Page 341 of Nobody's Girl

The doctor stops and turns around. “Laura, come see me within a month. My address is on the paperwork. I like to see my mothers once a month, as soon as possible. The nurse will be bringing some prenatal vitamins to you. Please take one a day and try to take them a bit more religiously than you did your birth control pills, young lady. Tell your husband congratulations for me, and I hope I’m invited to the real wedding, Ms. Tanner,” he tells her, then walks out.

Laura and I look at each other, then laugh. “Well, there you are, Ms. Tanner. Looks like you and junior are in good hands,” I say.

“Guess so,” she says as she gets up out of the hospital bed. “Now home we go. Am I ready for this, Al?”

I put my arm around her shoulders. “Probably not, but this life has a way of making us get ready for things we never expected.”

A nurse comes in to take Laura out in a wheelchair. “I’m fine. I can walk,” she tells the nurse.

“Hospital policy, Mrs. Stevens,” she says.

“Come on, Mrs. Stevens, just accept the free ride,” I tease her.

Eden meets us in the front of the hospital in Laura’s car. He jumps out when he sees us and helps Laura into the back seat. To my surprise he reaches across her, buckling her in.

“You doing okay?” he asks her.

“I’m fine, Eden. You don’t have to fuss over me,” she says.

“Let me fuss. I like it,” he tells her as he closes the door, then turns to help me in, buckling me in as well.

“He’s so attentive,” Laura comments.

“Yes, he is. I forget how attentive he can be,” I say offhandedly.

Eden gets in and drives us home to find Kyle laid out on the sofa, still asleep. “Looks like Big Daddy is catching up on his z’s,” I say.

“Alyssa!” Eden admonishes me. “Let’s go out back so they can have their privacy.”

The last thing I hear as Eden pulls me out the patio door is Laura’s voice. “Kyle, wake up. We have a lot to talk about.”

CHAPTER 70

KYLE

“Are you sure you’re okay with me doing this, Ally?” I ask.

“I think that, given the circumstances, it’s the best thing to do. In a normal situation, though, I wouldn’t really think it was the thing to do,” she answers.

“You said you saw us together and happy, so it must be the right thing to do,” I say as I take the small black box off of the dashboard of my truck.

I asked Ally not to show me what she saw. I prefer to be a little bit surprised.

I get out of the truck, putting the black box in my pocket, then turn to help her out of the truck. I reach up to catch her as she slides off the seat and into my arms. I hesitate before putting her down, looking into her deep blue eyes. I have to blink back the tears I feel welling up.

“You’re not okay with this, Ally. I hate that I’m making you feel this way. Shit, why did I have to hurry this thing with Laura?” I ask myself.

“Don’t blame yourself, Kyle. I’m the one to put all of the blame on. I should’ve handled it extremely differently,” she says as a tear runs down her cheek.

I wipe the tear from her cheek. “I don’t want you to do that to yourself. You had no choice, Ally. I did have choices. Unfortunately, I made some bad ones. I should’ve taken more responsibility. If I had done that, then this wouldn’t be happening right now,” I tell her, then pull her to me, hugging her tightly.

“You’ll be a fantastic husband and father, Kyle. I know that because you’ve been so good to me in real life and in our dreams. I just hope we can stop this dream marriage we have going. It’s making this so much harder for me to take,” she confesses to me.

I kiss the top of her head. She pulls her head off of my chest and looks up at me. Her eyes glisten with tears. These damn dreams are confusing me, and her too it seems. We fall asleep and wake up in a world where we’re making a life together. I feel closer to her with every dream we share. Now I’m going to be someone else’s husband and have children with her.

Ally shakes her head and says, “What kind of a brat am I? I’m happily married to the best guy in this world. Here I am wanting to have it all. I’m selfish to the core. My best friend needs you. You need her too. You can’t live the rest of this life without knowing what true love in the physical world is like. It wouldn’t be fair to you.”

“I guess you have to be careful about what you wish for, Ally. You have gifts you’ll need to learn to control. Maybe you can stop the dreams if you try hard enough. I don’t want to put a lot of pressure on you about it, but life is going to be kind of tough if I have to live like this forever,” I tell her.