“I didn’t …” I peter off because my heart squeezes when I look at the booties. There’s no way I could turn them down even if I’d only pointed them out just to say how cute they are.
I sigh as I look at the booties and onesies that Travis added to our purchase.“I can’t believe I’m going to be a mom in a few months.”
“Does it scare the hell out of you, too?” he asks, arm at my back again.
My hand goes to my belly. “Scares me, excites me, and … saddens me,” I admit.
He tilts his head to the side, but his hand presses into my back as he steers me around a few other patrons.
“Why sad?”
I pause, gnawing my lower lip as I ponder my answer. I haven’t shared with anyone this tugging feeling in my core that’s grown with each day right along with my bump.
“I, uh, I wish I could talk to my mom.” I stop to quell the sudden emotion that threatens to overtake me.
“Sometimes it’s simple things like asking her what her pregnancy symptoms were to compare with mine. Other times I wish I knew what her thoughts were during pregnancy, if she felt the same things I’m feeling.
“Was she staying up at night mulling over what type of mother she would be.”
“Is that what you do?” Travis asks. “Stay up at night wondering what type of mother you’ll be?”
I nod.
He trails a hand down the length of my arm, while lifting his sunglasses from his eyes with the other.
His sincere gaze plunges into mine.
“I can’t give you your mother’s answer to that question, but I can give you mine,” he says, his voice firm yet full of tenderness.
I hold my breath, wanting him to continue.
“Relentless,” he says, surprising me.
Wasn’t expecting that.
“Unstoppable,” he continues. “The type of mother who struck out on her own at eighteen and forged her own way in the world. When she found out she was pregnant on the same day she got laid off, didn’t throw the blankets over her head and gave up.”
“She got up and fought, working extra shifts at her part-time job while searching for a full-time job to support herself and her baby. I think any woman who’s shown that level of strength and wherewithal to thrive, is exactly the type of woman who’s going to make a phenomenal mother.”
He pauses, reaching up to wipe a tear from my cheek.
“I’m lucky and proud to be able to raise a child with a mother like that.”
Holy shit.
“I didn’t mean to make you cry,” he says, making me realize I am, indeed, crying.
I laugh through my tears. “To be fair, that first day, I did freak out and curled up in my bed with the covers over my head before eating a pint of ice cream.”
It’s his turn to chuckle as he wipes another tear from my cheek.
These damn hormones.
CHAPTER 25
Travis
“These are beautiful,” Alyssia tells the latest vendor who stands behind his collection of music boxes.
