Page 76 of Easy On Me

“Yeah.” She already had tea glasses waiting at the table. “Thank you.”

With a slight shake of her head, she stepped closer, touching my wrist. “I love you.”

I reached for her, pulling her close, holding her so I didn’t have to worry she’d go. “Love you, too.”

“Tonight we take care of you,” she whispered, then lifted her head to meet my gaze. “Then tomorrow we start making sure both of your babies are taken care of.”

“Both.” I let the word out carefully, not sure I’d heard right. Because she couldn’t really mean what I thought she did.

“Both.”

My eyes burned, and I bit down inside my bottom lip. “I don’t deserve you.”

“Oh, you totally do.” She brushed easy fingers over my jaw, a slight smile curving her lips, her gaze serious. “Maybe we deserve each other. And if that baby is yours, we’re going to make sure they get what they deserve – a calm life. A stable life.”

A rough sound, almost a sob, tore free from my throat. “Wish I could make it an easy one.”

Her arms about my waist, she pressed closer. “I’m discovering there is no such thing. Just people who love steadily and make it seem easy.”

“Like us.” I trailed a reverent finger along her spine.

I felt her mouth move in a smile against my throat. “Exactly like us.”

Epilogue 1

Tyler

“Look at his little feet.” Glee suffused Hannah’s voice, adoration lighting her face at the strip of sonogram photos Jase had just handed her.

Today was all about appointments. We’d had our twenty-week scan that morning, and Jase had taken the day off so we could have lunch before meeting with Scott, who’d been researching and prepping for Jase’s custody bid. We couldn’t do anything until the baby was actually born, but Scott wanted to be ready to file a request for paternity testing and a custody hearing request as soon as she was confirmed to be Jase’s daughter. We were still stuck in the mud there, as Jase liked to say, since Elizabeth wouldn’t cooperate and nothing existed in Georgia law to compel her to allow a prenatal DNA test.

“Hey.” He spoke from his office doorway and waved us toward the room. “Glad you’re here. I just got off the phone with McMillian.”

Eyes wide, I looked at Jase, who took the sonogram photos back from Hannah and nudged me toward Scott’s door. McMillian was the local DA. He’d offered Elizabeth a plea deal for the charges over the video of Jase she’d posted, and if she took it, Scott hoped to leverage that plea in Jase’s custody case.

Scott settled in his chair while we took the ones before his desk as we had over several visits. “She refused to plead out.”

Jase froze, and I laid a hand on his knee. I wasn’t surprised. She was hard-headed and didn’t seem to consider the future at all. She just . . . did stuff and let the consequences fall wherever.

He leaned forward, gaze fixed on Scott’s face. “You’re kidding.”

“I’m not.” Scott shrugged, mouth pinched with disdain. “Refuses to admit she did anything wrong.”

Jase passed a hand over his eyes. “Shit.”

He’d hoped. We all had, but at the same time, we knew. She would never admit she’d done anything wrong.

“McMillian intends to put it before the grand jury. If he gets an indictment and I think he will, we can still use that. And if she’s indicted, she may decide to plead out.”

“No.” Jase shook his head, jaw tight, a muscle flicking in his cheek. “She won’t. Not if her mind is made up.”

“If he gets an indictment, she could go to trial as early as the fall.”

“When the baby’s due.”

“Or shortly after.” Scott scoffed. “Stupid if she lets it go to trial. It's a felony with possible prison time.”

“She doesn’t care.” Weariness dragged at Jase’s shoulders. “She doesn’t think anything will happen.”