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“I used to love hearing my mom tell me that story every year on my birthday,” Violet said as she rubbed her belly. “I can’t believe you remember so much of it.”
“It was your favorite fairy tale,” I said with a shrug. “Of course I remember it.”
She grunted when the baby kicked her harder. “Well, tell her another one before she puts her foot through my navel.”
Winking up at her, I spent the next half hour telling the love bug a few more stories Violet had told me over the years. She huffed when I would get something wrong and make me tell it all over again the right way. A few times, I did it on purpose just to see if she was paying attention and because I liked getting a reaction out of her.
As I finished the latest story, there was a knock on the bedroom door. “Violet?” Shaw called. “You’ve been up here a while. Everyone is starting to worry about you.”
Violet gave me a deer caught in the headlights look, and I knew she didn’t want to have to face our family. Pressing a kiss to her belly, I stood and walked to the door. Opening it enough to look at Shaw, I asked her to let the others know Violet was okay but resting.
Relief filled her blue eyes. “You’re sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. I’ve been taking care of her all afternoon.” I glanced back at the bed before returning my gaze to Shaw. “I promise she’s fine.”
“Is she hungry? Thirsty?” She bit her lip for a second before sighing. “I feel so helpless, Luca. I don’t know how to help her through this. How are you able to do any of this?”
It wasn’t easy. Comforting the girl I loved more than life as she mourned the man she’d loved enough to marry—a man who wasn’t me—was torture. But it wasn’t anything less than I deserved after fucking up with her so royally to begin with. If this was the price I had to pay before I could one day get her back, then I would pay it a hundred times over.
She needed me, and I wasn’t going to abandon her or her precious baby. The past no longer mattered to me. All I wanted was the present and the future, and I prayed that eventually she would love me again. Even if it was only a little, I would be okay with that. I could and would love her and that baby enough for the both of us.
But I couldn’t tell Shaw that, especially with Violet listening.
“If she decides she’s hungry, I’ll feed her, I promise,” I told her best friend instead of answering her last question. “Maybe you could start hinting that the family needs to head to their own homes soon.”
She grimaced. “Yeah, okay. I’ll try, but I can’t make any promises they will listen. They want to smother her in familial love. And for most people, that would be just the medicine they would need right now. But Vi is wired differently.”
“Hey,” Violet called out with a pout in her voice.
“It’s true, and you know it,” Shaw called back to her. “You won’t let yourself grieve with other people watching.”
“Luca’s been here, and so have you,” she argued.
“We don’t count,” Shaw told her as she backed away from the door. “You know you can be at your worst and we won’t break. You still haven’t learned that about anyone else. I’m going down to try to urge the parentals to leave. Wish me luck.”
I nodded and shut and locked the door again before returning to the bed. But instead of putting my head back in her lap, I lifted her and arranged her so she was lying down once again.
“You look tired,” I explained when she glared at me. “Let’s take a nap.”
“I am kind of sleepy.” She turned onto her side with her back to me. She yawned then closed her eyes. “But don’t go anywhere.”
“Never,” I vowed as I put my head on the pillow beside hers.
“Because the baby kind of likes your stories.”
I bit back a smile. “The baby. Okay.”
She turned her head enough so I could see her roll her eyes before a soft sigh left her lips and her lashes lowered. “Yeah,” she muttered sleepily. “The baby.”
Chapter 48
Luca
The next few weeks were a lot of the same thing. Violet stayed in bed, only getting up to use the bathroom. Shaw and I brought her food and reminded her to drink plenty of fluids. Between Shaw, Krush, and me, we took shifts cuddling with her and keeping her company.
Her parents stopped by every couple days and I let them spend time with her, but they understood t
hat she needed space and never stayed long. Each night, I let her cry herself to sleep in my arms and then stayed awake most of the night just watching her and feeling the baby kick against my hand.
