I bring my hands to my head, trying to remember.
“I take the pill, but I must have missed a few.”
I blink. I blink again.
Am I breathing?
“I should have told you right away, you have the right to know, but I was confused and I didn’t know how you would take it.”
The terror I see in her eyes is enough to paralyze my every muscle.
“I thought you’d feel an obligation to be with me.”
“What?” I finally shake out of my stupor.
“I thought that if you knew about the child you would feel trapped with no way out.”
“Escape? And where would I go without you?” I tell her, drawing her to me. “Maybe you still haven’t understood how crazy I am about you, Ciara. I am yours, completely. With or without a child, there is no place I could go without you by my side.”
“Aren’t you scared? Terrified by all this?”
“Are you?”
“A little, yes.”
“I’m delirious with joy,” I say before grabbing her and giving her a bear hug. “Jesus, am I happy!” I caress her hair and start to breath regularly again.
“A baby, Aaron.”
“Our baby,” I say proudly as the panic makes its way out of my veins.
She steps back to look me in the eyes.
“Your own family. Something you’ve never wanted, never thought about. Something you didn’t plan on. Everything you didn’t believe in and now you’re being thrown into it by mistake.”
I kneel down in front of her and hug her hips, putting my head on her stomach.
“The best mistake we could have made.”
I kiss her midriff as she puts her hands in my hair and the euphoria I feel is crushing.
“God, Ciara. You have no idea what you’ve done. You’ve changed my life, you’ve given me more than I could have hoped for and this baby… I don’t think you realize what is exploding in my heart right now.”
“I think I have an idea,” she says, giving me that look that says she’s feeling it too.
I look up at her. “I love you, Ciara Doyle. Sorry if I took so long to figure it out, but you know, sometimes I’m a shithead.”
She laughs and I let her go in order to stand up.
“You are my dream. You are what I need and this child is our future.”
She looks at me with those big eyes full of feeling.
“You are my dream come true.”
“And you are mine.”
“Does that mean you’ll come to live here?”
