Sweet Rome (Sweet Home, #1.5)(76)
“Something we never had.” Her eyes were as wide as saucers. “Listen to me. Together we can do it. Together we can do anything. We can be good parents.”
“But your football…”
“So what? I’ll get drafted in April and you’ll come with me, with our son or daughter. You can still do your PhD and achieve your dreams. We can have it all. Just please… don’t destroy our child, our first child.” I knew we could make it work if she would only let me try.
“Rome—” She sighed, defeated.
Shaking my head, I covered her mouth with my finger. “I could’ve been destroyed, but my birth mother didn’t. She had me.” I took her hand and laid it against my chest, right above my pounding heart. “I’m here because she chose me, even if she didn’t actually want me. Yeah, my family did a real number, but I got through it and it led me to you, my smart English girl—the girl that saved me. The girl who showed me how to love.”
Her frown line softened and she said, sadly, “Your parents will think I’ve done it on purpose to trap you.”
My parents.
Shit. Just the mention of them had my protective instincts roaring into the stratosphere. “I don’t give a f*ck what they’ll think. In fact, I’ve no intention of ever telling them. I was serious when we left their house that night. I’m done with them. You’re my life now; you’re my everything. You and our baby.”
She simply nodded, but I couldn’t get the worry of my parents out of my head. I hadn’t heard from them for months. We’d broken all ties, but if they found out about Molly being pregnant, I didn’t know what they would do. If they would do anything. Maybe they wouldn’t; maybe they really were through with me…
We couldn’t hide it. Hell, Shelly lived in this sorority house. It was rare that they were ever around one another, but they did bump into each other now and again, and when Mol was heavily pregnant, it was going to be kind of hard to ignore a huge belly. And that bitch would go straight and tell my folks. I had no doubt about that.
I knew one thing, and that was that those sadistic f*ckers wouldn’t get within a mile of my child; they would never get a chance to sink in their claws. A fleeting thought suddenly made me stiffen.
Mol looked up and narrowed her eyes. “What? What is it?”
Breathing deep, I asked, “What if I turn out like my folks? What if I’m ingrained to be a horrible father? You can’t fight genes, Mol. What if I’m like my daddy? What if I let our child down?”
Pressing a kiss to my lips, Molly pulled back, reassuring me. “You’ll be perfect.”
“But you don’t know that, do you?” I argued, my stomach churning, a sickening fear taking root.
Taking my hand and laying it flat to her stomach, she said softly, “I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul.”
“Who said that?” I asked, the sincere sentiment from Molly’s lips meaning everything to me. She had complete and utter faith in me and anything I did.
“Gandhi,” she announced and breaking a grin, play punched my shoulder. “And you call yourself a philosopher!”
“Em, no, smartass. I take philosophy as a minor. I’m a business major… and a damn good one too.”
“Whatever, not everyone can be as spectacular as me!” she quipped and then burst into fits of giggles.
“Maybe not, and you’ll be a hell of a spectacular momma too.”
“You really believe that?” she asked nervously.
“With all my heart.”
25
“Is it done?” I asked Diana, the manager of the Tide club shop, as I entered.
Face lighting up, she beamed. “Sure is, honey. It’s so damn cute I almost died!”
Leaning on the counter, I waited as she disappeared out back, then came back holding it up proudly for me to see.
“Jesus Christ,” I whispered, and pride burst into my chest.
“Hey, no blaspheming!” Diana joked. “But yeah, I get why you said it. Adorable, ain’t it?”
“It’s perfect,” I replied, pretty damn speechless.
Wrapping it in tissue paper and putting it into a white gift box, she looked at me and asked, “So who’s this for, darlin’?”
“A relative,” I answered, not even missing a beat. No one could know yet.
Smiling wide, she giggled. “Well, you’ll be their favorite person in the whole damn world giving them a gift as good as this!”
“Yeah, hope so.”
Taking the gift box and hiding it in the back of my truck, I pulled out onto the road to pick up my girl. It’d taken a few weeks to get the appointment, but I’d secured the best ob-gyn in all of Tuscaloosa, and we were heading there now for our first appointment.
We’d been advised to come in early due to Molly’s momma’s condition. Hearing that conversation on our initial meeting with the GP nearly had me going insane. As if the worry of my parents finding out about our little angel wasn’t enough, finding out that Molly’s momma died of something called severe preeclampsia almost had me collapsing to the floor. We’d been advised to choose an ob-gyn as soon as possible due to this, and Dr. Adams had requested an appointment immediately.