Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 155798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
I went back to chewing on my bottom lip. This was stressful. “Well, that was before you. And when we had that talk, Ben had just happened and I told you my secret. Having a kid would—well, you know the reasons I was nervous about having a kid.”
He said it bluntly, “You were worried about your father’s reaction, if he found out.”
My throat was searing, especially when I heard him say my other fear back to me, putting it in words. It was different feeling it, thinking it, then hearing it spoken out loud. “Well, yeah. He’s not a good person and there’s a reason my mom did everything she did. But yeah, if he found out, how would he react and would he want to be in some part of our kid’s life? I mean, there’d be no way. You and I would never let that happen, but he might try, and if he did…” I couldn’t say it.
If he did, chaos would ensue, and it’d be really bad chaos.
We survived the chaos my brother put us through and my dad would be a different storm altogether.
Brett went back to studying me. He murmured, “It’d be okay.” When he saw I couldn’t say anything, he moved to the side of me and pulled me into his arms. He cradled me, relaxing down on the bed, and I was half lying on top of him. One of his hands rubbed down my back. The other began toying with my hair.
I let one of my legs slip between his, resting completely against him.
He spoke again, his voice vibrating through his chest underneath me, relaxing me even more, “No matter what your father did, I’d never let him hurt you. Vicky wouldn’t. Howard wouldn’t. We all know Lo would go insane on him. Roger. Their girls. My nieces and nephews. Will. Even Harmony wouldn’t let him. You’d have a wall of people between you and him. We just got here today, but I know that once we get settled, Heather, Channing’s wife, is going to adopt you and you’ll have all their protection too. You’ve met that group, but I don’t think you realize how protective they are of each other. You have almost an army of your own to rally around you, protect you, and that’s in any facet needed. Either literally or through going to the press. I know you’ve been scared all your life, but you don’t have to be anymore.”
He was saying all the right words. How did he always know the right thing to say? It was like his superpower, besides the sex, and besides his usual athletic abilities, which the entire nation could attest to how great those skills were.
But his best superpower was in how he loved me.
“I know after Ben, you went back into hiding, but you don’t have to. You really don’t. You can say and do whatever you’d like. You want to go to Congress on how they should better protect chickens, I’m with you. Just like you’re with me. You got me to pull my head out of my ass and here I am, not just letting Monroe come over to help carry our furniture inside, but I called and asked him to help. Monroe is not a buddy that’d do that as a favor, be okay with some small talk over a beer before he’d head out for his own place. Monroe’s an all-in type of friend.” I wasn’t looking, but I could hear his glare. “Which is annoying, but knowing that, I’m still friends with him. That says everything about you. Whatever you want to do, you have your army behind you.”
I lifted my head to look at him, and I whispered, “I want to have a baby.”
He didn’t blink. He didn’t react. He held my gaze and his own warmed at the words. He smiled after, slowly, and I saw how genuine it was. He framed my face, both of his hands cupping the sides of me and he half lifted me as I raised myself, my mouth going to his, and just before they touched, he whispered, “Will you marry me, Billie Harm?”
I gasped, jerking out of his hands and sitting up.
My heart was in the middle of its own stampede. “Are you serious?” I frowned. “Or is this a joke? Are you teasing me?”
He held my gaze, long and serious and drawn out. That tenderness never went away. It only increased, and he sat up too. Reaching into the nightstand beside our bed, the nightstand that was just put there today, he pulled out a little box.
I started crying. The tears I’d been trying to keep from shedding, even though I knew I was going to shed them, they were free-flowing now. I was smiling so hard, so wide, that it was actually hurting. I cupped both of my hands over my face as he got off the bed, kneeling down and he held the box up to me, opening it.