Page 35 of His to Keep

“I thought you’d want to go home. I know that the situation with Mr. Brooks was tense the other week.”

I wanted to blurt out that we’d figured it out. That we’d finally given in to the incredible heat between us. But my lips were still.

“You can go home, Ms. Bryant, whenever you want.”

Home. Oh God, she meant my duplex. There was a sinking feeling in my gut as I wondered frantically if Emerson might want me to leave. All this time, I’d been playing house with him while he let me sort out my emotions. Going from barely knowing me, to spending every moment with me, to housing me while I carried his baby.

But we’d never talked about me leaving. Because he wanted me here. He’d told me so. But me, I’d spent the past twelve weeks dodging the powerful emotions that involved being with this man. And what I’d learned was that he was worth the risk. We all were.

Nervous jitters set in, making my stomach nauseated as I quickly finished the phone call, and my eyes found David. His Spidey senses must’ve been going off, because he was staring right at me.

“I need to run an errand.”

He didn’t need more than that, and a few minutes later, we were in the car, headed back to town. All my plans, my emotions raw and sensitive… But I was sure, so sure that I needed to make my position in this entire situation clear.

Because I refused to leave Emerson. I’d spent my whole life terrified of planning, scared of what might be out there.

But now I knew.

I belonged to him. I pressed a hand over my round belly. “We both do,” I whispered to the baby.

***

Chapter Eleven

Emerson

I ended the call, popping my earpiece out as I parked the car behind David’s daily drive. I was glad the man was still here. I had been running a little late, and when I’d texted Whitney, she’d given me an odd answer.

I didn’t think much of it until I opened the door and found myself standing in the middle of what looked like a garage sale.

“What the fuck?” I raised my head. “Whitney?”

No Whitney, but instead David came around, his arms full of large packages, which he dropped by my feet.

“What is this?”

David raised his hands. “Hey, I just do what the pregnant lady asks.”

I grunted, but I knew that was the truth. I waved him off, knowing he was on his way out for the day. The younger man moved past me, slowing when he reached the door.

“Hey, boss?”

“Yeah?” I turned to eye him, and to my surprise, he met my searching gaze head on.

“You’re a lucky man. You know that, right?”

I stared at him hard, my muscles tensing at the envy in his eyes. But after a moment, I recognized that envy. I had lived with it too, for many years before Whitney. Perhaps David knew, perhaps he didn’t.

I just nodded, a silent acknowledgement of his pain and my privilege.

I heard the door click behind him as I moved through the house, the furniture now broken in, blankets thrown across armchairs. Hell, there was even a stain by the fireplace she insisted was the ghost. I smiled to myself.

“Whitney?” I called again, marching up the stairs and down the hall. There was light glowing in the nursery, and I followed it, a strange sensation in my gut.

I turned into the room and froze, shock making my mind whirl. Whitney was standing there in a long, fitted dress, our baby round and big in her belly. Her hair was down, waving over her shoulders as she watched me from a circle of candles. Actually, there were candles everywhere, on each windowsill, even across the dresser and changing table.

And the nursery art…she’d hung it. Or made David. Because our baby’s room was now completely decorated. Full of everything but the baby she was carrying for the both of us.

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