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“Avery’s watching him…there was no one else,” she admitted and Meredith nodded. “I told him if Tommy got too crabby to bring him here.”
“Sounds fine, good luck with the wedding Leen,” Meredith said and she drove away, her mind preoccupied with Tommy and Avery.
The wedding went off without any issues and she called Meredith as she drove back to town, finding her still at the bakery helping to ensure things were ready for their extra-large order a church placed for the next morning.
“Do you need my help?” she asked again when she stopped to pick up Avery’s car and leave the van there.
“No, we’ve got this handled Leen, go home to Tommy. I’ll see you later,” Meredith promised and she nodded thankful to be able to check on her baby.
She’d resisted from calling Avery more than three times throughout the day and hadn’t spoken to him in the last two hours. She wasn’t quite sure if he’d been telling her the truth about the day and she wanted to see for herself that Tommy was as happy as he’d made it seem.
She opened the front door, stopping as shock ran through her seeing him and Avery asleep on the couch, a video playing softly on the TV. She moved into the room, turning the TV off and smiled as Avery’s eyes opened lifting up to see her there.
“Hi baby, how was your day?” he asked sitting up a bit further to let her move over to the couch with them.
“Good, the wedding went well and the bakery looks like it had a ton of business. Meredith is still there working on our delivery for tomorrow morning. She said she’d be home later tonight but she’ll be opening again in the morning for me so I can stay with Tommy.”
“Then how about you come crawl up here with me and Tommy, hmm?” He held out his hand to her. “I think we’ve both missed our girl today.”
“How long has he been asleep?” she asked unable to resist from moving over to stretch out with them.
“Twenty minutes maybe, we played hard and he just couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer.”
It made her smile as she lifted him into her hold, cuddling with him as Avery pulled her further into his hold, making her feel entirely protected with him there.
She laid with him for over an hour, enjoying holding her baby boy as Avery held onto her, his hand resting protectively on Tommy’s back. How could she not love him when he was like this? It didn’t matter how much he’d put her through, he still owned her heart, and she didn’t want to lose him again. Tommy never would have behaved or fallen asleep so peacefully with him if he didn’t like Avery as well, and she didn’t know how long she could avoid making a decision now that she’d seen them together.
“You’re an amazing mom, baby,” Avery said, his voice soft as he pressed kisses to her temple. “Tommy is incredible, he’s so much like you it’s impossible to not love him too.”
“It took me a bit to come to terms with even being pregnant with him. I was so angry with you for throwing me out just a day after making love to me like I was your everything…that’s why I didn’t tell your mom about him. I knew it was possible he wasn’t yours as well but even that…it wasn’t why I didn’t tell any of you about him. I was just so angry with everything that happened that I felt justified to not tell you, to keep him from you if he was yours,” she admitted, resting her cheek on her baby boy’s head. “Knowing now that he couldn’t have been…I’ve loved him from the moment I felt him move inside me. Up until then I didn’t know how to feel really but once I felt him move, I knew he was mine, just mine. Part of me still hoped he’d come out looking like you, but I was just relieved when he was here, and he looked just like me and not someone else if he didn’t look like you.”
“I hate that you were hurt because of me, baby. That my stupidity let some asshole hurt you. Tommy is a gift no matter how he came about, but knowing some creep hurt you makes me want to find him and kill him with my bare hands,” Avery stated, holding her tighter and her heart fluttered, feeling the truth of his words deep down.
“The rape wasn’t nearly as bad as the physical assault,” she began, lifting her eyes to his feeling him stiffen against her. “I felt so sick and dirty over it, but it was quick, thank god. He’d grabbed me and thrown me around, groped and tore at my clothes longer than his disgusting thing was even inside me. I was bruised and battered, and I blamed you,” she added watching his face as she spoke, hating the hurt she saw there. “I blamed whoever the other woman was more though, swearing that if she hadn’t come into your life, none of it would have ever happened. I’d still have had you. Once I admitted that I was pregnant, that’s when I started hating you more. Told myself that if you hadn’t cheated on me, I would have taken better care of myself and our baby from the start. I wouldn’t have ended up in the hospital needing fluids from being dehydrated. That’s when I met Meredith.
“She was in town visiting a relative that was in the hospital for cancer treatment. We ran into each other in the cafeteria. I was trying to scrounge up enough change to buy an apple and she offered to pay for it. We started talking and I told her that I was broke because I didn’t want anything that was yours—except the baby. She told me that she had an extra room in her apartment, that it wasn’t much but it was mine if I wanted to move here. That she’d cover the rent and bills until I got on my feet. She became my rock.”
“And that’s how your relationship started? You grew closer over the pregnancy until you became lovers?” he asked, his hand tangling in her hair, barely breathing, in hope that she would tell him finally.
“We became friends, best friends. I knew Meredith was gay, but it never bothered me. I knew she had feelings for me, and I did my best to not lean on her so much because I didn’t want to hurt her by not returning her feelings, but she just told me she liked having someone need her,” she explained, making him suck in a deep breath. “I offered to find my own place, one for just me and Tommy when he got a little older and we needed more room, but she said she liked having us with her, and that we could all look for a new place. I told her I knew that she liked me, and she told me that she didn’t just like me, she was in love with me, and kissed me.”
“And it didn’t frighten you unlike other men getting near you had so you all…” he let his words trail off as she gave him a half-smile.
“It didn’t scare me, but it also didn’t do anything for me,” Colleen admitted, watching his brow lift higher. “I told her that I loved her but as a friend, that I wasn’t interested in women, and I was sorry. I didn’t want to lose her from my life because she was my best friend, Tommy’s godmother, the one person I knew I could rely on completely. And in return, Meredith said she understood, knew it was hopeless from the start, she loved me as more than friends, but would never push me for anything. That she’d always be my best friend and Tommy’s godmother. After that, we bought this place, so we’d have plenty of room, and we rent out the garage apartment to help cover the mortgage. That’s why she says we’re partners.”
Avery leaned up a bit, staring down at her, a smile crossing his lips as he lowered his head to her, “You’ve never slept with her?”
“We’ve slept in the same bed before but fully clothed with Tommy between us,” she offered, grinning a bit as his smile grew. “We’ve never been lovers. She makes it seem like that when men are pushy with me because of everything from my past, to protect me, and she let you and your mom lean into that because she’s well aware of our history. She knew I was upset about running into you after having seen your mom and sisters just a couple weeks before that at a baby shower. She and your sisters confronted me, asking what I was doing, and when they said you were devastated when I left, I couldn’t handle it, and told them the truth. When I ran into you at Titan, I knew your mom was behind the push to have me cater. I thought she did it to hurt me, so Meredith pushed back, on you that afternoon and on your mom when she stopped by a couple days before the wedding.”
“She stopped into the bakerybeforethe wedding?” he asked, elation washing through him knowing she and Meredith were far from being lovers. It felt like he could actually breathe again. That everything they’d been through the last month wasn’t just to convince her to choose him over her ‘girlfriend’ but to come back to him entirely, and the hope he had for their future lit him up fully.
“Yeah, she said she wanted to apologize, that she didn’t push your assistant to use me to hurt me, but to throw us together because she thought you were still in love with me.”
“I was…I always have been, baby. I know I fucked up. I know I can never undo that, never make up for the time we were apart, for the time where you were terrified to be near other men, to let anyone touch you, but I swear you I’m in this for forever. I will never walk away from you or Tommy again. He’s ours—mine. I will never look at or treat him as anything but,” he swore, claiming her lips in a soft, silky kiss that pulled a moan from her throat. “Thank you, for telling me the truth about you and Meredith. It makes it a lot easier to leave you and our boy here with her. You didn’t have to tell me, could have left me stewing, and I’d have deserved it. I don’t deserve you to forgive me for anything, but I will work every day to earn it. To earn you and Tommy back.”
“It’s one thing to break my heart, but Tommy…he got me through some really bad moments. He’s innocent in everything that happened, and if you or your family can’t accept him…”
“Baby,” he said, stopping her warning as he cupped her cheek, giving her a quick, feathery kiss to calm her. “He stole my heart the second I saw him this morning. He’s all you and it would be impossible to not love him as much as I love you. He’s just a little boy that needs love, the same way you needed love when your parents left. I hate what you went through to have him in your life, but it’s not possible to hate him or be angry with him for it. I won’t let anyone near him that doesn’t feel the same, including my family. If you want to tell them the truth, I will be there behind you the entire time. If you want to completely gloss over who his sperm donor is, I’ll do it. If you want to claim that he’s mine, I’ll do it. The only thing I won’t do is give the two of you up, got it?”
