AllFreeNovel
Share Us
-Every time you come to the jobsite, it’s like you bring the sunshine with you, and I don’t know if you realize how powerful that is. You’re kind to everyone—listening to what they have to say, notbullshit fake listening, but like you actually care. You laughed at something I said to Wade once, and it was the first time I heard someone’s laughter and wanted to hear it again and again and again. I left after that too.
I could give you a dozen lists, Poppy. The parts of you that are kind and good and thoughtful and why you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. Things I see in you that make me want more. Want everything. And when you’ve spent your entire life avoiding exactly that, it made you the most terrifying thing I could be around. I made excuses every single day for why it wouldn’t work and why I didn’t really feel those things, and why it would pass. Why it should pass.
But it didn’t.
It hasn’t.
I find myself wondering if this is what it was like for you all those years. If you picked apart every moment, every word exchanged. Because that’s what I do. What I’ve done for three months. Twelve weeks. Eighty-four days.
The way you looked at me. The way you laughed. The smile that you gave me. The way you felt in my arms. How incredible it was to wake up with you next to me.
Poppy, every time I roll over in the middle ofthe night, in that in-between space of being asleep and being awake, I wanted the warmth of someone, and it was never there. Even when I wasn’t alone, I never found that moment, the click of a puzzle piece. Until you.
I don’t know what I’m ready for, but I know that I want you.
More of you. In whatever way you’re willing to give me.
With a hand covering my mouth and my heartwild, I scanned the words again, making sure I wasn’t dreaming this, some mind-fuck hormonally fueled dream that would disappear if someone pinched me.
My cheeks were wet with tears when I clutched the letter to my chest and finally lifted my gaze to his. “You’ve … you’ve had this with you since you got back?” A sob threatened to break free. “When I got in your truck at the store, this is what you had in your hand?”
He nodded, eyes clear and direct and earnest.
“Y-you left all those times because of me?” I whispered brokenly.
At my stunned realization, at the stunning truth of it, his gaze filled with so much warmth it almost took me to my knees.
“I think I couldn’t let myself look at who you really were because once I did, you were the only thing I’d see.”
This was real.
Oh God, this wasreal.
Jax’s hand coasted up my arm, over my shoulder, until his big palm was anchored at the back of my neck while his eyes locked breathlessly on mine. “I don’t just want more of you,Poppy. I want all of you,” he said in a rough whisper, something torn straight from his heart. “If you need time, if you need me to prove to you that I mean this—that I’m not going anywhere—then I’ll wait, Poppy. I’ll be patient because fuck, have you earned my patience. I’ll be whatever you need me to be in your life, but I couldn’t let a single day pass without you knowing what’s in here.” Gently, he picked up my free hand and settled it on the warm wall of his chest.“Youare in here.” When I curled my fingers into his shirt, refusing to let go, he slid his palm down my arm, splaying his big fingers wide on my bump. “And you,” he whispered.
I melted into him, my forehead resting against his shoulder as he withdrew his hand from my neck, curling it around my shoulder to pull me closer. He exhaled heavily, pressing his mouth against the top of my hair.
And my heart. My heart, shaking so mightily that it threatened to burst, only started to settle once he had me in his arms. I snaked my arms around his middle, the warmth of his body seeping deliciously into mine while we stood there and breathed each other in.
From my belly, a mighty little kick smacked right where his hand was, and both our heads snapped up.
“Did you feel that?” I whispered.
Jax’s mouth hung open, and he stared down at my stomach. “Holy shit,” he breathed.
I exhaled a shocked laugh, shifting his hand a little to the right and pressing it down further.
Bump.
Bump bump.
Jax let out a short burst of air, easing to his knees in front of me so he could cradle the sides of my belly with both of his hands. Eyes full of awe and jaw hanging open, he stared in front of him like it was the most incredible thing he’d ever seen. My heart was too big for my chest, unable to hold all these big, incredible feelings, and I was happy for themomentary reprieve. Gently, I sifted my fingers through Jax’s hair while he set his forehead on my belly.
“Hello in there,” he said quietly.
I smiled, and when he tilted his face up, setting his chin on my belly, the look in his eye made my heart quiver with anticipation.
“Our game got derailed,” I said softly.
