“Really, who knew you were capable of these insecure spirals?” he gently teased, one of my smiles gracing his too-handsome face when I narrowed a glare at him. “Mallory, I’m not sure anyoneknowshow to do those things, but it’s instinctive. When the time comes, you’ll know what to do.”
“And if I don’t?”
His smile shifted into a smirk. “Your whole life has been about being the best in everything you do. I doubt this will be any different.”
He was right and so incredibly wrong.
I was confident in every move I made because I knew exactly what I would do if anyone so much as tripped into my path, let alone pulled a gun on me.
But that was what made all of this so terrifying...
Gray, our unanticipated marriage, and this unexpected baby, were all massive unknowns.
I knew wars. I knew battles. I knew different fighting strategies. And even then, I’d still failed last week. But all of this? Not only had I never been taught any of it, it’d been banned in our house. It’d practically been a sin to even think about a relationship or a future outside of the military, let alone having children.
How could I be the best at something I didn’t know the first thing about?
“Get out of your head, Peach,” Gray whispered as one of his hands curled around my cheek, drawing my attention to those pale green eyes. “We’ll figure this out together.”
I relaxed against his hand, even as my eyes narrowed in another glare. “You’re already great with kids.”
“When I know I get to hand them back off to their parents,” he said with a shameless smirk. Using his thumb, he tipped my head up to steal a soft, lazy kiss before repeating, “We’ll figure this out together. Now, about you trying to make Lainey more nauseous than she already is...”
I shoved away from him, steadfastly ignoring the sharp pain in my back, and forced an eye roll at the wicked gleam in his eyes that matched the tease in his voice.
But I secretly loved it.
I would take anything over that hushed, careful tone he’d been using with me all week.
Looking into the large vanity mirror, I quickly swiped at my wet cheeks as if the tears had never existed, then looked at the bandages on my neck that definitely needed replacing.
“I know you can do this,” Gray began as he gathered the materials to make a new bandage, “you’ve been doing it yourself all week.” Setting everything in front of me, he turned so he was facing me and set the full force of his stare on me. “But ifyou remember, as soon as I was released back to the team, you refused to let anyone bandage me butyou.”
I swallowed thickly at the memory and argued the same defense I’d given him all those years ago, when he’d taken multiple bullets for me, one of which he still bore the scar from, “You would’ve gotten it infected.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “Then it’s a good thing I had you,” he muttered, giving me a version of the response he had back then. Letting his mouth slip into a smirk and teasing me with one of those dimples, his stare briefly, meaningfully darted to my neck. “You’re gonna get it infected.”
No, I wasn’t.
I also needed to continue doing this myself because I needed to prove that I was fine. I needed to prove Icould.
But I found myself nodding as I tossed his words back at him, “Then it’s a good thing I have you.”
His next smile was slow and bright and did wholly unfair things to me, considering I doubted there was anything I could do to wreak the same havoc on his heart. “Good answer, wife.”
“Don’t get used to getting your way,” I murmured in a too light voice that didn’t hold my usual warning and betrayed the wings fluttering in my stomach.
He swept his mouth across mine in a brush so soft, so swift, it had me sucking in a breath. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” But just as I started leaning closer and melting at the unexpected things Hudson Gray did, he added, “Really, who knew you blushed?”
My eyes rolled as I looked away, waiting for him to put the new medical cloth and tape over the multitude of wounds on my neck, some of which had been stitched up. And, yes, they’d absolutely made Lainey’s nausea worse over the past week.
I really didn’t envy her pregnancy.
But, at the same time, at least sheknew.
“She’s fine,” Gray whispered as he gently pressed medical tape along one of the edges of the cloth, forcing my stare to his. Without looking away from what he was doing, he said, “You look worried and you’re touching your stomach.” Mint eyes shifted my way before lowering to my neck. “She’s fine, Mallory.”
I’d dropped my hands as soon as he’d pointed out what I was doing, but at his last, gentle vow, I voiced the fear I’d been worrying over since Gray had held me in my kitchen, looking at me like he’d known he would lose me—lose us both. “And what if she’s not? What if this happened because I didn’t want her?”
