“Abraham Daniel, you scared the shit out of me!” my mom bitched, coming off my dad’s lap and bracing her hands on her hips.
“Bram was just exhausted,” my dad said soothingly, reaching out to tap Mom’s butt with the back of his hand.
“Why the hell are you awake already?” my mom snapped, not ready to let go of her anger. She wasn’t mad, not really, but sometimes when she was scared it morphed into anger.
“I—” My words cut off as I glanced at Ani’s worried face. “Just tired,” I said as she stood up from the couch. “I’m okay.”
She moved fast, and when she hit my chest, we stumbled back a step because I hadn’t really grown steady yet.
“Why aren’t you sleeping?” she whispered against my chest. “You have to sleep, Abraham.” Her fingers dug into my back. “You scared me.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered back, ignoring the people staring at us. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You went down, and I—”
“Shh,” I said soothingly.
“I caught you,” Trevor interrupted with a smile. “You’re welcome.”
“Shit,” I groaned, making Ani laugh a little.
“What the hell was that?” my mom asked as she dropped back down onto my dad’s lap, making him grunt.
“I haven’t been sleeping very well,” I answered, walking Ani into the room so we could sit on one of the couches. “It must have just hit all at once.”
“Well, I’ve heard some doozies about trying to get out of an argument, but I gotta say, this one takes the cake,” Uncle Mike joked, shaking his head.
“I wasn’t trying to—”
“Uh-huh,” my dad muttered like he wasn’t convinced.
“Well, now that we know you’re just sleepy, we’re heading home,” Aunt Ellie said sweetly.
“I told you he was just tired,” my dad argued.
“I didn’t know you were a doctor,” Aunt Ellie retorted, climbing to her feet and pulling Uncle Mike with her.
“Think I know my boy,” Dad griped as my mom stood up, too. “He’s looked like shit for weeks.”
“Thanks, Dad,” I replied sarcastically, making Ani snicker.
I wanted to look at her, but I was afraid to see her expression. I’d passed out during the most important conversation of my life, and I was both embarrassed that it happened and worried as hell that everything I’d said had gotten me nowhere.
“See you guys later,” Trevor called, following his parents out the front door.
As soon as they’d gone, I leaned back on the couch and closed my eyes.
“Are you two staying here tonight?” Dad asked.
I didn’t even open my eyes as I said “no” at the exact same moment Ani said “yes.”
“You’re not going home,” Ani barked.
“You can drive us,” I conceded.
“We’ll stay here,” Ani said to my parents, ignoring me. “See you in the morning?”
I didn’t want to stay the night, but hell if I was going to argue with Ani about sleeping in the same bed again, even if we were at my parents’ house and I was too tired to do anything but sleep. She hadn’t taken off when I’d passed out. She’d stayed.
That had to mean something.
I followed her into Katie’s old room and stripped down to my underwear after she’d closed the door behind us. We were both moving quietly so we didn’t wake the baby, but I was aware of every noise her clothes made in the darkness as she got ready for bed. As I crawled into bed behind her, I could have cried at the wave of relief that hit me.
“You scared the shit out of me,” she hissed as I tried to wrap my arm around her middle.
“I didn’t mean to.”
“Well, what the fuck? You aren’t sleeping?”
“I couldn’t ever fall asleep, so I was just staying up until I was so exhausted that I could get a full night’s rest,” I answered, ignoring the way her body had stiffened as I pulled her closer to me.
We were facing each other on our sides, and I scooted down the bed a little so our faces lined up on the pillows, nose to nose.
“I want to talk,” I slurred, trying in vain to keep my eyes open.
“We’ll talk in the morning,” she breathed against my face, lifting her hand to smooth down my beard. “Go to sleep.”
* * *
“I’ll get her. You sleep,” my mom said quietly when Arielle woke me up the next morning.
I was standing next to the portable crib, trying to calm Arielle down without lifting her up. My legs were still pretty unsteady, and I glanced at Ani’s sleeping face as my mom pushed past me and picked Arie up. Then I looked down at myself and felt my face heat. I was standing there in nothing but my boxer briefs.
“Sorry about last night,” I whispered, moving behind the bed to try and hide my lower half as my mom grabbed Arielle’s diaper bag from the floor.
“You need to sleep, son,” Mom scolded. “Get this stuff figured out before you make yourself sick.”
I nodded as she turned and left the room, shutting the door behind her. Then I climbed back into bed with Ani, wrapping my arms around her.
“I pretended I was asleep,” she mumbled against the bare skin of my chest, startling me. “So your mom would take Arielle.”
I chuckled.
“Mother of the Year,” Ani joked.
“You’re an awesome mom,” I replied, kissing her forehead.
“You lost your shit last night,” Ani said, tilting her face up to kiss my Adam’s apple.
“I’m going to blame that on a mixture of exhaustion and adrenaline from the argument I’d just gotten into with Alex,” I murmured back.
“So you didn’t mean it?” Ani asked.
“No, I meant it.” I leaned back so I could look into her eyes. “The delivery left a lot to be desired.”
“Well, you definitely made a statement. It was like the ultimate mike drop.” She lifted her hand above us and opened her fingers wide with a shrug, like she was dropping a microphone.
“You’re such an ass,” I laughed, shaking the bed.
“Well, it’s a good story to tell Arielle,” she mused, her lips tipping up. “When your daddy was fighting for us, he got so excited that he swooned like a Victorian maiden.”
“I didn’t swoon. I passed out from exhaustion.”
“Same thing.”
“Not at all the same thing.”
“Tomatoes, tomahtoes.”
“You’re going to tell Arielle that I’m her daddy?” I asked softly, my smile dropping as I searched her face. “That I fought for her?”
“Do you want me to?” she replied, her lips trembling.
“Yes.”
“Then, yeah. I will.”
I shuddered, closing my eyes against the emotion that swamped me. I wanted to both scream from the rooftops and pull the covers over our heads to block out the world. The relief was all encompassing.
“Tell me about your mom?” Ani asked after a few moments of silence, running a fingertip over my lips.
I sighed, wishing that I hadn’t even brought her up the night before. Using your parents as an excuse for anything was a massive pet peeve of mine. I hated when people tried to blame their parents for the decisions they made as adults.
“She was gorgeous,” I began.
“Oh, yeah?”
“Oh, yeah. She looked like Alex—”
“So…like both of you,” Ani said with a small laugh.
“Not really,” I replied with a smile, rolling to my back so Ani was draped across my chest. “She had his wide smile—you know the one. The contagious one.”
“You have that smile too,” she argued loyally.
“Well, her face wasn’t covered in hair,” I joked, squeezing Ani as she pressed a kiss to my chin. “And she was really nice. She smiled at everyone. She was just perpetually cheerful.”
“Ah, one of those,” Ani grumbled.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “She got pre
gnant when Alex and I were five. I have no idea who the dad was, because she never brought guys around. I don’t even remember her leaving us with a sitter so she could go out. We didn’t have any extended family. I never knew where her parents were.”
“I bet that was hard for her,” Ani said softly. “Not having any support.”
“She managed,” I said. “She was a good mom.”
“Her baby died?” Ani prodded when I grew quiet.
“Ah, yeah,” I said, reaching up to scratch at the side of my face. “We didn’t have insurance so she had the baby at home.”
“Holy shit!” Ani blurted, her eyes wide.
“I don’t know if that’s why the baby died, or if it was already dead when it came out.”
“You were so little,” Ani murmured sadly.
“Alex doesn’t remember it.”
“But you do.”
I nodded, clenching my jaw. “Probably because she accidently bit me.”
Ani’s eyes closed, and her forehead hit my sternum with a thud. “Well, I’m a dickhead,” she admitted, making me laugh as I remembered our first night together and her snide remark.
“It’s not a big deal,” I assured her, lifting her head from my chest. “I don’t like the biting sensation, but you do. It’s just a preference.”
“I was an ass about it.”
“You’re an ass about a lot of things.”
“Hey!”
I laughed, my chuckles shaking Ani’s slight body.
“I’m completely in love with you,” I said as she scowled.
“I love you too, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“You’re not very nice.”
“If we weren’t in my parents’ house, I’d be very, very nice.”
“You’re sure about all this?” Ani blurted out, making the smile drop off my face. “Really sure?”
“I’m selling my town house,” I announced, watching her jaw drop.
“Wait, what?”
“I’m moving in with you.”
“You weren’t invited,” she replied, her eyes wide.
“You don’t want to live with me?” I asked seriously, watching her face closely.
“Uh, I do.” She drew out the last word. “But…”
“Here’s the thing,” I said, pushing myself up so I was sitting and she was straddling my thighs. “You’re taking a huge chance on me. I know you’re freaked out—”
“I’m not freaked out,” she lied.
“I know you’re freaked out,” I said again, ignoring her. “So I’ll make the move.”
I leaned forward and brushed my lips against hers, reveling in the feeling of her skin pressed against mine.
“I’ll sell my house. I’ll move in with you. You don’t have to take any chances except being with me. Okay?”
I thought it was a pretty fucking good speech until Ani’s lips quirked, and she started to snicker.
“You just know my house is a million times cooler than yours,” she sang, laughing harder. “Sell my house? Ha!”
“You’re such an ass,” I laughed, watching her head tip back as she giggled. “I was being romantic.”
“So romantic,” she said, nodding in mock seriousness.
I growled and flipped her underneath me, digging my fingers into her sides while she begged for mercy through her laughter.
Chapter 18
Anita
Hello?” I yelped, jumping around on one foot as I tried to pull a sock on the other.
“Finally!” Katie bellowed in my ear, making me drop the phone in surprise.
“Shit,” I hissed, fishing my phone back out of the laundry basket as Kate continued to ramble on.
“I knew you’d get back together,” she said smugly when I had the phone back to my ear again. “Called it!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Mom said Bram’s taking you out tonight?” Kate asked. “What are you wearing?”
“Leggings and boots and a gray sweater that hangs off my shoulder,” I replied, pulling on my boots. Bram was taking me to Jay’s bar, and I was a little bit giddy at the sentiment.
“No! Why aren’t you wearing a dress?” she screeched. “I’m all about the leggings—but it’s your first date!”
“I’ve had Bram’s balls in my mouth. He can deal with the leggings and like it,” I said flatly.
Retching sounds came from the other end of the connection. “I don’t want to hear that stuff!”
“Oh, you don’t?” I asked innocently, “But you’ve been all up in our shit for months! Don’t you want details?”
“Hell no!”
I laughed, grabbing my purse from the end of the bed as I left my bedroom. Bram was going to be there at any minute, and I wanted to be ready when he did. I was excited.
Liz had taken Arielle for the entire night—which freaked me the fuck out—but I was excited to have time alone with Bram.
“So what changed your mind?” Kate asked after a full minute of petulant silence.
“He—” I sighed, dropping down to the couch. “He really meant it.”
“And you know that because?”
“Because he looked at me like my words were the only thing that could keep him standing.”
“Didn’t he pass out anyway?” Katie asked with a small laugh.
“That was after,” I corrected her.
“I thought it was when you guys were out on the porch.”
“How the fuck do you know all this?” I asked.
“Mom had me on the phone, and she gave me a play-by-play as she watched through the window.”
“Jesus,” I groaned, making Katie laugh.
“That’s what you get. Boom!”
“I already told you I was sorry about spilling the beans when you were pregnant!”
“We’re still not even,” Kate growled.
“Oh, whatever,” I said.
A knock on my front door had my head spinning to look in that direction.
“Gotta go, Kate.”
“Ooh, is he there?”
“I’m going to have sex now. Bye.” I pressed end as she started making vomiting noises again.
When I opened the door, Bram was standing there in a button-down shirt under a tan Carhartt jacket, his head covered in a gray beanie and his beard neatly trimmed and waxed.
“Well, don’t you look pretty,” I mused, looking him up and down.
“I brought you flowers,” he said with a small grin, lifting his hand to show me a bouquet that still had the grocery store tag on it.
“Wow, fancy,” I teased, taking the flowers from his hand. “Thank you.”
I turned to bring the flowers into the kitchen, and Bram groaned behind me, making me smile. Hearing the front door shut, I set the flowers in the sink and turned to find Bram stalking me into the kitchen.
“I know I said I was taking you out tonight,” he said in a rough voice as he slid the beanie off his head and dropped his jacket on top of the table. “But I haven’t seen you naked in a really long time.”
I laughed as he grimaced.
“Change of plans?” I asked, taking a step toward him.
“If you feel anything for me at all, you’ll take off your clothes,” he replied seriously, unbuttoning his shirt.
“But I was really looking forward to going back to where it all started,” I said, trying to keep my smile at bay.
Bram’s hands paused for a second on his shirt, then he dropped his head in defeat and slowly started to button it back up.
“I’m joking,” I told him softly, reaching out to catch his hands.
“Oh, thank God,” he murmured, his hands going to my hair as he pressed his mouth to mine. “I’ll take you out another night.”
“But we have a babysitter tonight,” I teased, making him groan again.
“So I’ll take you someplace Arielle can go,” he promised against my lips, running his hands down my back.
I sucked his lower lip into my mo
uth and sighed as his hands gripped my ass, picking me up off the floor.
“No more baby talk,” he ordered, carrying me into my room as I moved my lips to his earlobe.
“Are you sure?” I asked, running my tongue along the outside of his ear. “Because I’ve heard some of the women you’ve fucked talk, and if you’re into that—”
“We’re not talking about any other people we’ve had sex with,” he said, dropping me to the bed.
“You scraped the bottom of the barrel with those ones,” I needled, making him scowl.
I didn’t even know why I’d brought it up, but I couldn’t seem to stop the words from tumbling from my mouth.
“You know I love you, right?” he asked, standing above me, shaking his head with a gentle smile on his face.
“Yes.”
“It doesn’t matter what you say.”
“Okay,” I breathed as he pulled his open shirt down his shoulders.
“You can’t push me away. It won’t happen.”
“I’m not trying to—”
“I know you’re not,” he said seriously.
Then he took off his jeans, and in the quiet, his words sunk in.
I was never going to be lovey-dovey. I was always going to say inappropriate things at the wrong time and in the wrong place. I’d never be the girl that left him sappy love notes in his lunch or gushed to people about how sweet he was.
And Bram was okay with that.
He liked me the way I was.
Tears hit my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.
“I’m going to bring you flowers,” Bram said as he yanked off my boots and socks. “I’m going to tell you I love you and spoil Arielle.”
I bit the inside of my cheek.
“I’m going to brag about you,” he said quietly as he pulled my leggings and thong down my hips and off my legs. “I’ll remember anniversaries, and I’ll get you cool shit for your birthday.”
“I’ll get you cool shit for your birthday too,” I said stupidly through my clenched teeth.
“And you’ll love me?” he asked as he pulled my sweater over my head.
“So much you won’t be able to stand it,” I murmured as he unclipped my bra.
“Good,” he murmured, coming down on top of me to press his mouth to mine.