Well Suited (Red Lipstick Coalition #4)(63)

I looked up at the little lights, noticing a string of dangling pom-poms in a rainbow of colors wound through the lights. “You did this for the baby?”

“Mmhmm.”

“But why? It’ll be a year before she can enjoy it.”

“Because I’ve decided I’m going to be the best dad ever, and who could earn that title without making a five-star blanket fort?”

I laughed, the sound muted through my stuffy nose. My tears hadn’t ceased, they just weren’t angry anymore. My throat closed up.

“It’s perfect,” I said quietly.

He held me to him, his hand shifting up and down my back through a silent moment.

“I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing? There’s nothing to be sorry for.”

“I’m irrational and emotional, and I was just cruel to my mother.”

I could hear him smiling when he said, “You’re pregnant, and your mom just overstepped. I can’t imagine anyone would be rational and devoid of emotion. Especially with you and your mom.”

“But that’s the thing. She hasn’t done anything wrong. She was only trying to help, and I was s-so mean to her. I don’t want to be mean. I don’t want to feel any of this,” I blubbered, the words dissolving.

“Shh,” he soothed. “Don’t do that, Kate.” The words were so tender, so gentle, that they only made me cry harder. “I mean it. I have never seen two people so different with the same genetic code.”

“You and Tommy are nothing alike,” I countered.

“Other than our looks, no we aren’t, and you know it,” he said on a laugh. “But we’ve got nothing on you and Sparrow.”

I groaned, burrowing into his chest.

“Know what I think?” he asked.

“What?”

“She makes you feel out of control, and right now? Well, you’re already there. She just cranks up the pressure cooker, and you blew. It was bound to happen. Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long. Last night, when she pulled out her crystals at dinner and started telling my mom how they could help cure her Parkinson’s, I thought that was it. I was ready to grab you by the waist and haul you out of the room if you climbed over the dinner table to throttle her.”

Another laugh against the ache in my chest.

“She doesn’t mean to hurt you. Not that she couldn’t try a little harder or maybe pull her head out of her ass long enough to realize how you feel. But she doesn’t mean to upset you. You know that, right?”

I sighed. “I do know.” I moved to push myself up. “I need to go say I’m sorry.”

But he squeezed me tighter, holding me to him. “Shh, just stay here for a minute.” When I was settled back into his chest, he said, “Don’t beat yourself up. The construct of her universe is founded in things you don’t believe in. And your world view is based in the exact opposite—fact, not faith.”

The ache warmed. “We were talking about that tonight,” I said into his chest, closing my eyes, sinking into him.

“About what?”

“Compatibility. About finding someone who subscribes to the same dreams and constructs as you do. It’s why Tommy and I would never work, but you and I are in perfect sync.”

“While we’re on the topic, I’d like to note for the record that I’d like to take a pair of scissors to your Team Tommy shirt and throw it in the garbage.”

I leaned back, smirking at him. “You aren’t jealous, are you?”

He slipped his thigh between mine, his hand finding my belly. “This is mine. You are mine. The last thing I want is another man’s name on your body. Especially not my fucking brother’s.”

I chuckled, cupping his jaw, marveling over the flickering desire and possession in his voice, in his words. I should have been offended—I was no one’s but my own. But I wasn’t offended at all. I wanted to be his. I wanted him to own me with the respect and care he’d always shown me.

I wanted to be his, and I wanted him to be mine.

There under the fairy lights, in the blanket fort he’d made for our unborn child, I felt peace and safety I’d never known before. I hadn’t even known it was possible.

And I didn’t want it to end. Not ever. I wanted to live in that moment forever and ever, safe and secure there in his arms where no one could touch me.

“I wish it could be like this forever,” I said softly, breathing the words, giving them life. Forever was what I wanted, and I wanted it with him. Just like this.

“It can,” he said. “It will, Kate. I promise you that.”

And he sealed the promise with a kiss.





21





Forever and Ever, Amen.





Theo 22 weeks, 6 days

Forever.

She’d said the word last night in the tent. And I’d promised her I’d make it so.

I stood with my palms on the glass top of the case, surrounded by twinkling diamonds. I’d worried when I walked into the jeweler’s that I wouldn’t be able to find one she’d like. That somehow, as well as I thought I knew her, I wouldn’t be able to find a ring that would suit her. It had to be exactly right—not too big, not too flashy. Nothing that would be heavy or catch on things, but nothing too simple either. It had to embody her, the mix of direct simplicity and beautiful complexity of Kate herself.