Stealing Harper (Taking Chances #1.5)(51)

Harper exhaled harshly, and my body locked up. “About that . . . Chase—”

“No.” No way was I going to let her do this to us again. “Don’t do this again, please.”

“Just hear me out, okay?” She leaned up on her elbow and looked directly into my eyes, “You’re twenty-two, you’re about to graduate from college, I don’t want to take your life from you. If you want to live your life, I won’t stop you. Just because this baby is yours, don’t think that means you’re forced to be with me . . . with us. I want you to be with us, don’t get me wrong. But I will let you go if that’s what you need.”

I knew she was being serious, but I couldn’t stop smiling at her. “Are you done?”

“Yes.”

Good. My turn. Since apparently you still haven’t figured this out. “Harper, I love you more than I could ever explain. Meeting you changed my world. Even when I thought you would never be mine, I couldn’t continue to live a life I knew you hated. The night you told me you loved me was the best night of my life, up until tonight. I never want to let you go again, I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I want to marry you someday, Harper.” I paused when her gray eyes widened. “I would do anything for you. I don’t know what to do to make you believe me, but I’ll spend forever trying to show you.”

“You want to marry me?” she asked softly.

More than I want to breathe. “You have no idea how much.”

“Not just because I’m pregnant?”

I brought her back down so she was lying on my chest and tilted her head back to kiss her lips softly. “Not at all. I gotta admit, it’s a little bit of a shock, but I’ve always thought about being with you and starting a family. And even though it’s sooner than I thought it would be, I’m so freaking excited that it’s happening. When should we be expecting him?”

“Him?”

“Yep, it’s gonna be a boy.”

She laughed softly and ran her fingers through my hair, “I’m due October 4.”

I quickly added up the months and grinned again. “So six months, huh? Do you want to take next year off from classes?”

“I can’t go back to school.”

I squeezed her shoulder. “Of course you can, I’ll help you.”

“No, not that. I know you would.” She took a deep breath and rolled off me and onto the bed, grabbing my hand. “I told Sir that I’m pregnant.”

“And?”

“He uh—isn’t going to pay for school anymore, and he said I’m not welcome back home.”

“Bastard,” I mumbled softly. “Are you serious? We’ll figure it out. If you want to finish school, we’ll make it happen.”

“Really, I don’t even want to go back after this semester. That’s not why I’m sad. I just hate how he is. I hate how he resents me for having been born.”

I pulled her closer to me again to run my hand up and down her side. How anyone could hate this girl, especially her own father, is beyond me. “It’s not your fault. He’s a douche, and it’s his loss for missing out on an amazing daughter.”

“I was afraid you’d resent me, too,” she admitted into my chest, “for getting pregnant. You wanted to stop, and I pushed you.”

“It’s not like you had to push hard, I wanted you so bad.” I laughed, but she remained silent as she traced patterns onto my chest. “I don’t resent you, Harper, I never will.”

She leaned up to kiss me soundly, and we lay there silently until my sister opened the door to let us know they were going to turn on a movie. When the door shut again, Harper didn’t move, and neither did I.

“Harper, I want you to be mine—and not just because we’re having a baby though I’ll warn you, I’m about to tell everyone that we are.” Her eyes brightened, and I smiled at her before kissing her nose. “But I want to be able to hold you in public, I want to show everyone that you’re taken, and you belong to me. That you’ll always belong to me. Are we done torturing each other by staying apart?”

“Are you done leaving me?” she countered, and I rolled over to rest above her, my mouth less than an inch from hers.

“I’ll never leave you again, sweetie.”

“Then I’m yours.”

She reached up to kiss me and I smiled through our kiss. Finally. This girl is mine.

“BRANDON, WAIT UP!”

He hesitated for a second before continuing to close the door to his Jeep. Both hands scrubbed down his face before falling to the steering wheel.

“We need to talk.”

We still hadn’t spoken to each other since the morning Harper fainted. All the guys in the house knew she was pregnant and that we were together, but Drew had been joking about Harper’s “Buddha belly,” and next thing I know, Harper’s hyperventilating. I’d freaked out, trying to figure out what brought it on all of a sudden, and when I looked up I saw Brandon walking away from all of us. I don’t know what her reason to Brandon was when they broke up, and I didn’t know if all of our joking about it was the way he found out. But I owed it to him to talk to him about it.

“I don’t have a whole hell of a lot to say to you.” He kept his eyes trained straight ahead of him, the muscle in his jaw ticking.