AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Something suddenly occurs to me. “What are you doing here?” I was so distracted by making sure she’s okay I didn’t think to ask before. There’s no board meeting today, and that’s the only time she’s showed up at Kensington Consolidated, aside from handing me the edited prenup.
She gnaws on her lower lip. “I was going to see if you were free for lunch. I should have called—”
The elevator dings as the door opens. “Okay. Let’s go to lunch.” I nod for her to walk inside and then follow her.
“You were in the middle of a meeting. Go—”
I hit the button for the lobby. “What are you in the mood for?”
Scarlett gives me an exasperated look. “Crew.”
“Scarlett.” I say her voice in the exact same tone.
She sighs, and I know that I’ve won this round.
CHAPTERNINETEEN
SCARLETT
Crew watches me devour the cheeseburger with a wide smile on his face. “Hungry?”
I dip a fry in ketchup. “Your kid is a raging carnivore. All I want is fried food, preferably with meat.” I take another big bite. Swallow and chew.
“You took your vitamins this morning, right?”
I stick my tongue out at him. “Sounds like you’ll be a helicopter parent.”
“Teddy’s doggy daycare tells me how often you call to check on him, Red.”
“Whatever, Sport,” is the best retort I can come up with.
I drop a hand to my stomach, which has become an unconscious action as of late. I have to force myself to keep from doing it at work, since Crew is the only person who knows I’m pregnant. But I’m starting to show, so we’ll have to announce it soon.
“A baby feels like a lot of responsibility,” I tell him. “Before Teddy, I’d never even kept a cactus alive.”
He chuckles, and it’s become the laugh I compare all other laughs to. Just the right mixture of husk and rumble. “Is that why you got him? Some sort of parenting dry run?”
“No. I thought this was a ways off.” I play with a fry. “I just…I wanted something that felt likeours.”
“Isn’t that the whole point of marriage? The wholewhat’s mine is yoursshtick?”
“The money? Cars? Planes? Property?” I shake my head. “I meant something I didn’t already have.”
Crew’s expression is serious. He’s studying me like I’m a riddle to decode. A puzzle to put together. A question without an answer. “What else is on that list?” he asks. “Aside from a dog?”
I shift uncomfortably under the weight of that question. “I don’t know. This baby.” He takes a sip of water, studying me the whole time. I try to bite the question back, but it spills out anyway. “Why?”
His answer comes instantly. “I want to give you everything you want.”
That blue gaze should come with a warning label. It sears into every inch of me, leaving a brand behind. I expected these feelings for him to reach limits. Instead, they seem to be spreading like a wildfire that can’t be contained.
The waitress chooses this moment to reappear, fussing over our empty plates and rambling on about dessert while checking out Crew. He doesn’t look at her. I’m the one who breaks eye contact to study the street.
What I want is…him. This life we’re building together with a dog and a baby and inside jokes. I want it so badly it scares me.
I’d rather get nothing than get everything…and then lose it.
It’s not until Crew climbs out of the car after me that I realize he’s not planning to head back to the office. He badgered me into admitting I could get everything I needed to get done today from the penthouse rather than my office, so we came straight here after finishing lunch.
