“Look at me.” His voice is firmer now.
I shake my head and pull back, my heart racing. “Kaden… I—”
“Don’t,” he warns quietly. “Don’t start saying what I think you’re about to say.”
I spin back toward him, my emotion spilling over. “I might not be able to have children.” The words tumble out, sharp and desperate. “That’s not small, Kaden. That’s huge. You can’t stay with someone who can’t give you a family when family meanseverythingto you.”
He closes the distance in two strides and grips my shoulders, forcing me to hold his gaze.
“Effa,” he says, each syllable deliberate. “Youare my family.”
The intensity in his eyes steals the air from my lungs.
“He said there’s a chance,” he continues. “Not a certainty. And even if that chance doesn’t turn into reality, I don’t fucking care. There are other ways to build a life… adoption, surrogacy, hell… we’ll steal someone else’s kids if we have to.”
A watery laugh escapes me despite everything.
“You don’t get to decide I deserve better,” he adds, his voice dropping lower. “I deserveyou. Exactlyyou. Asyouare. No conditions. No damn exceptions.”
The tears I’ve been holding back finally spill, and I move before I can think, wrapping my arms around him and pressing my face into his chest. He holds me tight, one hand sliding up and down my back in slow, steady strokes while his lips brush softly against my hair, my temple, my neck.
He feels safe.
Likehome.
“I don’t want you to lose something because of me,” I whisper against him.
“I’m not losing anything,” he murmurs back. “I’m choosingyou. Every single day.”
He leans back just enough to look at me, his thumb wiping a tear from my cheek. “We’re lucky to have each other,” he says quietly. “Remember that.”
My throat tightens again.
I rise onto my toes and kiss him, not desperate, not frantic, just needing. Wanting the reassurance of his mouth against mine, the steady warmth of his hands at my waist.
He deepens it slowly, grounding me instead of consuming me, reminding me that nothing about this has changed who we are.
When we finally part, I rest my forehead against his chest and breathe.
This isn’t the future I imagined.
But it’s still a future.
And as long as he’s standing here with me, refusing to let me run, refusing to let me shrink myself down into something smaller than I am…
We’ll find our way.
Together.
Chapter Seventeen
MERCS
It’s been one hell of a week.
Appointments, blood draws, learning how to hold a syringe without my hand shaking, and watching Effa pretend she isn’t scared when I know damn well she is.
But finally, we’re back in Ligonier.
