Movement against her chest drew his gaze downward for a moment, and he frowned. Her identity and self-imposed isolation shouldn’t be enough to keep her from pursuing a relationship with him if she felt for him as he did for her—but the child she was concealing against her chest might!
“You have a kid?!” The question flew out of his mouth before he could think better of it. A kid? Rose was a mom! No, wait. He babysat his nieces and nephews all the time, and that didn’t makethem his. “Is…” He wasn’t sure what pronoun to use. Her hand was covering the kid’s face, so he couldn’t make out gender and people got upset with he/him as gender neutral. He didn’t want to risk upsetting her. “Um, is it yours?”
“‘It’ is my son,” she snapped harshly. “And thank you. Thank you for reminding me why I don’t trust people. Goodbye, Keys.”
The connection broke.
Wait—what? What just happened? Crap. In trying not to upset her, he’d upset her. Why was he such a weirdo?
Keys quickly burrowed into her system and commanded the video call to reconnect. Rose hadn’t put the cover back over her camera, and he caught her holding her son to her chest as she started to rise.
“Wait!” he shouted. And then cursed when she jumped and quickly scrambled to cover her son’s face again. “That’s not what I meant! I was just really surprised. I didn’t know you had a kid, Rose.”
Rose glared down at her screen. “You called my child an ‘it’.”
“I didn’t know if he was a boy or a girl, and I overheard a conversation recently about how saying ‘he’ is inappropriate anymore when you don’t know the gender! I was trying to not piss you off.” He swallowed hard, cringing slightly. “Which I managed to do anyway. Can we just… Can we start over? Please?”
Rose hesitated, and then resumed her seat, keeping a tight hold of her kid. But she didn’t say anything.
Keys fidgeted. “It’s stupid, but I thought you were with a…guy, I guess.”
Rose’s eyes narrowed, but at least she didn’t look pissed anymore. More like, confused. “My son had a stomach bug. I’ve been taking care of him, not having a sex-athon. Not that it would be any of your business if I was.”
Keys’ cheeks flamed. “Yeah, yeah. I know. Like…” He cleared his throat. “Like I said, I was just worried about you. Is, uh, your son okay?” Rose hadn’t actually introduced them yet, so he didn’t know the kid’s name. Come to think of it, he hadn’t found any record of Rose having given birth to a child either. Who was the father?
“I can see your mind spinning. Do not look into this, Keys. I’m trusting you witheverythingI have. Do you understand me?”
He nodded quickly. “Yes, yes. Of course, I’m sorry. I haven’t been sleeping much.” When her eyes narrowed again, he rushed to correct himself. “I mean, not that you have either. Obviously.” He waved his hand up and down in front of the screen—and then realized what he’d done when her nostrils flared. “I mean! Fuck. Crap,” he tried to correct because of the kid. “I didn’t mean you look bad! You’re beautiful. I love that you kept your hair long. I saw your pictures from when you’d cut it, and I much prefer it long. But not in a creepy way,” he hurried to clarify. “I just… I’m not telling you that you have to keep your hair long! I’m just saying I liked it… But you can do what you want to your hair! I mean, of course you can. It’s your hair. I just mean…” Letting out a whining groan, Keys dropped his head down into his hands. Fuck, why was he such a basket case when it came to women? He’d talked to Rose for a year and a half with no issues, but put her in front of him and he turned into a bumbling idiot.
Laughter filled his speakers. Slowly, Keys lifted his head so he could see above his fingertips.
“Wow!” Rose giggled, smiling wide. She still kept her son positioned so he wasn’t facing the camera. “You weren’t kidding when you said you can’t talk to girls.”
Keys nodded pitifully. “It’s really bad.”
Rose shrugged. “Could have been worse. All I got out of it was that you think I’m beautiful.”
Yeah, he had said that, hadn’t he? “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make this creepy.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry your son’s been sick. I’ll leave you guys be.”
“Did you mean it?”
Keys paused, halfway through the command to exit the video call. “Mean what?”
Rose chuckled, tipping her head up to the ceiling. “I must be more sleep deprived than I realized, but fuck it.” Sitting up straighter, Rose looked directly into the camera. “I’m a mess. I haven’t showered in days, I’m still in pajamas, I can’t remember the last thing I ate, and I’m pretty sure there’s puke somewhere on the couch behind me. I’ve scrubbed, but I can’t find it. That thing might just permanently smell like that now. And yet you called me beautiful. I’m asking you if you meant it.”
Keys stared at the screen, his heart hammering in his chest. He was pretty sure he mouthed more than spoke the word “yes”. His lungs felt like he’d just sprinted a mile.
He’d heard his brothers talk for years about the defining moments of when they’d met their woman, and somehow, they’d instinctively known that their choices in those moments were so cosmically important to their future that they’d put aside pride, life, and everything else to ensure that she knew he belonged to her. Keys had never understood before, attributing those stories to something akin to fairytales.
He understood it now. He could step up and take a chancenowthat would change the path of his life forever, or he could sit back, say nothing, and remain exactly the same.
“You’re beautiful.” He spoke as clearly as he could, not even daring to blink. “You’re incredible, Rose. I thought so before I saw you, and I think you’re even more so now. The only thing that could make you more beautiful is if I was there to help you.”
Rose licked her lips. “I wish you were here, too. Don’t make me regret this, Keys. I don’t want to bring my mess into your world, but this week has been awful.”
“Mess up my world,” Keys proclaimed, practically begging her.
“There are things you don’t know, things that I’m not sure I can tell you. I’m just so tired, Keys. And I just keep thinking, whatif something happens to me? Who would he have?” Rose sniffled slightly. “I need someone else to know about him. I need someone else to care.”
