Cursing, I spun away from him, lacing my fingers behind my head. No matter how many times I told him, he would never fully understand.
“Do you have any idea what it was like to have all these dreams of what I could do, only to have them dashed at every turn? I was fighting in an underground club for money. I took jobs that I never would have considered before, all because I needed something to do that didn’t make me feel like I was nothing. And for what? Because I was lost. So, yeah. I do get how you feel.”
When I looked at him, all I felt was sadness, and I hoped that something I was saying was reaching him on some level.
“Hell, Pop, you can reinvent yourself. Maybe it’s not what you wanted, but your opportunities are endless. You have everything at your fingertips. Instead of bitching about how you lost it all, dig in and find out how to make it better, because none of us can do that for you.”
Without another word, I stormed past him and got in the truck. I was done dealing with this shit. With all of it. I had great news to celebrate, and I wasn’t about to let anyone keep me down.
7
BLAKE
“This is everything?”Jeff asked as he hauled in the last box. “You sure are a cheap woman.”
Parker slapped him on the back of the head as he walked past. “Don’t call my fiancée cheap.”
“It was a compliment!” Jeff argued. “I was surprised that she doesn’t have a million shoes. That’s a good thing. It means she won’t spend all your money.”
Grinning, I carried my suitcase down the hall to our bedroom. “I have my own money, Jeff!”
“Babe! What are you doing?” Parker shouted, racing after me.
He snatched the case out of my hands, shooting me a glare.
“I’m sorry, was I not supposed to bring the suitcase to our room?”
I nearly laughed when he studied the questioning look on my face, wondering what the right move was. This right here was the first step in our journey as new parents, and how he reacted would set us up going forward.
Very carefully, he set down the suitcase. “Uh…no. Not at all, I was just…thinking that…you might want to wait.”
“For what?”
His eyes nearly bugged out as he tried to come up with a good answer. “Furniture!”
“Ah, yes. And in the meantime, I’ll just walk through the house naked to get my clothes in the living room.”
He smiled sheepishly at me. “It’s not the worst idea.”
“I think I’ll just take this to our room. Or did you want to carry it for me?” I teased.
“Oh, no. You’ve got this. Completely. I mean, you’re perfectly capable of carrying a suitcase. Who said you weren’t?”
Rubbing the back of his head, he cleared his throat. “What’s that, Jeff?”
Then he hustled down the hall after his brother, who was snickering in the living room.
Chuckling to myself, I carried the suitcase the rest of the way, but when I got to the empty room, his words rang true. We did need furniture. We didn’t even have a bed to sleep in. There was literally nothing to dampen the echo of the empty house.
Even if we got sleeping bags for the night, there wouldn’t be a single thing to do once we were done unpacking. No TV to watch, no internet to scroll on our phones—not to mention the phone service was not that great here…we would just sit around staring at each other.
I was used to not having the comforts of my own home around. When I worked for the FBI, I was always staying in shitty motels and watching local channels, but this was so beyond that. We weren’t even close enough to town to just wander around.
“Babe?”
I spun around, the panic on my face showing.
“What is it?” Parker asked, his lips twitching in amusement.
