Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 182075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 182075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
“Please?” She tapped the other side of the bed.
“Will that help?” he asked.
“It will help me a lot. I don’t like sleeping by myself.”
“All right. Just let me use the bathroom first.”
He moved into the bathroom and Beth gave her a knowing look. “Good plan. He looks exhausted. But just remember we’re all here to look after you.”
Sure. But there was no reason why she couldn’t look after them as well.
Right?
He walked out and climbed onto the bed next to her. She turned on her side to snuggle into him as best she could with a large belly between them.
“Right. Now, sleep only, you two.” Beth pointed at them both before turning off the light and leaving.
“Are you sure I need her?” she asked Slade.
“Why? Do you not like her? Shall I search for someone else?”
“What? No, I like her fine. But it must be expensive and I . . .”
Slade rolled over to face her. He was on top of the covers and she wanted him in with her where she could feel his heat.
“You are not to worry about money. Hear me?” he told her firmly.
Indie bit her lip. “It’s easy to say that, but not so easy to actually do.”
“Your only worry is keeping you and the baby safe. That’s it. Everything else, you push out of your mind or you tell me. I will take care of it. Understand? I will take care of everything from now on.”
“What if the thing that I’m worried about is you?” she asked.
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
Reaching up, she brushed a finger over the lines in his forehead. “You look stressed and tired, Slade. Like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders. When is the last time you slept?”
“I sleep,” he protested.
“You do? When was the last time you got eight hours in a bed?”
“I don’t need much sleep,” he told her.
“I know that you’re Superman and that there is nothing you can’t do. But you’re going to collapse or get sick if you keep going like this and then who will take care of us all? Hmm? Rock? He won’t let anyone out of the house for fear of them getting hurt. Spencer? He’ll probably make everyone eat so healthy that we’ll be begging for a pie and hot chips. Quaid? Well . . . he’d give it a good shot. But by the time you recover, everyone would likely have run away.”
Slade snorted and ran a hand over his face. “You’re not supposed to be taking care of me, Boo.”
“I like taking care of you. And you look like you need someone to boss you around.”
“Oh, do I? And I suppose you take no joy in telling me what to do?” he asked teasingly.
“Oh no, I take great joy in it.”
He shook his head, then winced.
“Headache?” she asked in concern. She remembered how bad his stress headaches could get. And he’d had a lot of stress lately. “Do you want me to massage your neck?”
“What part of ‘we’re meant to look after you,’ are you not getting?” he told her.
“Personally, I think we’re all supposed to take care of each other.” She was kind of getting tired of being told that she wasn’t capable of looking after them.
She wasn’t helpless.
His face softened. “We are. But at the moment, you’re busy taking care of this little one.” He placed his hand over her belly. “And that’s a full time job. So just let us do everything else. Please? We all feel helpless to help you with this part and looking after you is what we can do.”
Shoot.
Well, when he put it like that . . .
“All right,” she said quietly. “I guess I didn’t think about it like that. I just don’t want to be a burden. Dead weight . . .”
He tightened his hold on her chin. “Dead weight? Who the fuck called you dead weight?”
“Nobody,” she said. “I guess I just always felt a bit like I was the hanger-on, you know? The sort of younger sister who trailed behind you guys. I was probably a real pest. Bet you wished lots of times that I had never come to live with you.” She forced herself to laugh. But it sounded sad.
Because deep down that’s what she’d always been worried about. That she was a nuisance. Tolerated and put up with. But never really accepted.
Or loved.
Tears threatened. She could feel them building in the back of her throat and she swallowed heavily.
“You listen to me, Indie Madden,” he said fiercely, leaning up on one elbow to glare down at her. The look on his face was firm. “I ever hear you spout any of that bullshit and you’re going over my knee . . . after you feel better, of course. But I won’t have you saying that shit. You are not a third wheel. Or a burden. You are ours. We always wanted you around. We have always loved you. We might have messed up, but we never stopped loving you.”