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17
Liam
Pacing the waiting area,I wear a path into the faded beige carpeting while Adam plays a game on his phone.
How can he be so calm right now? Chloe's giving birth. Any minute, we'll have a new member of the family, and he's acting like he's bored, waiting for the mechanic to finish changing his tires or something.
Focusing on Adam's ability to compartmentalize things means I won't think about the fact that Liam is at our house. He's in the home we share. Probably eating the pot roast I made for dinner tonight with my mother. By now, he's probably cleaning up the kitchen, packing food away, and reorganizing my cupboards.
That wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.
He's always been a neat-freak. Everything in our house had a place. There was no clutter. No mess. Never a dish in the rack on the counter, even though the rack was always on the counter. That was where it belonged. It was in its place.
Our cupboards were neat and organized as well. I never feared that something might fall out and scare me. If he opens the cupboard I store our Tupperware in… Well, he's in for a surprise. There are more dishes than lids. The lids somehow go missing. It's the way they're stored that will send him into a tizzy, though.
The cupboard is small. There isn't much room for stacking, so instead of making sense of the mess, I continue to shove more and more in there as things are washed. Every time I open it, something falls out. After finding what I need, I pick up the fallen item and shove it back in there, closing the door quickly before it falls out again.
In fact, it might be the same bowl that keeps assaulting me. That damn blue bowl.
"What's wrong?" Adam asks, placing his hand on my shoulder.
When did he get up?
"Nothing, why?"
"You stopped pacing and started staring off into space. I called your name, but you didn't respond."
"Sorry. I was just thinking about the Tupperware cupboard."
Adam raises an eyebrow at me before letting out a sigh. His sigh, the way his body relaxes and his shoulders slouch forward, turns me on.
Stop.
I shouldn't be thinking about getting freaky with Adam right now. I'm supposed to be focused on Chloe and the baby.
Leading me over to a row of chairs, Adam takes a seat and motions for me to do the same. My feet ache from being on them all day, first in the kitchen prepping dinner and now pacing. I relent but not before looking down the hall for Wyatt one last time.
Taking my hand in his, Adam squeezes lightly, a clear sign he's about to give a speech. He does the same thing every time.
"I know you're freaking out inside that beautiful brain of yours. I need you to calm down and take a breath. It's not good for you or for the baby to get worked up. I can't imagine what you're feeling right now, with him showing up unannounced, but I know I have some strong feelings about it.
"Whatever your mother is up to is bad news. I get it that she doesn't like me, and I've accepted it. I know where I stand with her. It's not going to stop me from loving you every second of every day. It's not going to stop me from marrying you. The only person who can stop any of that is you, and I pray to God every night you don't want that. That you'll never want that."
"Adam—"
"I'm not finished."
"Sorry," I mumble, looking down at our entwined fingers.
"You make loving you easy, Addison. You're the most genuine, caring person I've ever met. You love with your whole heart. Your friends are important to you. They're you're family. That's why we’re sitting here right now. Chloe is your sister. Lola is your niece. And the baby that's about to join our family will be loved as much by you as our own child will be.
"So, for the sake of our child, I'm asking you to let it all go. The anger you have at your mother. The hate you feel toward her right now. The uncertainty that awaits us at home. Let it go and focus on the good we have in our lives. We have each other, and although that's more than enough, we also have a wonderful group of friends and family that loves us unconditionally. People that support us and our relationship. We didn't have to ask them for permission to be together because as long as we made each other happy, that was what mattered to them.
"Relationships shouldn't be conditional, Addy. Love shouldn't be conditional. I love you, and even if your mother never accepts me—"
"IT'S A BOY!" Wyatt shouts, interrupting Adam's monumental speech.
My head whips in his direction to find him grinning from ear to ear. I've never seen Wyatt this happy. Angry, yes. Hateful, yes. Confused and uncertain, on more than one occasion, especially when he first ran into Chloe after she left him.
