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“I’ll take him,” Romeo said, already reaching for my son. “And you can take Navy.”
I ground my teeth together, wanting to tell him that I could do it by myself, but right then, I knew I couldn’t. And Romeo had helped more than I’d ever known he could. He still had blood and baby goo all over him, but he hadn’t made a move to get cleaned up or changed. He’d stayed there while the doctor explained everything he was doing, listening intently and asking all kinds of questions that never would have occurred to me.
“Don’t drop him,” I told Romeo as he lifted the baby from Navy’s arms. He swaddled him in a blanket that Ma passed him, cooing over her new grandson.
“I’ve got him,” Romeo told me, staring down at the baby as he snuggled closer to him.
I wished it was me that was doing that, but I had plenty of time. Right then, all I needed to concentrate on was Navy, who was staring up at me, her eyes half closed.
“Come on, sweetheart.” I pushed one hand under her knees and the other between the sofa and her back, then lifted her to my chest. She held on to me, her head resting against my beating heart.
“I need to shower,” she whispered as I left Lorenzo’s office, knowing that whoever had to clean up that mess wouldn’t get it all out of the carpet and leather. Knowing Lorenzo, he’d just buy new ones.
I made it halfway up the stairs by the time Romeo was at the top, but Ma had disappeared, shouting that she’d be back.
“I don’t know if you can shower yet,” I told her. I had no idea how any of this worked. Would she be okay to shower? What if the baby needed feeding again? What did we do when the baby cried?
So many thoughts whizzed around in my head that I didn’t even realize I was standing in the doorway to the bedroom until Ma said, “Go on in, then, Dante.”
I shunted forward, gripping Navy closer to my chest as I asked, “Can she shower, Ma?”
“Of course she can.” She flitted past me and over to Romeo where he was sitting on the sofa opposite my bed, staring down at my boy. “Go and help her shower and change. Romeo and I will set you up and get my baby grandson dressed.”
I hesitated, seeing the worry in Navy’s eyes. But right now, she needed me, she needed my help, and if I was honest, I trusted Ma implicitly, and Romeo clearly felt protective over him. Maybe it was because he’d been the first one to hold him. Maybe it was because he’d physically watched him being born. Either way, as I moved to the bathroom, I knew our son was safe.
“You did so good,” I told Navy, shutting the bathroom door behind us. She murmured something but I couldn’t quite understand it. She was tired, all of her energy zapped. She needed to sleep, but first she had to get cleaned up.
I placed her on the vanity, making sure she was upright, then switched the shower on. Her dress was ruined, so when I pulled it off her, I threw it into the trash. It wouldn’t fit her now anyway. Her stomach had gone down, leaving behind a small bump, but from what I’d learned in class at school, that would go down even more now.
Yanking my own T-shirt off over my head, I then stripped the rest of my clothes. Her skin was hot to the touch as I picked her back up, then walked us under the spray of water. I didn’t let her down as I pressed her back to the tiles and used the wall and my body to keep her to me.
I rained kisses on her face, on her lips, each of her closed eyes. She’d just brought our baby into the world, and everything that I was feeling right then came tumbling from my lips. “I love you,” I whispered.
Her lips spread into a smile as her eyes slowly opened, the light brown pulling me in and not letting me go. “I love you too.”
We stilled, the steam circling around us, enveloping us in our own cocoon as we made our confessions.
“You do?” I asked, wiping some of the suds off her face.
She nodded. “I do.” Her hand lifted, her palm resting on my cheek. “I think I fell in love with you the night we met.” She sighed, her other hand moving to her naked chest and resting over her heart. “I just didn’t know exactly what it was then. But now…now I do.”
I swallowed, feeling a lump build in my throat at her words. She had no idea the amount that I’d thought about her since that night. No idea that every time I closed my eyes to sleep, all I saw was her beautiful face and soulful eyes.
“People may say you’re a bad man, Dante Beretta. But I…I know the truth.” She inhaled a deep breath, her eyes fully aware. “You’re kind, caring, protective. To me, you’re the one person I never want to be away from.”
“I never want to be away from you either,” I told her, feeling my voice crack halfway through my words. She was burrowing her way so deep into my heart, and that was terrifying. It made me want to pull away, to protect myself. And maybe if I was in any other situation, I would have. But after what she’d just done, there was no way I’d walk away from her; no way I’d push her away.
She was it for me. I just…couldn’t tell her that yet.
So instead of saying anything else to her and confessing every thought I was having, I tore my eyes away from hers and rinsed all of the suds off her body. I worked methodically, pulling her out of the shower and wrapping her in a towel.
A door led from the bathroom into the closet, so I rushed in there, grabbed her a pair of panties and one of my T-shirts, then came back and dressed her.
“I can do it,” she told me, her arms moving slowly as she tried to bat me away. But I didn’t listen to her. She was getting my help whether she liked it or not.
I gripped her hand in mine as she stood, then held the panties out for her to step into, but she shook her head. “I need…I have to…” I frowned, not sure what she was saying. “I’m bleeding, D.”
My face paled, my eyes widening. “Oh, shit. Yeah.” I cleared my throat, all of a sudden feeling awkward as fuck. “I’ll…” I pointed to the door. “I’ll wait in the bedroom for you.”
