“Your favorite. Breakfast for dinner.”
He turned me in his arms, studying my face with that intensity that still made my knees weak. “What did I do to deserve you?”
“You listened,” I said simply. “You saw me. You chose me.”
“Best decision I ever made.”
As we cooked dinner together, I thought about how far we’d come. From that terrifying night when he’d offered me protection in exchange for a signature, to this moment of domestic bliss in the kitchen of our home.
We’d both been broken in different ways when we met. Him, by a life that demanded hardness over heart. Me, by loss that had taught me independence, was the only safety. But somehow, we’d learned to be soft with each other. To trust. To build a love neither of us had known we needed.
“You know what I was thinking?” he said, plating our food with the same precision he brought to everything else.
“What’s that?”
“Maybe it’s time we started talking about expanding those beautiful chocolate babies.”
I nearly dropped the wine glass I was holding. “Lesley Grimson, are you ready for me to have your babies?”
“Maybe. Would that scare you?”
I considered the question seriously. A few months ago, the idea would have terrified me. But now, looking at this man who’d proven over and over that he was in this for real, who’d shown me what it felt like to be cherished and protected and loved completely...I wouldn’t be alone.
“No,” I said quietly. “It wouldn’t scare me. Not with you.”
His smile was soft, genuine, and full of promise. “Good. Because I’m ready to have some running around here, drawing on the walls, and shit. I know they will be smart like their mama, stubborn like their daddy.”
“Stubborn like both of us, you mean.”
“Yeah,” he laughed. “That too.”
Later, after dinner and wine and conversation that reminded me why I’d fallen in love with him, I curled up against his side in our bed.
“Lesley?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“Thank you.”
His arms tightened around me. “I love you Co, you never gotta thank me for shit. I’m ya man.”
“One hundred grand.”
“Exactly.”
As I drifted off to sleep, I thought about that scared woman who’d walked into a restaurant six months ago to sign papers that would change her life. She’d been looking for survival. Instead, she’d found everything.
Lesley
A Week Later
I woke up to the sound of rain against the windows, and Coco curled into me. Six months of this, and it still caused me to pause. Shit was like a miracle I didn’t think I’d ever earn.
She was awake, I could tell. Her breathing always gave her away. But she stayed still, pretending, because she loved these quiet minutes before the world knocked on our door.
“I know you up,” I murmured into her hair.
“Prove it.”
