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Tyler hisses, “Fuck you, bitch,” as if it’s her fault he’s been exposed as the rancid juice at the bottom of a dumpster that he is. He finally abandons his cart to chase after the girl.
Shayla has to pull me back to her side this time when I try to hand Lainey to her so I can pummel his ass into the ground. We wait, silently fuming, until well after Tyler has disappeared while I try to calm my pounding heart. I have never felt this way before, and it takes a long time for the blood to stop rushing in my ears, my mind telling me to go after him. I pull Shayla into my chest, rubbing my hand up and down her back with our babies between us until we both relax.
I kiss her forehead and ask, “Are you ok?”
She surprises me by smiling, not a tear in sight like I expected. “Yeah. Just goes to show he’s a P-O-S.” She leans up on her tiptoes and kisses me. “And I’m glad to know he won’t give us any problems about you calling Lainey ‘yours’.”
“Because she is mine. I’m not just calling her that. I’m putting my claim on her. If Tyler ever does try to cause problems, I’ll find a way to F-U-C-K up his whole life until he disappears again. That’s a promise.”
“You’d do that for us?” She’s looking at me in that special way of hers as if I personally hung the moon in the sky for her. I press my lips to hers, deepening the kiss until our babies squirm between us, a complaint about us squishing them.
“I’d do anything for you, angel. I—” I love you is what I want to say.
My feelings toward her have always been intense, obsessive even, but they’ve deepened beyond that each and every day I’ve spent in her presence. But I’m scared it’s too soon to tell her how much I love her when she’s only just given herself to me. What if she doesn’t feel the same way yet?
“Come on. Let’s check out and go home,” I say instead of spilling my guts out in the middle of the grocery store. After I pay for the groceries and we make our way to my car to load them in the trunk, we hear a soft, feminine voice behind us.
“Shayla?”
We turn, and the brown-haired girl steps forward. Her eyes and nose are red-rimmed. She sniffles and looks away briefly. I can tell Shayla wants to hug her, but she holds back and nods her head instead.
“I’m Eden,” she says, officially introducing herself. “I just wanted to say that I really didn’t know about you or your daughter, I promise. If I did, I never would have let him…” She wipes away a stray tear and wraps her arms around her baby bump. “My mom was right about him,” she whispers with obvious regret. “Um, I’ve been thinking about what you said about our babies being siblings. And I was wondering if it would be ok to ask for your number? For after my baby is born so they can meet? I mean, I don’t know if you want that. If you want to forget all about us, or if you hate me—”
With a soft voice, Shayla says, “I don’t hate you. I might hate Tyler, but I’d never hate you or your baby. That wouldn’t be fair to you or our kids either. And I want them to get to know each other, to have a relationship, if you still want that after your baby is born.”
An older woman driving a gray minivan pulls up beside us. She calls out for Eden, worry evident in her tone. Eden holds up a finger for her to wait, and the girls share a small smile while they pull out their phones. After they exchange phone numbers, Shayla leans in for a hug this time.
“It’s going to be ok. You can call me any time, and I’ll be there to help you with anything you need. Tyler might turn out to be a deadbeat for you, too, though I hope he treats you a lot better if he does stick around. Even then, call me, ok?”
“Thank you,” Eden whispers, her smile a little brighter now as her eyes flit to me and back to Shayla. “You’re lucky, you know? I can tell he cares about you and your daughter.”
I stroke my hand over Lainey’s hair, where she’s back to sitting in the cart. She smiles, all chubby cheeks and big gray eyes just like her mother. “I’m the lucky one,” I say with a smile.
The woman calls out Eden’s name again, a little louder this time, and Eden waves to us and climbs into the minivan. The woman takes her measure of us, her brows creased with concern, then slowly pulls away.
“You still ok?” I ask during the drive home, holding her hand on my lap and squeezing it intermittently.
“Yeah, I really am lucky, aren’t I? I have you, Grayson, and Lainey. And Lainey will have a sibling. That’s kind of exciting, even if I hate the way it all came about.”
“Siblings. Plural.”
“What?”
“Grayson and Lainey. I meant it when I said that they’re ours, both of them, which makes them siblings.”
Shayla’s silent through the rest of the drive, and I wonder if I’ve freaked her out or given her second thoughts about us by referring to Grayson and Lainey as siblings. I cross my fingers and toes that I haven’t because, to me, we’re a family. Grayson’s not just my nephew or ward—he’s my son. And Lainey isn’t just Shayla’s daughter—she’s mine too. We may have only known each other officially for a few months, but Shayla’s the one. She’s it for me. They’re all it for me.
I hope she feels the same way.
By the time I pull into the driveway and put the car in park, I’m on my way to having a breakdown over Shayla’s silence. But then she leans over the console between us and kisses me so sweetly, caressing my cheek. When she pulls away, her eyes are shiny with unshed tears.
“Siblings. Plural,” she says, repeating what I said before she went silent. Then she kisses me so sweetly again, dragging it out until I’m halfway to pulling her over the console and onto my lap. If it weren’t the middle of the day and the babies weren’t wide awake, I’d drag her into my bedroom and show her just how sweet I can be.
Chapter 22
Shayla
I adjust my light pink tank top after Grayson finishes nursing just as the doorbell rings. “I’ve got it,” I shout to James, who is still busy in the kitchen as Lainey eats a small snack to tide her over until dinner is ready.
