She nodded and sniffled again. “I know, and I love you with all my heart.”
“You don’t like lil’ babies no more?”
“I love them, but I already have a newborn and a toddler.”
“Gunner turnin’ four this year. He ain’t gonna be a toddler much longer.”
“Jo is four months old, Christopher.Four months, but her adjusted age is zero months. She was due March 23rd.”
“I thought she would’ve been a month old now.”
Megan shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. IfI’m pregnant and I carry the baby to term, chronologically Jo will be fourteen months, but developmentally she’ll be ten months. Don’t you remember how it was with Axel?”
“Barely.” Sighing, Christopher dropped his arms, grabbed her hand, and guided her to her makeup table. He prodded her to the stool. “Axel ain’t had a lot of the issues that Jo had.”
“We were lucky.” She met his gaze in the mirror, hers miserable and wet. “He was lucky.”
“He was, but so was Jo. Our girl gonna be fine.”
Misery blanketed Megan’s face. She nodded, drew in a deep breath, glanced away, then met his gaze in the mirror again. “Did you take my pills?” she asked hoarsely.
Somehow, he didn’t wince or react in any fucking way except to shake his head. “Fuck no, baby.”
“Are you sure? It wouldn’t be fair if you did. That’s going too far.”
Annoyance flashed through him and he gritted his teeth.
“You promised me you’d stop manipulating me and lying to me.”
That annoyance turned into anger.
“You told me I could be me without worrying you’d leave, Megan.”
“Did you take my pills?”
“No,” he said flatly, digging his heels in. What the fuck did she expect him to do? If he admitted the truth, what the fuck wouldshedo? “If I did, then fuckin’ what? You ain’t never had a problem before with what the fuck I do.”
“It was my mistake not to set boundaries.”
Horror washed through him, and he recoiled. “I ain’t never had boundaries with you, and I ain’t about to start now, Megan, so shut the fuck up.”
She turned and faced him, her eyes huge and vulnerable. “This doesn’t have to be an argument.”
“What the fuck you want it to be then?” He thrust his fingers through his hair. “You always fuckin’ enjoyed bein’ mine.”
“I’m still yours. That won’t change.”
“If you changed, that fuckin’ changed.” He laughed bitterly. “Ain’t it fuckin’ obvious?”
“Boundaries are good, Christopher,” she said softly. “You should be proud of me and want me to protect myself.”
He gasped. Outraged…indignant…appalled…somefuckinthing that he was toothatto even fucking describe. “Protect yourfuckinself? From my fuckin’ ass?” Even more thanthat? He sounded like a shocked bitch.
She had the fucking nerve to nod.
Clasping his hands together, he turned in a tight circle, hurt to his fucking core. “You fuckin’ lied to me. You told me everything was back to normal.”
“It is—”
