt turns to shock.“I can’t do that.”She turns around in my arms and faces me.
“Why not?Give me one good reason.”
“I have an apartment, and a roommate.I’m pregnant with your baby and estranged from my family.”
“You do realize you didn’t make a case for yourself?”
“Nick, things are bad enough with my family.I don’t know what’s going to happen when they find out I’m pregnant—and then add living with you to it?I’m afraid to think about it.”
“We’re not going to talk about them, this is about us.What’s right for me, you, and our baby is what matters.I don’t care what they think.”
“I know you don’t.And maybe I shouldn’t care either, but I do.I can’t help it.They’re still my family.”
I point to her stomach.“And now we’re going to have a family.That’s what created this baby, our love for each other.Don’t you think we owe it to ourselves and our child to try to be together as its parents, since we do love each other?I know I want to try to give my child everything I didn’t have in my family, which would be two stable loving parents who are committed to each other.You had that, and you were willing to give up on us to keep it.Nothing is guaranteed, but at least we can try, especially when we have all the ingredients for success.”Her eyes are fixed on me intently as she goes over my words.
Isn’t this ironic?Kate said almost the same thing to me after the lab called to confirm I was the father of the baby.Sometimes things come back around and you’re on the other side of what someone else was feeling, and it’s hard to face that truth.
