Page 24 of Mia

“So. I’m grown, and you grown. We can be real grown together.”

I grabbed a knife from the counter and put it under his chin. “I will slit your throat if you push up on my mama again. Try Jesus before you try her.”

“Daaaaamn! It’s like that?” He stepped back with his hands raised. “I see how y’all do me. It’s cool. I fight for my love.”

My mother rolled her eyes as she slipped past me. “I’m not doing this today. Get out of my kitchen so I can cook. Since the whole calvary is here, I guess I can feed y’all.”

“We about to dip out for a second, Ma,” Titan said, grabbing my hand.

“Where are y’all going?”

“Just out. I can’t spend some time with my wife?”

She gave us a side eye. “Be back in here in an hour.”

“I hear you.”

He pulled me toward the front door.

“Are you taking me to the meeting?” I asked in a low whisper.

“Fuck no. I made you an appointment so I can see my baby.”

“How? You don’t even know who my— nevermind, I forgot your best friend is married to my sister… your new bestie.”

He grinned. “Don’t be a hater. How are you bitter because my sister-in-law loves me?”

“I’m not bitter. It’s enough that I have to share her with Quaid and our sisters in-law. Now I have to share her with you too.”

He shook his head as we walked out to his car.

“One would think you were an only child.”

“I was for fifteen years.”

“You’ll live.”

He slapped my ass as I climbed into the truck. I really didn’t hate that he and my sister had grown closer. At some point, he was going to be around my family on a regular basis. My brothers finally got along with him, and that was the hard part. Granted, I didn’t make it any easier for them to like him, and neither did he. They were all strong willed and temperamental, so a clash was bound to happen.

I guess that could be said for me too.

Maybe I could learn to be a little softer or listen to understand instead of respond. Maybe I could learn to let him lead. My biggest fear was allowing a man to become the center of my world and losing myself in the process. Could I be a wife and mother while still being Mia? Would it be so bad to be a submissive wife? My sisters submitted to their husbands without losing themselves and my brothers worshiped the ground they walked on.

Maybe, just maybe, I could do the same.

“Would you stop touching shit!” Mia fussed as we waited in the exam room for her doctor.

I was just in here fucking with shit. I’d never been in an office like this, so all the diagrams were intriguing, to say the least. They had a life-sized replica of the birthing canal and I couldn’t stop fiddling with the pieces.

“Come sit your ass down,” Mia said, grabbing my shirt.

She pointed to the chair beside the exam table. Reluctantly, I took a seat.

“I can’t take you anywhere.”

“Imagine me in the delivery room. I’m coming with my camera to record everything.”

“No, the fuck you aren’t. I will have you escorted out.”