AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Carter nods solemnly. “Anything.”
I pat the spot next to me on the bed.
Carter looks relieved as he climbs back onto the bed and draws the covers up to my chin. “I have no idea how I fucking ended up with someone like you, but I don’t deserve you.”
I place a hand over his chest. “You deserve to be happy, Carter. We both do.”
Carter releases a harsh breath. “What I said about the implant and all those fights I picked about Sam—”
I press a finger to his lips. “I know.”
I don’t want to talk about the past anymore, not if it means looking back. In order to move forward, we have to keep moving, and we have to keep doing better.
Carter kisses my fingers one by one until he twists his head to face me completely. “Anita sent me a picture of the last sonogram.”
I give him a half-smile. “I wanted you to be here when I found out the sex of the baby. I’m sorry I didn’t wait…”
Carter clears his throat. “It’s okay… I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere.”
“What about the Natoris and Philipses?”
Carter’s expression tightens. “I will figure that out, and I promise I’ll do my best to do it in the least violent way possible. As long as I have a fucking choice… it won’t always go the way I want it to.”
“As long as you’re trying, that’s all I ask,” I offer in a soft voice. “Carter, I know that it’s not going to happen overnight. This is who you’ve been for years and who you’ve had to be in order to build an empire. I’m not saying you have to ignore that completely. Things don’t always have to be the same, right?”
Carter nods. “Right.”
I make a vague hand gesture to indicate my stomach. “Once this baby girl comes, we’re going to have a lot more change coming, and I want us to be able to face it together.”
Carter glances at my stomach and then back up at my face. “We will.”
“You’re not always going to be able to control things,” I add, my eyes moving steadily over his face. “Are you going to be okay with it?”
Carter places a free hand over his face and presses two fingers to his temples. “Fuck no, but it doesn’t mean I won’t try.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. “Good because there’s a lot we need to catch up on.”
Carter raises an eyebrow. “Catch up on?”
“Yes, we need to talk about baby names, schools, what kind of classes she’s going to be enrolled in.”
Carter presses a kiss to the side of my neck. “Doesn’t all that come after the baby is born?”
“It can, but I want to be sure we’re on the same page.”
Carter stirs and moves away from me. He pulls on a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie, then holds his hand out to me. Together, we sneak out of the room and into the brightly lit hallway. The house is quiet, so quiet in fact that I wonder what Carter has done to everyone else because there’s usually always someone here.
“Anita is out grocery shopping. She wants to host this dinner to celebrate my return,” Carter explains with a shake of his head. “Obviously, she wouldn’t listen to me when I told her it wasn’t necessary. Tristan and Sam are back at our house.”
I follow Carter into the kitchen and pull a chair up to the counter. “You don’t want to go back there?”
Carter swings the refrigerator door open and peers inside. “If you want to go back, I can make arrangements.”
Except I’m not sure I want to. That house represents a period of our life I don’t like and one I don’t think about.
I know that Carter and I can’t stay at Anita’s forever, but for now, I like being in our bubble. And I want to keep looking forward.
“Do you think Anita will mind if we keep staying here?”
