Page 12 of A Dance with His Angel

“Yes, I’ll marry you.”

Tears spring to Martin’s eyes, and he pulls me impossibly close with an incandescent smile and a reverential gaze. One that I return in kind.

Chapter Eight

Martin

“Can’t say I’m surprised,” a woman’s exhausted voice says, followed by a heavy sigh.

Eden and I jerk upright in bed, rubbing our eyes. Fear has me clutching my chest when Rebecca leans her shoulder against Eden’s doorframe and crosses her arms, studying us with slight disappointment.

“Please tell me you’re being careful.” Rebecca flicks her gaze to Ivy’s crib. “I don't know if we have it in us to get second jobs if there’s another little one on the way,” she says, her blue scrubs rumpled from a long shift at the hospice facility, where Eden once mentioned she worked.

“Oh my god, Mom,” Eden squeaks. “We didn’t.” She throws off the comforter, revealing that she and I are fully dressed.

I rush to grab the comforter, balling the thick material over my lap so no one will see the instant hard-on I have from waking beside my angel, her nightgown having twisted in her sleep and worked its way up her lovely thighs. I don’t think my skin has ever blazed this hot, mortified to be having this conversationwith my eighteen-year-old fiancée’s mother. My skin could very well blister and peel as if I’ve suffered the most horrific sunburn.

Rebecca narrows her eyes and straightens with another sigh. “Good.”

“Neither of you would have to get a second job,” I say, my tongue thick in my mouth with thirst. I desperately need a hit of caffeine after staying up so late, watching TV with my angel, and the two additional times Ivy woke us in the middle of the night. I don’t know how these ladies function after so little sleep, but I guess I’m about to find out, seeing as I’ll be here to help every night. “I’ll take care of however much you allow me to. Support you in any way you need.”

Rebecca looks past Eden to me, speculatively. “Is that right?”

Eden brings her fingertips to her lips, wide-eyed and blinking fast.

I lay my hand on Eden’s back, still warm from snuggling in our sleep. “Of course. She is my lady,” I tell Rebecca, though I’m looking at Eden, hoping I’m not overstepping. “It would be my duty and honor to care for her.” I send a small smile Ivy’s way when she wakes with a whimper. “As well as her daughter, and any others we may have.” Turning my attention back to Rebecca, I tell her, “And I have the means, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“That’s what I was hoping,” Rebecca says with a snort, “given the fancy-shmancy car out in the driveway.” She drags her feet into the bedroom, settling on the edge of the bed beside Eden.

Thank you, universe,that she didn’t sit on my side. I’m fairly certain I would combust in a spectacular display of flames.

Rebecca takes her daughter’s hand and frowns when Eden lays her head on my shoulder. My future mother-in-law pins me with her gaze. “I don’t want you breaking my daughter’s heart. She’s so young…”

Eden groans, turning her face into my shoulder.

“I vow that I won’t.” I curl an arm around Eden and swallow past the lump in my throat. “If anything, she’d be the one to break mine.”

Eden’s breath hitches, and she tips her head back, palming my cheek. “Never.”

Eden and I stare into each other’s eyes for a long pause, before Rebecca softens and nods. “I know that look.” She stands, going to the crib when Ivy starts to fuss, picking her granddaughter up to soothe her. “It’s the same one Shayla gives James.”

“Yes, it is,” Eden says. “It absolutely is.”

“In that case,” Rebecca says over her shoulder, her back turned to us as she changes Ivy’s diaper, “we need to figure out living arrangements.”

Eden and I both snap our heads toward her mother.

Rebecca lifts a brow when she turns to hand over Ivy. “Because as much as I believe the two of you are sincere in your feelings, I’m not keen on a man moving in with us and sharing my daughter’s childhood bedroom across the hall from me. Whatever you two eventually get up to at night, I don’t want to hear it.”

Eden snickers at her mother’s sour expression, and yup, I’m going up in flames, literally melting as sweat breaks out across my forehead.

“But I’m also not keen on being too far from my grandbaby. So…” Rebecca cuts me a look. “Prove it. Show me I can trust you to take care of them, starting with making living arrangements close by.”

Willing and able to rise to the challenge, I reach for my phone on Eden’s windowsill, and I tap around until I find the contact I need. Eden and Rebecca cock their heads in matching rhythm, listening to my side of the conversation.

“Good morning,” I say, my voice cracking beneath their stares. I could really use that coffee right about now. “Is this Gupreet?… Yes, James Bartlett’s recommendation… Yes… I’m looking to buy as soon as possible… Four bedrooms… That’s right… Willowood neighborhood, or as close to it as possible… Perfect. My fiancée and I look forward to meeting with you.”

“Fiancée?” Rebecca asks, going rigid. “Geez, you goobers really do fall hard and fast,” she mutters. I assume she’s referencing the speed with which James proposed to Shayla. She’s not wrong.