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“I mean, I’m not going to tell you that you didn’t choose the wrong guy, but I will tell you it’s not your fault.”
I slapped him on the shoulder and laughed.
He was sweet to say that, but I wasn’t dumb. I had accepted the fact that I had a role in everything that had happened. I had to live with that.
“There is one thing I will tell you right now, and that I will keep telling you.” He laid his hand on my stomach and held my eyes with his. “This baby will never be a mistake or have blame laid on it for what happened. The only thing this baby will ever know is the love you have for it and the family he is going to be surrounded with. That is the only thing he will ever know. Love.”
Tears clouded my eyes and I gasped. “Marco,” I whispered.
“Let me finish, Royal.” He closed his eyes for a second and then continued. “You and I are still in the middle of a shit storm, but we’re going to be okay. This baby is going to be okay. Because you might not have known it back when you picked Rider, but that choice, that path, brought you straight to me. I’m not going to give you up. Or this baby. I thought about it the day I met you, and I’ve thought about it every day since. I want you, and I know that if I want you, that means I want this baby.”
“Oh, Marco,” I sobbed. I couldn’t see anything now with the tears falling from my eyes. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you. How did I find you when I needed you the most?” My words were slurred and had hiccups tucked into them. I might have to get a pad of paper and write down what I was trying to say so Marco could understand it. I didn’t want him to miss a single word.
He pressed a kiss to my lips and held it there.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him close.
How had this happened?
Not even an hour ago, I was running from Marco. Now, I was in his arms and wishing that he would never let me go.
“I can’t believe you want me and my baby.”
Marco laid his hand on my stomach. “I mean what I say, Royal. This baby is going to come into this world surrounded by love and never know anything different. Just like I was.”
I blinked up at him. “But you said you didn’t have a dad until you were sixteen.”
He smiled softly. “That’s true, but I had my uncles and all of my mom’s family. It took me a little bit to realize that even though I didn’t have a dad in the sense of the word when I was little, I was still surrounded by love. And then when my mom met Slider and the Devil’s Knights, everything just slid into place. I just had to wait a little bit for it happen.”
But I was lucky enough for everything to slide into place before my little baby came into the world. “You’re my family now, Marco. You and everyone in this house is my family.”
He nodded. “For so long you only had Grit and Indiana, but now you have so much more.”
“Only took until I was twenty-seven to get that,” I laughed.
‘Twenty-seven, huh?”
I tipped my head to the side. “Yup.”
“Uh, how old do you think I am, Royal?”
I laughed and brushed my fingers through his hair. “Old enough to be wise with a sprinkling of gray at your temples, but young enough to keep up with me.” I knew how old Marco was. Greer had mentioned it in passing. The number didn’t bother me. “I would have to say forty-four.”
“Well, I guess it’s good you say forty-four and you’re okay with that because I’m actually only forty-two,” he chuckled.
“Stop,” I laughed. “Greer told me you were forty-four.” Why that Greer. She was a bit of a troublemaker.
“I’m going to have to have a talk with her. She’s making me older than I actually am.” He pressed a kiss to my lips. “She had me being sixty-two when our kid graduates, not sixty.”
I sighed. “Our kid,” I whispered. I didn’t think I would ever be able to say that. Certainly not before he was even born. Or she. “You’re gonna be the hottest dad at graduation,” I laughed.
“Yeah, hopefully I can hold off on needing a walker and oxygen for a bit longer.”
I slapped his chest. “Stop it. You’re not that old.”
“I might be when our kid graduates.” He looked down at my stomach. “Though I’m not going to think about that now. I don’t want to rush him growing up.”
I yawned and smothered it with the back of my hand. “You keep saying him. Are you hoping for a boy?”
