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Twenty-Four
In Royce’s driveway, Taylor gaped at the sheer amount of boxed furniture sitting in the open garage. A desk, chair and several bookshelves in flat-pack boxes, leaned in a stack on the wall opposite Royce’s sports car.
She walked through the garage and into the house, where she found more boxes, packing foam peanuts scattered over the floor and discarded plastic. One box showed a photo of a bassinet, another box contained a playpen, and yet another, a high chair.
She picked her way around the mess, through the living room and past the couch where she and Royce had first made love. And then toward one of the back hallways where she heard what sounded like an electric drill.
Followed by a very loud swearword.
“Royce?” she called, but the drill was whirring again, her voice lost under the sound. She followed the noise to one of the back bedrooms, and found him sitting on the floor, the remnants of what might have been a crib, if he were handier with a drill, lying around him like giant matchsticks. He looked up at her, visibly stunned to see her there.
He wore a gray T-shirt and light blue jeans, his hair in disarray, she guessed from pushing his fingers through it. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him like this. The T-shirt and jeans, sure, but never disheveled. Never with dark pockets under his eyes suggesting he’d been up all night worrying, and never with naked, pained vulnerability reflected in his eyes.
“Taylor.” There was enough shock in his voice that she knew Bran had told her the truth. Royce hadn’t been expecting her.
“It’s ThomKnox’s first launch day with you as CEO. What are you doing?” she asked.
“I could ask you the same thing.” His smile was crooked as he gestured with the drill. “I’m putting together a crib. Trying to put together a crib.”
By the looks of it, he wasn’t doing a very good job.
“I’m a shitty carpenter.”
“Why are you putting together baby furniture?”
His eyebrows pulled together. “Because we’re having a baby.”
We.
The fault line in her heart was quaking, like she might achieve a ten on the Richter scale from whatever he said next. Falling apart wasn’t an option. Nothing had changed, not really. Sure, Royce had bought baby furniture, and was having some sort of breakdown given he was assembling it instead of going to work, but that only proved he’d decided to take responsibility for being a father. It was good news, but it didn’t change their relationship.
Though none of his behavior should surprise her. She hadn’t expected him to deny responsibility for his own child. Maybe he’d just needed time to process.
“Now it’s your turn,” he said. “What are you doing here?”
She glanced around the room—at the torn box and Styrofoam, the miscellaneous pieces and a well-wrinkled instruction book. What was she supposed to say?
“It’s okay. I should probably go first anyway.” He straightened from his crouched position and set the drill aside. He was taller than she remembered him. More capable.
It was her heart that reached out first; the love she felt for him still so prevalent. She hadn’t been at his side for over a month. One long, miserable month while she’d decided how to handle a pregnancy on her own—without him. How to handle her life without him. It was proving much harder than she’d imagined.
“So, I was wrong. That’s the gist of it,” he said, sliding his hands into his back pockets. “My priorities were out of order. I thought ThomKnox came first. I thought loyalty to my family came next—my father, my siblings.” He shook his head sadly. “You, Taylor, are the one who comes first. I’ve never... This is embarrassing...” He trailed off for a moment. “I’ve never been in love before. I’ve always been the practical one. The responsible one in my family. Love seemed frivolous. An indulgence. I never gave myself breathing room because I didn’t want to let everyone down. It was the role I gave myself, I suppose.”
She didn’t know how she managed a response, but she did. “You were the one with the legacy.”
“Yes.” He took one step closer to her. “It took me a longer while to realize how wrong I was about that. You, Taylor Thompson, are my legacy. You are the love of my life. I can’t celebrate any ThomKnox milestone without you. We made a baby. It’s a miracle.” His smile was bright, like the sun coming out after a long rain. She’d never seen him so happy.
“It is pretty incredible.” She felt her lips tip into a smile of their own.
“I should’ve reacted better when you told me. I just... I had no idea what to do. I was overwhelmed. But now I’m not. Now, I know.”
“You know?”
“Yes.” He gripped her biceps. “I want to make a life. With you. ThomKnox is important, but I can work from home sometimes if you need me to be with the baby while you’re at the office. You don’t have to shoulder this alone. I don’t want you to be alone. Hell, I don’t want to be alone. I want you here, with me. In this house. In my life. In my bed.”
Oh, how she wanted that, too. Was her dream of a family and Royce loving her too finally coming true?
“That’s what the office furniture is for. So you can set up an office wherever you like. If that’s at home with our baby, then that’s where your new headquarters are. And if you’d rather return to the office, well, then I’ll stay home with our son or daughter.”
