Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 114068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
She looks like she’s bursting with something she wants to say too.
“Duke?”
“Yeah?”
“I…”
Swallowing, I press my thumb into her leg. “Whatever it is you wanna say, I hope you know you can say it. I’m not goin’ anywhere.”
She nods. Blinks. Her chin wobbles when she says, “I want to keep the baby.”
I startle at the warm explosion inside my chest. I put my free hand there, just to make sure this woman didn’t just blow a hole through my center with her achingly vulnerable confession.
“Blue,” I sputter.
She’s crying now. “I’m sorry if that’s not what you wanted to hear, but I just—I had to tell you, Duke. I know I said that I wasn’t sure. I know this makes things super complicated—”
“I don’t care. I’m so glad, sweetheart.” I reach up and thumb away her tears. “So glad you want that, because it’s what I want too.”
Her brows pop up, her wet eyelashes glistening in the thin, late light. “Wait, are you saying—”
“I want to keep the baby. Yes.”
She lets out a bark of laughter. “Seriously?”
“Of fucking course I wanna have a baby with you, sweetheart.”
Without warning, Wheeler launches herself into my arms. Her hands find my neck. Mine find her belly. She pulls me in for a teary, salty kiss—we’re both crying now, tears leaking out of my eyes left and right—and we hold each other like that for one heartbeat. Then another and another and another.
We’re having a baby.
Holy shit, we’re having a fucking baby!
Because she’s apparently turned me into a fucking animal, I’m hard by the time she breaks the kiss.
“What helped you make up your mind?” She whisks away the tears on my face with the flat of her hand.
“In a nutshell?” I tuck her hair behind her ear. “You.” I tilt my head. “Them. My family. Our friends.”
She nods, rolling her lips between her teeth. “Me too. I didn’t realize—you and me, we’re friends. You’re a good friend. We’re more than that too, but we were friends first, right?”
“I’d like to think we’ll always be friends, Blue.” I run my hand up her side. “I like you too much not to want you around all the time.”
That makes her smile. “I like having you around too.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“Point is my parents aren’t friends. They never were. Obviously I don’t know everything about their relationship, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Mom getting pregnant that torpedoed it.”
I meet her eyes. “It was the fact that they didn’t have a connection as friends that explains why it didn’t work out.”
“Right.”
“I see Mollie’s fingerprints all over that lightbulb moment.”
Wheeler’s smile grows. “You know her well too.”
“Well, yeah. She is my sister-in-law.”
“She wants us to be together.” Wheeler’s eyes toggle between mine. “Everyone in your family does.”
“Can you blame them? You walked into my life, and everything’s changed for the better.”
She laughs. “You mean I walked out in the middle of our first game of darts, then dragged you on a twenty-hour road trip to Colorado, and then got pregnant, all while doing my damnedest to push you away?”
“Can we work on the pushing away thing?”
Wheeler nods. “I want to. I’m trying. This—our friendship, our relationship”—she flattens her palm over my chest—“it means a lot to me. I want it to work. So I’ll put in the work I need to do to make that happen.”
My heart feels downright drunk, skipping around my torso without a care in the fucking world.
“If that’s not the sexiest thing anyone’s ever said to me,” I growl.
Wheeler laughs. “So sexy, me promising to go get therapy and look on the bright side.”
I grab her hand and put it on my crotch. “But seriously.”
“Wow.” Her mouth forms a neat little O. “You…aren’t kidding.”
“I wanna feed you, Blue. But I also wanna fuck you.”
Her eyes go hazy. “Tell me why you wanna be a daddy.”
Because I’m falling in love with you, and I want to follow that feeling to the ends of the earth.
“Because a baby is a big responsibility but also a big adventure. Because freedom can be many things, and I’ve realized that the kind that’s important to me is the kind where I have the freedom to be with my people. Because this baby is my person. Our person. Because I’m not sure I’ll ever have life figured out, but I can try to figure it out and be a dad all at once. Because being a dad is a dream I have. Because…” I blow out a breath. “I don’t wanna live small anymore. You made me see what’s possible. You’ll keep chasing your dreams, and I’ll keep chasing mine. The baby won’t change that.”
Her throat works on a swallow. “You promise?”
“You have my word.” I press my hand into her belly. “I’ll always take care of you and this baby. I wanna be with you every step of the way, sweetheart. I’m in. Both feet.”