AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You do?”
I was hesitant. After what had happened today, trusting him again was going to be difficult. I wasn’t sure if I could believe he had my best interests in mind. And, unlike before, I couldn’t let myself throw caution to the wind and do whatever felt best at the moment. I had to think about more than just myself now. There was a baby in the picture, and I didn’t want to be in an unstable relationship with my baby’s father.
It had to be all in or nothing at all.
I wasn’t sure what Jake might be able to say to convince me that he was serious about this. After all, I’d believed him on the island, and that had been a mistake. Whatever he said now was going to have to be more powerful than anything he had told me out there.
He reached out to me. After a slight pause, I gave him my hand.
God, it felt good to touch him again. Only now did I realize how painful it had been to keep up the wall between us all this time. His hand in mine was like a breath of fresh air.
“Olivia,” he murmured. “I’m in love with you.”
And now I couldn’t breathe at all.
“I didn’t mean for it to happen,” he said. “I didn’t mean to fall in love. I never thought I would, and certainly not with you. I mean, I’ve known you all my life. And yet, somehow, you took me by surprise. How did you do that?”
I shook my head, unable to articulate the fact that I had had the same experience. I’d never imagined I could fall for Jake Wallace, of all people. I hadn’t evenlikedhim. But here we were.
“I know this pregnancy is a surprise,” he said. “But I think it’s the kick in the ass I needed to get me to tell you these things. I was crazy to let myself get mad at you over that bullshit with the plane.”
“You wanted to try to fix it.”
“And you’re right, that was a dumb plan. Of course, I wasn’t going to be able to fix it. You were right that I wanted to be the person who had the idea that saved us. Butyousaved us, and instead of being pissed about it, I should be thanking you.“ He shook his head. “It just freaked me out to see you get hurt, that’s all.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have anything to apologize for. Stop.” He took my other hand. “Can we try this again?”
“Do you mean it?”
“I want to be with you, Olivia. I want to have a family with you.”
My eyes filled with tears, and I nodded. “I want that too,” I admitted.
A smile broke across the face I had come to love so much.
“Then let’s do it.”
Chapter 24
JAKE
“He’sgoingtobeso fucking pissed,” Olivia breathed as we approached the front door of the house Danny and I shared.
I was pretty sure she was right, but I squared my shoulders. “Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I can handle Danny.”
“He’s going to want to know everything. How long this has been going on, what we plan on doing in the future… we don’t even know the answer to that question yet.”
“We know part of the answer,” I told her. “We know enough of the answer to make him happy.” The answer to that question was simple, in my eyes. I was going to stay with Olivia. I wanted to marry her, though I hadn’t put that into words yet. We were going to raise our baby together. None of those things were likely to make her brother unhappy.
Hewasprobably going to be annoyed that I’d knocked her up in the first place, though. I could see that happening. He’d specifically warned me that I should treat her well, and there was a compelling case to be made that I’d done the exact opposite.
At least I was going in with Olivia on my side… though who was to say whether he would be any happier with her than he would be with me?
I opened the door.
“Danny?” Olivia called out.
