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Ivy sighed. She reached out and shut off the water. “There’s something I have to tell you.”
There was a lot that she needed to tell me, but I knew right now that I needed to be quiet and let her work through whatever she needed to.
“Can you hand me my robe?” her voice was quiet, but I was glad that she was talking.
I wrapped the robe around her, and hefted her out of the tub. “I can walk,” she said.
I shook my head as I placed her on the bed. I wasn’t carrying her just because I was worried about her. I needed to feel her. She’d only been gone for a few hours, but it had felt like an eternity.
“We need to talk,” Ivy said once more. The heat from the shower had brought some color to her cheeks, but I knew that she was still shaken. I couldn’t blame her. I remembered the first time I killed someone. It sticks with you. It was never something that I wanted for Ivy.
“I’m sorry,” I told her.
Her brows knit together. “What?” she asked.
I ran a hand through my hair. “I’m sorry,” I repeated. “I should have protected you…” I would never be sorry for the things that led Ivy and I together, and if I said I was, I would be lying to her. But I should have taken the threats she would face more seriously.
Ivy’s small hand reached out and cupped mine. “This wasn’t your fault,” she said. “I was being stupid. I ran from Alex…” She took a deep breath, and I knew that she was reliving what had happened. “I shouldn’t have been so stupid.”
I shook my head. “Why did you run?” I asked. I knew that being pregnant had scared her, but I didn’t know why she wouldn’t have come to me. We didn’t have a traditional marriage by any means, but I didn’t think the thought of being pregnant with my child would lead to her running from me.
“I’m pregnant,” she said. She laughed slightly. “Though I’m sure that you already know that.”
I nodded. This wasn’t the way I wanted to find out that I was going to be a father, but it was what it was. “Why did you run?” I asked.”Do you not want to have children?” I hadn’t thought that Ivy might not want to be a mother. She was young, but I’d seen how she was with Mikey, and I knew that she would be an exceptional mother.
“I’ve always wanted a family of my own,” she said. “I just never thought I would have one.”
Ivy had spent so many years surviving that I wasn't surprised she hadn’t been able to picture her own happiness.
“I wasn’t sure if you would want children, or…” she trailed off, and I felt myself tense. “If you would want me.”
“What?” I asked. “Why would you think that?”
“Don’t play stupid,” she told me. “You married me to keep me from telling the cops about Adrian, but that problem has resolved itself. We never agreed to be married forever…”
I felt like she’d gutted me with her words. We might not have started off traditionally, but I thought that she knew that things had changed between us. I thought that she’d felt it.
I reached out and placed a hand on her stomach. “I want you,” I told her. “And I want this baby.”
Tears sprang to her eyes. “Don’t say it if you don’t mean it. I can’t…” I knew what she was saying. Tonight, she had killed someone to protect our child. Something that she never should have had to do, and if I rejected her, that might break her. It wouldn’t. Ivy was the strongest person I knew.
I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers. I could taste the salt of her tears as I devoured her mouth. She allowed me, and her fingers tangled themselves in my jacket as she pulled me closer.
“I love you,” I told her. “I love you.”
Ivy sobbed into my shoulder at my words. I knew that she was crying for all the things that she’d lost tonight, and I let her. She needed me, and I vowed that I would always be there for her. Death might have forced us together but love would keep us together, and Ivy’s strength would be the backbone of our family.
Whatever came next, I knew we would figure it out. Nothing would ever tear us apart.
