AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hey.” I pulled her into my arms when she went to walk away. “Stop this.”
“Stop what?” She struggled against me, but I wouldn’t release her. I refused, knowing we needed to work through this. “I can’t do this with you. I don’t know what I expected when you got out, but it definitely wasn’t this.”
“Don’t push me away.” I cupped her face, forcing her to look up at me. “I can’t do this without you either. I know I’ve changed. I get that. But you don’t know what I went through. And I know I should tell you and that you deserve to know but I also don’t want you hearing that shit.”
“I want to know everything.” She turned in my arms, placing her hand on the spot above my heart. “I want to know what made you change. I want to knowyou, Jaron. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. I went to make you a coffee and I don’t even know if you drink coffee. I just…” She huffed. “I’ve known you since we were kids, but I still feel like we’re strangers.”
I opened my mouth to argue but no words came out. She was right. She was absolutely fucking right. “Then let’s take this one day at a time. We can even start dating.”
She leaned back, frowning. “Really?”
“Why not? We have a kid together, Piper, and sure, we may have done things out of order but that doesn’t matter.” I ran my hands up and down her arms. “I want to date you. We don’t have to even go out for dinner. We can stay here, order in pizza, watch movies.”
“I like that idea,” she whispered, her eyes shining.
“Good.” I kissed her forehead, breathing her in. “And we may not know every single thing about each other or what we like and don’t like. Our hobbies and things like that but Idoknow you. I know every single inch of your body. And yes, I know it’s been a while, but I can still read you, baby.” I released her and sat down. “To answer your question, I do drink coffee. Black. And I know that you drink yours with half a spoon of sugar. Brown sugar if you can get access to it and a little bit of milk.”
Her eyes widened. “How do you know that?”
“Because I paid attention in Paris.” While Brynn drank from her bottle, I pulled the box closer to me. “I’m still waiting for that coffee.”
I could feel Piper’s gaze burning into me but after a couple seconds of silence between us, she headed into the kitchen.
When she left, I blew out a slow breath. “Your mama drives me crazy, baby girl.”
Brynn babbled, probably defending her mama, and shoved the nipple back into her mouth.
I only shook my head and started looking through the box of items. When Piper said she saved everything, she meant just that. She saved every single thing she could from her pregnancy. I pulled out a bundle of notebooks. Five to be exact. Pulling the elastic off of them, I flipped through the pages. My eyes widened when I saw that every single page was written on.
“Geeze, Piper,” I murmured. She really did keep everything. My eyes landed on a journal entry.
Not feeling well today. I really miss Jaron and wish he was here to massage my lower back. It hurts so much and I’m only five months pregnant.
My chest tightened. I flipped through a few more pages.
Meadow made me the best donut today. It was filled with peanut butter, icing sugar cream type stuff and chocolate. I probably gained ten pounds, but it was worth it, and baby is happy.
I picked up another journal and flipped to the middle.
I’m in my fourth month of pregnancy and I want Jaron. God, I want him so bad. Everything hurts. It aches. And knowing he’ll probably read this one day is making it that much worse.
What would I say to him if he was here?
What would he do?
What would I do?
Would I get on my knees and beg?
Would he force—
I slapped the journal closed. “Fucking hell.”
“You started reading about the fourth month into my pregnancy, didn’t you?” Piper placed a mug on the table in front of me.
“Oh yeah.” I took a sip of the coffee and let out a heavy sigh.
She sat across from me, drinking her own cup. A rosy tinge had hit her cheeks. I was going to have to read the rest of that passage later with her.
