“Okay. Well, I’m here to tell you that though you might be living with me, I’m not here just playing house. I’m here working on building something long term with you, Sevyn. If a baby ispart of that, then that’s fine. It just means that we moved the timeline up a bit.”
I bit my bottom lip and nodded. Tears pricked my eyes, and he swiped them away with his thumbs.
“Why are you crying?”
“Because you make me feel wanted.”
“You are wanted, baby.”
Tears dripped down my cheeks, and I searched his gaze.
“What’s wrong, love?” he asked, kissing my forehead and still wiping my tears away.
“Tell me the truth, Deuce.”
“About?”
“Lena.”
His jaw clenched, but to his credit, he kept his gaze on me. “That’s what I wanted to discuss last night.”
“And I’m sorry that I wasn’t ready to. Is Lena, your partner, the same woman you were in love with and lost?”
His jaw tightened again, and he briefly shut his eyes before he opened them. “Yes, she was.”
So much made sense now. “Why didn’t you tell me that from the beginning?”
Sighing, he replied, “Because I have become acclimated to keeping that secret between her and I. We were never supposed to be involved.”
“Why? Because she was married?”
“No. She was separated by the time we became involved. After he kept beating her, she left him. I was her shoulder to lean on, her confessional, and everything else that she needed. I became involved with her not by plan, but purely being there for her one day. We couldn’t be together because we were partners, and it was forbidden in the department. We both could have lost our jobs, and she could have been shunned altogether. Her career at any other force could have been destroyed if thatknowledge got out. Because like it or not, women still get hell on things that men get a pass on in our line of work. They still aren’t paid equally, not held to the same standards, and get passed over for opportunities their male counterparts aren’t qualified for.”
“You could have told me.”
“I know,” he whispered.
“I’m sorry that you lost her. Sorry that you couldn’t live your truth with her out in the open.”
He grabbed my fingers and kissed them. “Yeah, well, that wasn’t the only time I had to do that. It’s time I started walking completely in the truth. There’s more.”
Before I could ask what he meant by that, his work phone rang. He scowled as he reached over and grabbed it off the nightstand.
“Hello?” He answered the phone still staring into my eyes.
I dragged my hand down the middle of his chest before I lifted it again to rub the earring in his left ear.
“Yeah, on my way,” he replied to someone on the other end as he jumped out of bed and rushed into the bathroom.
I was slowly becoming accustomed to him having to leave whenever his phone rang. Things had changed since he made detective, but I was proud of him. He still made me a priority, so that didn’t bother me.
I climbed out of bed and headed to the bathroom so that I could shower. I knew he wouldn’t have time to shower. Deuce would only be able to wash up quickly and run to the scene of whatever crime had occurred.
“Duty calls?” I asked when I stepped into the bathroom and turned on the shower water.
“No. I’ve been called to testify after the break.”
My heart squeezed in my chest. I felt that this was about to be a turning point in our lives. I wasn’t sure why, but I knew it would be.
