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Yeah, she had her job, and a life in Dallas that didn’t include him or Devil’s Falls, but he didn’t much like the idea of her raising their kid hours away. The best he could hope for in that situation was every other weekend. Fuck that. Hope would stay here. He just had to figure out how the hell he was going to convince her of that.
He was reaching, and he damn well knew it. Daniel grabbed the carton of milk out of the fridge and mentally cursed. It had expired over a month ago. If she’d been freaking out in Dallas as much as she was last night and this morning, she hadn’t been eating or taking care of herself. In order to convince her to stay, he had to prove he still knew how to do that.
So far, he was batting a thousand.
He dumped the milk into the sink and rinsed the carton out. As long as he wasn’t looking directly at her, he could keep his cool. In theory. “How do you see this working?”
There, that was as nonthreatening as it could get.
Hope crossed her arms over her chest and raised her chin like she was stepping into the ring. “I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is no. Devil’s Falls is my past, and I’m keeping it that way. I have a life in Dallas, Daniel. A good one. This wasn’t part of the plan, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to drop everything to run back here and play little wife to you so that you can feel like you’re fulfilling your duties. I’m not a duty, and neither is this baby. We both deserve better than that.”
He couldn’t argue that logic, but the truth was that it was his duty to do right by both of them. Daniel considered her. There had to be something he could say to get her to stop arguing long enough to see that this was the only way. “Where are your parents living these days?”
“San Antonio.” She narrowed her eyes. “Why?”
That’s it. That’s the pressure point to push.
He had her, she just didn’t know it yet. “It sounds like you have shit for a support system in Dallas.”
“I have friends.” From the defensive tone, she knew exactly where he was going with this.
“None of them that were good enough friends to be there for you when you took that test.” Not that he was complaining on that note. She very well could have taken the test and moved on with her life in Dallas, and he never would have known the difference. The thought left him cold. He braced his hands on the breakfast bar and leaned forward. “Instead, you drove seven hours across the fucking state to my house to take it. Because you had no one else.”
Hope sucked in a breath. “That’s not fair. Unlike you, I wasn’t going to hide from something that scared me. Yes, I came back here—back to you—to take the test, but it’s only for the weekend. I’m going home tomorrow.”
He ignored that, ignored the clock that instantly sprang into being, counting down until she walked out of his life again. If he thought too hard about it, he’d drive himself batshit crazy. “My point is that Devil’s Falls has a built-in support system. Your parents are within easy drivable distance. I’m five minutes from my parents’ place, and don’t even get me started on my cousins.” Every single one of them would lose their minds when they found out Hope was pregnant. She’d be so damn taken care of, she wouldn’t have to lift a finger.
A part of him didn’t want to tell anyone, solely so he could be the one seeing to her every need.
Rein it in.
Easier said than done. There was nothing but stubbornness on Hope’s face, so he pressed his point. “What happens if you fall? Or there are complications with the baby? Are you going to call a fucking cab to come get you and then sit in Dallas traffic on the way to the hospital? If you’re here, Doc Jenkins has no problem making house calls, and he’s the same fucking doctor who delivered you, so don’t tell me that some fancy city doctor is going to be better. They won’t. They don’t know you. Devil’s Falls does.”
He did.
He waited while she worked it out, her dark eyes unreadable. Finally, Hope turned away. “I understand what you’re saying, but you’re wrong. Even if you weren’t—which you are—you’re still doing this for the wrong reasons, Daniel. You know it, and I know it.”
Wanting to fix things wasn’t the wrong reason. She might not agree with him, but that was just the way it was. All he knew was that she had to be here, to be where he could keep an eye on her and keep her safe as she got farther along in her pregnancy. “Stay.” He didn’t care if he had to move heaven and hell and everything in between, he wasn’t about to let her out of his sight any more than necessary. His theoretical comments weren’t all that theoretical. She might be trying to cover it up, but he could see that she favored her injured leg, and that meant her chances of falling were higher than average, especially once she started getting big.
