Beautiful Broken Promises(96)

“No, I’m fine. You said I could call you for any reason. Even if it was to tell you what I ate.”

“Well, I love hearing your voice.”

“What are you doing?”

“Punching Jace.”

She laughed and then asked, “Where are my babies?”

“You can’t keep calling them babies, you know that, right?”

“They will always be babies to me.”

“Where do you think they are? Fawning over the actual baby inside. I think at one point, Kate was holding her and Braden was simultaneously feeding her.”

“Those two! Get them away, before they start begging us for one,” she laughed, and I heard the stress begin to lift away.

“I’m down for practicing,” I murmured directly into her ear.

“Mmm,” she moaned.

“Where are you, babe? I thought you were supposed to be talking about Braden with him?”

She signed heavily and said, “I’m sitting on a bench outside of the restaurant. He’s on the phone inside on some business call. I don’t really care, I’m just ready to go.”

“Let me come get you.”

“No. I just want to talk to you, and then hopefully he’ll finish and we can leave.”

“I hope you aren’t falling for it.”

“Falling for what?”

“He’s pretending to be the successful businessman, trying to woo you with his money.”

“You know I don't care about that stuff,” she scoffed.

“I know you don’t, and that’s why I’m smiling. Because he’s pulling that shit with the wrong girl.” My grin was probably audible through the phone’s speaker and grew even wider when she laughed in response.

“He hasn’t even tried to talk about Braden tonight, Lane. He’s only trying to get back together with me. What is wrong with him? He has this wonderful, beautiful, brilliant son, and he’s just trying to get into my pants.” Her long sigh afterword spoke volumes.

I wanted to slam my fist and demand to know exactly how he was trying to get in her pants, but her grief told me now wasn't the time.

“I’m genuinely sad for him, Rae. I’ll never understand how a father wouldn’t want to be in his child’s life. And to miss out on a kid like Braden is truly tragic. I know it’s not what you’re wanting right now, but I know that I can be good enough for Braden. I can be the dad that he needs, Rae. I’ll make sure he knows how loved he is every day. Besides, I know that asswipe can’t teach Braden to throw a left hook like I can.”

A sniffle came through the line and she said, “You’re exactly what I’m wanting, right now and forever. For myself and for our children.”

The wobble in her voice told me the kinds of emotions that were running rampant through her right then, and the last thing I wanted her to do was cry. If she was going to cry, I didn’t want Adam the * to try and comfort her… that was my job.

I cleared my throat, straining to get my own damn feelings in check. “So, tell me more about the times when you were a hot little waitress in Brooklyn, back before you met the douchebag. I bet you were trouble with a capital T.”

She laughed and I felt relieved that I’d helped clear the air for the moment. There was nothing I wanted more than to talk about our future together, but I just couldn’t do it with her so vulnerable around him. Any second now he would come outside and want to know where she had gone.

“I used to smoke,” she confided.

“Seriously?” I laughed. “That shit’s terrible for you, naughty girl.”

“Yeah, when I found out I was pregnant, I had to quit cold turkey. I was a complete bitch.”

For the next twenty minutes or so, we sat on the phone and told each other stories about our past that we hadn’t yet divulged in one of our many late-night, under-the-covers, post-sex chat sessions. I made her laugh and in turn, she made me fall in love with her even more.

“Rae, do you realize that you left me a little over two hours ago and yet you’ve spent almost a quarter of that time talking to me?”

“I always want to talk to you.” After a pause, she sighed and finally asked, “Okay, can you come and get me? I guess whatever he’s talking about is much more important than discussing Braden. We’re at that burger house on McDermott.”

“Of course, babe. I’m leaving now.” I grappled for my car keys and went back inside to tell the guys.