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The hand that was on my neck tightened. “You didn’t take her offer, did you?”
“I thought about it.” I paused. “I wondered if I left our business, if things would get better with Rhett and Brady. I don’t know about your brother, but mine is so bothered by us being together and seeing us interact. It’s not helping our case. So, if I worked somewhere else?—”
“Fuck no. That’s not happening. I don’t give a damn what Rhett and Brady like. It’s not their call to make, and their opinion doesn’t weigh enough to influence you to leave.” He tilted my face up a bit more. “Do you hear me?”
I nodded.
“We’ll figure this out, Rowan. We will.”
It took me several seconds to say, “Something has to give.”
He rubbed a circle over my navel. “It will. Trust me.”
I linked my fingers behind his neck.
Exhaustion was taking over my body, but it wasn’t settling my mind. What was happening in there was like a shooting range, and with each bullet, I kept missing the target.
“Why?” That was the only syllable I was able to release.
“Why what, baby?”
My thumbs dived into the sides of his hair. “Why do you love me?” When he began to wipe some of my tears, I added, “What was one of the things that made you fall for me?”
His lips parted, and a puff of air came from them, full of sage and burnt orange, scents that I’d grown to crave.
He took his time looking around my face, as though I were art, and underneath each layer of paint, he was seeing a piece of symbolism that he hadn’t noticed before. “Even in your sleep, you reach for me. It could be the middle of the night, and in between your deep breaths, your foot will cross my ankle, or your hand will cling to my arm, or your fingers will intertwine with mine. When you showed me you need me in your dreams as much as you want me in your life, I knew I was in love.” He pressed the softest kiss against my lips, his palm still rotating against that special spot.
“Rowan,” he said once he separated us, “it’s time to take that test.”
THIRTY-ONE
Cooper
Isat on Rowan’s bed, my feet on the floor, my eyes on my leather Tom Ford cap-toe shoes. I was still wearing my suit, but when I’d brought her into the bedroom, I’d taken off my jacket and tie and unbuttoned the first few buttons of my shirt. While she was in the bathroom, taking the test, I waited out here. My brain in a completely different place than it had been when I drove to her house.
Eh.
A word that was almost laughable now. But a word that had been strong enough to get me into my car and bring my ass here. I hadn’t even been aware that a drive had the potential of changing my whole fucking life.
A baby.
With Rowan.
I hadn’t predicted this. Expected it. And despite everything I’d said to Rowan in the kitchen a few minutes ago, I was positive I wasn’t ready for a baby. But she didn’t need a man who would fall apart during moments when she felt she was at her weakest.She needed someone to hold her up. Someone who was there for her. Someone she could trust, count on, rely on, who would wipe the tears that fell and dry her face once they stopped.
Sure, inside, I was a fucking mess. Afraid. Fearful. Questioning if I could handle the responsibility, if this would change our relationship that was going so well, and if it would create strain on the love that was holding us together.
If I was prepared to take this on.
But would I ever be?
I remembered a conversation I’d had with Ford Dalton, during one of the times he’d had a few cocktails and turned transparent about his daughter. Being ready was one of the things he talked about. That, at the time, he hadn’t been. That he hadn’t known what the fuck he was doing, and it was a surprise he hadn’t been prepared for.
But that surprise had turned into the biggest blessing of his life.
I believed that.
I saw Ridge at the office with Daisy, his daughter. How he held her tiny hand when they walked down the hallway. How she sat on his lap behind his desk, attempting to help her dad get some work done.
