Page 179 of Made in Love and Blood

“Why are you like this with me?” she asked him.

Nico shrugged. “I don’t know what you mean. How do you want me to be with you? I love you.”

“Yeah, when I’m fucking terrible and awful to you.”

“I’ll have my moments, too. I always do.” Her chin trembled as his fingers found her cheek to stroke, but she kept more tears at bay. “I love you,” he repeated, making sure she heard every word that time.

“I love you, too.”

“Let it go, Frankie. I did.”

Then, his hand dropped to her stomach. He didn’t rub the same way, but for the slow sweep of his thumb against a barely-there swell that had started to show itself over the last week. She tried to keep it hidden with baggy hoodies and keeping his shirts on in bed. He liked that, anyway, so he barely even made a comment on it. Practice at the training camp had been a little more worrisome when the uniforms were skin-tight and her morning sickness made itself known a couple of times a day.

“Can’t believe I didn’t notice this,” he uttered, eyeing her stomach.

Like he could read her thoughts.

“I clock everything about you, every second I fucking can, and I didn’t even see what was happening right in front of my face.”

“I know it’s not what anyone else wants me to do,” she whispered, “but I want it, Nico.”

“I know, babe.”

“And why can’t I still do the things I want to do? Who says I can’t play soccer with my baby on the sidelines? Who says I can’t attend NYU and play for them? Who says I can’t?”

“No one.”

She stilled, then. “W-what?”

Nico shook his head, grabbing her face again to stroke her cheek with swipes of his shaking fingers while she stared up at him. “No one says that. No one thinks that. No one will make you do anything, but exactly what you want to do and can handle. Just so that’s clear, okay?”

“But—”

“No buts. I know you heard things your father said last night, but here’s the thing. He was mad, and we say shit we don’t mean when we’re mad because we’re just trying to get all the stuff that scares us out of our heads so we can think clearly and get back to what’s most important. I know what you heard, but that’s not what he meant to say. I know it, because I felt like that, too, standing there while you admitted what you’d done to Carina. I felt the same way, but I just didn’t say it to you until later. And I didn’t mean it, anyway. Just because I’m scared how life is gonna look for me and you in a few years doesn’t mean that’s what’ll happen.”

She remained silent.

Nico continued, “If you want to go to school next fall and be a mom, okay. We’ll make it work. If you want to go to the training camp for Team USA next winter, then you’ll go. Who cares if you miss it this year? If they want you now, they’ll want you in a year. Or two. Fuck, I will have a jet on standby to be there every weekend with the baby, so you don’t even have to travel back and forth if you don’t want to.”

“That’s what, a hundred grand a flight every week? Where’s your money, babe?”

Nico smirked. “Oh, don’t worry. I can always make money. I always am. That’s never been a problem for me.”

“You’re wild.”

“For you.”

“I don’t think I could leave the baby for that long,” she admitted.

“Okay, then we get a nanny. And she goes with you and the baby. You will do everything you want to do, and more, and I will make sure of it. Your father? Carina? Everybody on this fucking property? Frankie, they will make it happen, too. I’m telling you.”

“What about you?” she asked. “What do you want? Where are you in this whole plan, Nico?”

“I told you last night. I got what I want.”

She rolled her eyes that time. He tickled her in response.

“Stop,” she gasped.